About: David Halperin
Twitter: @DaHalperin
Bio: David Halperin is the co-founder and editor of Republic Report. Halperin, a self-employed lawyer based in Washington DC, engages in public advocacy, investigative work, and legal representation on a wide range of issues, including higher education, climate change, democracy, corruption, open government, and national security. He also advises organizations and companies on strategy, policy, communications, and legal matters. He is of counsel to Public.Resource.org, a non-profit focused on making legal and government materials available for free to the public.
Halperin’s investigative and advocacy work on predatory for-profit colleges since 2010 has spurred reforms in policy and regulations, triggered law enforcement investigations, and led to the closure of numerous deceptive schools.
Halperin was from 2004 until 2012 the founding director of Campus Progress and senior vice president at the Center for American Progress. Before that, he was: senior policy advisor for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign; founding executive director of the American Constitution Society; White House speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs to President Clinton; co-founder of the Internet company Progressive Networks (now called RealNetworks); counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee; law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell (D.D.C.); research assistant to Robert S. McNamara; and research analyst at the Arms Control Association.
Halperin has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state and federal courts. Among many other efforts, Halperin helped represent Greenpeace in an unprecedented 2004 Miami criminal jury trial over protest activity, resulting in a directed verdict of acquittal; aided climate groups facing investigation by the House Science Committee during 2015-16; and represented Public Resource in landmark copyright litigation from 2012 to 2024 over efforts to make federal regulations publicly available online without charge.
Halperin writes at Republic Report, and his articles also have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Politico, Slate, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. In recent years he has testified before the House Oversight Committee and at several federal agencies, and he has spoken at major conferences and events across the country. Halperin has served since 2007 on the board of directors of Public Citizen.
Halperin graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.
Biden Hiring Risks Oversized Influence For Big DC Law Firm
The Biden Department of Education has hired two lawyers who recently worked at the DC-mega law firm WilmerHale, amid other signs of that firm’s increasing influence over matters in the new administration. The deep penetration of the Biden-Harris administration by WilmerHale, which has repeatedly represented, among many other special interests, predatory for-profit colleges, comes as
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Biden Hires Another For-Profit College Lawyer
Joe Biden, who pledged to get tough on predatory for-profit colleges, has just hired another person for a high-level job — at least the third so far — who previously worked for terrible, abusive for-profit schools. Alicia O’Brien, as the American Prospect reported today, has been named senior counsel and special assistant to the
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The Monitor Insists Perdoceo is Doing OK. Whistleblowers’ Evidence Shows Otherwise.
Republic Report has obtained the second annual report of the lawyer hired to monitor the compliance of giant for-profit college company Perdoceo with its January 2019 $494 million settlement with 48 state attorneys general, plus the District of Columbia. The AGs alleged that the company engaged in widespread deceptive practices against students. For the second
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Impact, or Coincidence? You Decide.
Reflecting this Sunday, we noticed that recently a number of disclosures in Republic Report were rapidly followed by relevant actions undertaken by the targets of our articles — maybe minor, mostly cosmetic changes, but some progress. Were our targets feeling heat, or were these just coincidences? You decide. 1. We reported Friday that ultra-wealthy for-profit
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Inside the Criminal Mind of Donald J. Trump
Never forget we elected a criminal as president. Let’s never do that again.
Is Arthur Keiser in Charge at St. Andrews University?
There is ample evidence that controversial, ultra-wealthy for-profit college owner Arthur Keiser, a powerful figure in business and politics, has obtained dominant influence over tiny St. Andrews University, a non-profit liberal arts school in southern North Carolina. Florida-based Keiser University, the largest institution that Arthur Keiser controls, started making multi-million dollar contributions to St. Andrews
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Video Panel: NY Times, Washington Post Journalists Discuss Reporting On Higher Education
Yesterday, I was lucky to moderate a panel, hosted by the University of San Diego, on the subject “How Advocates Can Work with the Media to Effect Change and Protect Postsecondary Students.” The panel included two journalists, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post and Erica Green of the New York Times, plus two communications officials,
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Should An Accreditor Send Its Schools Lobbying Alerts From a Trade Association?
The coronavirus relief bill under consideration by the House of Representatives includes a provision to correct a strange piece of law that has long motivated predatory for-profit colleges to target their deceptive and coercive recruiting at America’s veterans and military service members. The new bill would alter the federal 90-10 rule, which requires for-profit colleges
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