Leadership

Donald Sherman is one of the nation’s leading experts in government ethics, the rule of law and anti-corruption policies, having served as key voice for democratic renewal and accountability outside government and in senior positions in the House, Senate and executive branch.

Since joining CREW in 2018,  Donald has championed CREW’s aggressive nonpartisan focus on restoring an ethical government, demanding accountability, preserving democratic institutions and reducing the corrosive influence of money in politics, particularly in light of  escalating and unprecedented abuses of government power and the resulting threats to democracy. Donald pioneered CREW’s work to enforce the Constitution’s Disqualification Clause in court for the first time in 150 years.

He has served in several oversight and policy roles in the House, Senate and the White House including  as Special Assistant to the President at the White House Domestic Policy Council and Senior Counsel to Ranking Member Claire McCaskill on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Before working in the Senate, Donald was Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel for Oversight and Investigations in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also served in several roles on the House Oversight Committee, including as Chief Oversight Counsel to the Committee’s late Ranking Member and Chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings. Donald began his career on Capitol Hill as counsel on the non-partisan staff of the House Ethics Committee, where he investigated alleged ethical violations by members of Congress and House employees. Donald also practiced law in the Washington, DC office of Crowell & Moring, LLP and was law clerk to the Honorable Neal E. Kravitz of the District of Columbia Superior Court. Donald is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University and earned his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Donald is a Senior Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley Law School Edley Center on Law & Democracy. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, a Center for Effective Government Fellow at the University of Chicago, a US Japan Leadership Program Fellow and a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard University Law School.