Experience

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  Law Office of Margaret Thomson

  • Founder and Attorney

    • 2007 - Present

    Representing individuals and families pro bono, serving unmet needs in partnership with lawyers in other jurisdictions throughout the DC metro area. Interest in representing those new to legal representation and legal advocacy or with limited resources.Areas of expertise among others include: advocacy before Federal and State governments in finance (tax, budget, appropriations, procurement); national security (defense, energy, cyber- and data security); and environment (sustainable energy futures, land use planning and design, historic preservation). Focused on collaborative approaches including negotiation, mediation, arbitration.

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  Thomson Family Trust

  • Washington, DC

  • Executor and Trustee

    • 2000 - Present
    • Washington, DC

    For my family I serve as an Executrix of an international trust with rights to natural resources; a co-Executor of a domestic family trust; and a successor Executor for a special needs trust. These trusts hold sub-surface rights, securities, real estate, and a Federal lease of public lands.

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  HFA

  • Legal Volunteer

    • 2007 - 2008

    In 2016, served as a Democrat Poll Watcher in Virginia, at a target precinct, where approximately ten domestic and international news organizations interviewed voters. Advised campaign staff regarding equipment malfunctions and resulting long lines; observed and reported voters leaving without voting or unable to vote for other reasons. In 2008, interviewed Texas voters about their experience in the caucus and the primary; coordinated results with other attorneys and legal volunteers to inform and support decisions by senior campaign staff. Performed other responsibilities as assigned by campaign counsel. Attended Denver convention as a volunteer for a DNC member and committee chair coordinating women's events featuring the Candidate's wife, Michele Obama, and key women members of Congress.

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  United States Department of Energy

  • Washington, DC, DOE Headquarters, Forrestal Building

  • Attorney for Legislation and Regulatory Law

    • 1990 - 2004
    • Washington, DC, DOE Headquarters, Forrestal Building

    Senior Federal attorney drafting and negotiating DOE legislative proposals including EPACT1992 and 2005. Responsibilities included mediation of amendments to the US Code and DOE policy, representing the Office of General Counsel. Goals were to establish the views of the DOE Office of the Secretary, based on the opinions of DOE political appointees requiring Senate confirmation. In addition I represented the DOE Office of Legislation and Regulatory Affairs to the Office of Management and Budget on Information Technology policy and cyber security; supervised, as needed, attorneys, legislative librarians, paralegals and administrative staff and interns as Acting Assistant General Counsel for Legislation; and managed the intern program for Office of General Counsel and the Washington in Ireland Program, an offshoot of Project Children.

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  Office of Federal Procurment Policy, OMB

  • Deputy Associate Administrator

    • 1987 - 1989

    As an attorney for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, OMB, my responsibilities included review of the US Department of Defense annual authorizations and appropriations for matters of procurement including government contracting issues in tax, budget and policy. In addition, legislation authorizing the Federal Accounting Standards Board raised a number of issues of legislative interpretation requiring a team effort to consult, mediate, and resolve among agencies including DOD and others, as well as with OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Among my individual responsibilities was legislation requiring the Department of the Treasury to share tax data with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the extent to which Federal agency procurement officials could be prosecuted and receive judicial sentences including fines and imprisonment for data that did not meet standards, when that data had been provided by others under penalty of perjury. Methods of accounting for contractor benefits (copper parachutes) and the completed contract method of accounting required attention, as did "contracting out", were ongoing issues in government procurement for which I contributed analysis and interpretation of legislative and regulatory activity inside and outside the Executive Branch. OFPP had an independent budget but reported to the President through the Director of the OMB.

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  Senate Committee on Finance

  • Tax Legislative Assistant

    • 1983 - 1984

    As a Tax Legislative Assistant for a Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, my responsibilities were to represent the interests of the State represented by my political patron, Minnesota, as well as to help the Committee staff manage major tax legislation, especially those issues for which my Senator had taken a particular interest. Major concerns included insurance industry tax reform, tax incentives for assisted housing, and taxation of cooperatives -- in addition to a multitude of other matters including taxation of unrelated business income of non-profits, taxation of off-shore manufacturing and sales, and energy taxation. This responsibility was challenging, but I worked longer hours while in law school and working full time. While staffing a member of the Senate Finance Committee I met my future husband, who I married after leaving the Senate for a quieter life in the private sector as a registered lobbyist.

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  U.S. House of Representatives

  • Forests Subcommittee Staff Consultant

    • 1979 - 1980

    As the principal staff to a subcommittee of seven Members of Congress representing forested regions throughout the United States, and under the patronage of the subcommittee chair, a northwest US Democrat, I coordinated the Subcommittee's bipartisan positions with the minority staff of the subcommittee and the majority and minority staff of the House Agriculture Committee, chaired by The Honorable Tom Foley in whose Spokane district I lived while growing up. Issues of concern included the reauthorization of the Resources Planning Act ( RPA) and the approval of the 1980 Resources Planning Act program and policy statement; modification of timber contracts for public lands to improve slash utilization as a form of renewable energy; tax credits for reforestation; use of hazardous chemicals to control ground cover on public lands; and other issues affecting the Department of Agriculture including the annual authorization and appropriation.

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  Office of Congressman Norm Dicks

  • Legislative Assistant

    • 1977 - 1979

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  Kitsap County, Washington

  • Land Use Planner

    • 1974 - 1976

    For Kitsap County, the peninsula in Puget Sound, the estuary east of Seattle, and west of Hood Canal, I advised the County Planning Commission, and in turn the County Commissioners on proposed land use plans for the City of Poulsbo, and for the unincorporated area of Silverdale, the business center closest to the Navy's Trident Submarine Base, then under construction. In addition my responsibilities included advising the Director of the County Building Department on utility access for new development, and the County Assessor on requests for state and local tax reductions for open space including forestry.