Jennifer Hesch serves as the Assistant General Counsel for Transactions and Program Management where she leads attorneys in the provision of legal advice relating to grants, cooperative agreements, procurement and non-procurement transactions, fiscal matters, real property interests, environmental law, and other matters under the purview of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to her assuming her current position, Ms. Hesch served as the Chief of the Contract Law Division playing a vital role in supporting the Department’s acquisition of supplies and services throughout the United States. 

Prior to coming to the Department of Commerce, Ms. Hesch served as the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Defense Health Agency in the Department of Defense overseeing an office of over 300 personnel worldwide providing legal advice and support in the areas of contract law, administrative law, health law, medical research and development law, labor and employment law, litigation, and ethics. She also served as lead counsel for the DoD Healthcare Management System Modernization Program Management Office in Arlington, VA where she oversaw the legal aspects of the acquisition and deployment of a state of the art, modernized, and interoperable Electronic Health Record. She began her civil service career as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She has worked extensively in matters involving contract procurement and administration, including protests and complex litigation of multi-million and multi-billion dollar military health and information technology contracts. She has an array of experience in high levels of the Federal Government, including in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Federal Procurement Policy, where she advanced the President’s Management Agenda by leading the strategic development of the TechFAR, a handbook that highlights the flexibilities in the Federal Acquisition Regulation to encourage agencies to implement IT best practices.

Ms. Hesch earned her J.D. in 2008 from Indiana University-Bloomington and her B.S. in 2005 from the University of Dayton. She is admitted to the bars of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Visit: Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Transactions and Program Management