Deirdre MacNeil Appointed Assistant General Counsel, Branch Chief of the Freedom of Information Act Branch

General Counsel Richard F. Griffin, Jr. today announced the appointment of Deirdre MacNeil as Assistant General Counsel of the Freedom of Information Act Branch.  The FOIA Branch is located within the Division of Legal Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel.  Under Ms. MacNeil’s leadership as the new Branch Chief, the NLRB will be moving towards centralizing its FOIA processing in order to provide greater efficiencies and improve the delivery of services. 
Ms. MacNeil is a career federal government attorney and has an extensive background with several agencies, working on not only FOIA issues, but also privacy, records management, and information sharing matters.  She began her career at the Small Business Administration, working in its Headquarters and its Santa Ana, California office.  Thereafter, she took on increasing levels of responsibility at HUD, USDA, and most recently at FEMA, where she led its Information Law Branch in the Office of Chief Counsel.  Her responsibilities at FEMA included the handling of all FOIA and Privacy Act lawsuits and managing technology law issues.  She also oversaw all legal reviews for FEMA’s Records Management and Privacy Offices, which included FOIA reviews and FOIA appeals. 
A native of Washington, DC, Ms. MacNeil is a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York and the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University.