Norman L. Eisen, Ambassador of the United States to the Czech Republic

Norman L. Eisen

Norman L. Eisen has served as the United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic since January 2011. During his tenure in Prague he has emphasized three pillars of the U.S.-Czech alliance: defense and strategic ties; commercial and economic relations; and the shared values of the two nations. He has helped advance innovative new Czech-U.S. programs within NATO; advocated for American business, including in the areas of energy, IT, aviation, health care, and media; and partnered with the Czechs on anti-corruption programs and promoting civil rights for LGBT, Roma and other minorities.

From January 2009 to January 2011, he served in the White House as Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform. In that capacity, he contributed to the administration's open government effort, including putting the White House visitor logs on the internet; to formulating its response to the Citizens United campaign finance decision; and to developing its financial regulatory reform plan. His other activities included reviewing the background of potential administration officials, and expanding the application of the Freedom of Information Act.

From 2007 to 2009, Ambassador Eisen was active in the Obama presidential campaign and then served the President-elect as the Deputy General Counsel of the transition team.

Before entering the Administration, Ambassador Eisen was a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder. He spent almost two decades at the firm, where he launched and co-chaired the firm’s Public Client Practice, representing government entities on an array of matters, as well as handling white-collar investigations and complex commercial matters.  Among these matters were the Enron and Refco cases, the ADM antitrust case, and the subprime financial collapse.

Ambassador Eisen is a co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group.  From 1985 to 1988, between college and law school, the Ambassador served for three years as an Assistant Director of the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League, a national civil rights organization.

Ambassador Eisen was born in Los Angeles, California on November 11, 1960.  He received his J.D. degree in 1991 from Harvard Law School and his B.A. from Brown University in 1985, both with honors.  He is married to Lindsay Kaplan, an Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University. The couple has one daughter, Tamar.