Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025 - 32

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Janene Jackson FOCUSES ON PEOPLE
IN POLICY WORK
By John Murph
B
ecoming a lawyer wasn't
Janene Jackson's first career
aspiration. " I wanted to be
Oprah Winfrey, " says Jackson,
executive partner in Holland &
Knight LLP's Washington, D.C.,
office. " I wanted to be on [a] couch
interviewing people as a television
personality. "
Jackson wound up attending the City College
of New York and earning a bachelor's degree in
English literature, then hanging out in the Big
Apple after graduation to avoid conversations
with her mother, who gave her two options: go
to grad school or get a job.
Jackson ultimately took the legal path, perhaps
an unsurprising choice to those who noticed
her gift for gab early on. Growing up in Manhattan's
Yorkville neighborhood on the Upper
East Side, Jackson and her older sister were
raised by a single mother who worked as a corrections
officer. One year, Jackson's mother was
injured on the job and consulted an attorney
about disability compensation. The lawyer met
the young Janene and remarked, " She talks a
lot. She should be a lawyer. "
Jackson made her way to Washington, D.C., to
attend American University Washington College
of Law, earning her JD in 1998. Jackson
clerked for Judge Reggie Walton at D.C. Superior
Court, and then for Judge Donald L. Ivers at
the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims,
the first African American woman to do so.
WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE
Following law school and clerkships, Jackson
found herself immersed in D.C. politics and
government. Between 2000 and 2001, she
served as assistant corporation counsel in the
Office of the Corporation Counsel (now Office
32 WASHINGTON LAWYER
* MARCH/APRIL 2025
of the Attorney General), representing
the city in class-action
lawsuits. In September 2001,
she started working as a committee
clerk for then-D.C.
Councilmember Kevin Chavous
(Ward 7) and was heavily involved
in Chavous's work as
chair of the Council's Committee
on Education, Libraries and
Recreation.
Jackson's public policy work in
education continued when she
served as executive director of
the State Complaint Office of
the District of Columbia Public
Schools (DCPS), beginning in
2003. During her 18 months
there, she rebuilt the federally
mandated office, which became
defunct during the tenure
of Mayor Marion Barry. " The
U.S. Department of Education
contacted D.C. Public Schools
and warned, 'if you do not get
this federally mandated office
running again, we are going to
sanction you because you are
receiving federal funds for it.' "
In less than three months,
Jackson designed and wrote DCPS's agency
plan, which included organizational infrastructure
and procedures. She successfully secured
U.S. Department of Education (DOE) approval
within a few months, turning the city's public
schools DOE-compliant again.
In 2005 Jackson returned to D.C. Council, this
time as counsel for Committee on the Judiciary
and Public Safety Chair Phil Mendelson, before
joining the D.C. Chamber of Commerce two
years later as senior vice president for government
relations and public policy. As the chief
lobbyist for the organization, she was responsible
for crafting and executing legislative strategies
and negotiating with the executive and
legislative branches of government to pass
pro-business amendments.
From 2011 to 2014, Jackson served as deputy
chief of staff and later director of the Office of
Policy and Legislative Affairs under the Executive
Office of the Mayor. It was there that Jackson
says she achieved her proudest accomplishment
in her D.C. government career.
In the fall of 2013, the federal government briefly
shut down. During that time, it was customary
for the city government to follow suit, but
Jackson and her team at the Office of Policy
and Legislative Affairs recommended to Mayor
Vincent Gray to keep the District open.
" That had never been done before because we
were always like dominoes: If the federal government
shuts down, we shut down, too, " Jackson
says. " The mayor thought about it, held a
Jati Lindsay
Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025

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