Legal career Ruemmler clerked for
Judge Timothy K. Lewis on the
Third Circuit in 1996 and 1997 . From 2000 to 2001, she was Associate Counsel to
President Clinton. She worked as a federal prosecutor from 2001 to 2007, first as an
Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, and finishing as a deputy director of
DOJ's Enron Task Force. In 2006, she delivered the government's closing argument in the trial of former Enron executives
Kenneth Lay and
Jeffrey Skilling, both of whom were convicted. Ruemmler returned to Latham in Washington, D.C., in 2007, this time as a partner.
Obama administration meet with Ruemmler and FBI Director
Robert Mueller in the Oval Office to discuss the
shootings in Aurora, Colorado, July 20, 2012. Ruemmler joined the
Obama administration in January 2009 as principal associate deputy attorney general at the
Justice Department. She was promoted to White House Counsel in 2011 following the departure of Robert F. Bauer. In October 2011, Ruemmler said there was no evidence of the White House intervening in
Solyndra's loan guarantee to benefit a campaign donor. Her letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee refused to allow committee Republicans to get access to internal White House communications. The letter denied Republican claims of improper White House influence in the Energy Department's 2009 decision to grant the company a $535 million loan guarantee, and the deal's early 2011 that put private investors ahead of taxpayers for repayment if the company was liquidated. Over what would have traditionally been the 2011-2012 winter recess of the
112th Congress, the
House of Representatives did not assent to recess, specifically to block a recess appointment of
Richard Cordray as Director of the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As a result, both the House and Senate held
pro forma sessions. On January 4, 2012,
President Obama claimed authority to appoint Cordray and others under the Recess Appointments Clause. Ruemmler asserted that the appointments were valid, because the pro forma sessions were designed to, "through form, render a constitutional power of the executive obsolete," and that the Senate was for all intents and purposes recessed. Republicans in the Senate disputed the appointments, with
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stating that Obama had "arrogantly circumvented the American people" and endangered "the Congress's role in providing a check on the excesses of the executive branch." It was expected that there would be a legal challenge to the appointments. ''. On January 6, 2012, the
Department of Justice's
Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion regarding recess appointments and pro forma sessions, stating that "[t]he convening of periodic pro forma sessions in which no business is to be conducted does not have the legal effect of interrupting an intrasession recess otherwise long enough to qualify as a 'Recess of the Senate' under the Recess Appointments Clause. In this context, the President therefore has discretion to conclude that the Senate is unavailable to perform its advise-and-consent function and to exercise his power to make recess appointments." After the
Supreme Court decided
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius mostly in favor of the Obama administration on June 28, 2012, Ruemmler was the one to inform Obama and his chief of staff,
Jack Lew, that the administration's signature
Affordable Care Act legislation had mostly been upheld. she returned to private practice in July 2014. In September 2014, when Attorney General
Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, Ruemmler was speculated as being a potential candidate as the next
United States Attorney General. She withdrew from consideration the following month, amid speculation that she would have faced a "difficult confirmation process" because of her close friendship with President Obama. In 2020, Ruemmler joined
Goldman Sachs as a partner, and Global Head of Regulatory Affairs; in 2021 she was promoted to Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. She was on the firmwide Management Committee. Ruemmler was named to the
FINRA Board of Governors in 2021, a part-time position. Her term as a member of FINRA Board of Governors expired in August 2023. ==Personal life==