Public Safety and Legal Counsel

Governors legal counsel serve as senior staff, overseeing legal issues with legislation, policy, executive orders, administrative actions, and executive appointments. Additionally, Governors are focused on public safety, crime, delinquency and related social and economic consequences. NGA serves the needs of governors and their policy advisors in a broad range of criminal, sentencing, corrections and justice-related policies.

Latest

Supporting Successful Workforce Reentry for Justice-Involved Individuals

As Governors continue to address workforce shortages in nearly every sector of the economy, state workforce development policymakers and their private sector partners remain focused on increasing labor force participation ...
Read More

Briefing on Government Ethics Considerations

On Monday, February 27, the National Governors Association hosted its monthly legal counsel briefing, which discussed state and territorial ethics issues. Ensuring high ethical standards for both the government institution ...
Read More

State Strategies to Address the Needs of Justice-Involved Youth Impacted by Collateral Consequences

This publication documents a series of learning calls, and a roundtable, held by NGA on collateral consequences for youth involved in the juvenile justice system and highlights key policy strategies ...
Read More

DPAD Learning Collaborative

In January 2023, participants from Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania attended the kickoff meeting for the National Governors Association’s (NGA) Learning Collaborative on Strategies to Support the Development of ...
Read More

Onboarding Session for Governors’ Legal Counsel

On Tuesday, January 31, the National Governors Association hosted an onboarding session for Governors’ legal counsel. The call discussed the role generally and highlighted key challenges and lessons for success ...
Read More

4 States to Participate in NGA Learning Collaborative on Strategies to Support the Development of State-Level DPAD Initiatives

National Governors Association to Work with Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania on Developing a State-Level Deflection and Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative WASHINGTON – Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania will ...
Read More

NGA Public Safety networks

Governors Criminal Justice Policy Advisors Network

The Governors Criminal Justice Policy Advisors (CJPAs) Network provides a forum for governors’ criminal and juvenile justice policy advisors to connect with their peers in other states, promote regional information sharing and collaboration, and learn about best practices and the latest research in the field. NGA convenes CJPAs for an annual institute and offers customized technical assistance to them as requested through research and strategic planning support.

Consortium Of State Public Safety Executives

The Consortium of State Public Safety Executives is a network of cabinet-level secretaries and commissioners from across the country who are responsible for oversight of their state’s public safety enterprise, including state police, fire, corrections, emergency management and/or other related agencies. Through the consortium, members can connect with their peers in other states to share lessons learned, receive briefings from national experts on best practices in the field and receive ongoing technical support from NGA staff.

Meet the team

Ken Hardy, Program Director
Lauren Dedon, Senior Legal Policy Advisor
Erin Daneker, Policy Analyst
Maria Kearl, Policy Analyst
Micaja Verna, Policy Coordinator

Resources

Testimony – D Block Senate Commerce

On behalf of the nation’s governors, the National Governors Association (NGA) wishes to thank Chairman Rockefeller, Ranking Member Hutchison and the members of the Committee for examining how to best ...
Read More

Testimony – Tobacco Settlement

Chairman McCain, Senator Hollings, and members of the committee, my name is Ray Scheppach and I'm the Executive Director of the National Governors Association. Thank you for the opportunity to ...
Read More