Stephen E. Hershkowitz joined Sandler, Reiff & Young in 2006 to concentrate in campaign finance issues after retiring from the Federal Election Commission, where he was the Assistant General Counsel for District Court Litigation from 1991 through 2004. A distinguished practitioner of administrative law, Mr. Hershkowitz is uniquely positioned to assist political clients in a wide variety of election law and regulatory matters. He has extensive experience representing political parties, party committees, campaigns, PACs, donors, and non-profit organizations before the Federal Election Commission, making him intimately familiar with all facets of election law and the workings of FEC. He has achieved unparalleled success in resolving enforcement cases, garnering for his clients dismissals or exceedingly favorable outcomes. For example, in one of the few enforcement cases litigated in the last decade, the Commission sought a penalty of over $300,000 and an injunction, but the court awarded the Commission only $7,000 and no injunction.

As FEC Assistant General Counsel for District Court Litigation, Mr. Hershkowitz either negotiated settlements or led the team.  He frequently argued the FEC’s enforcement cases in federal district court.  He also defended constitutional challenges to provisions of the statutes the FEC enforces and challenges to its regulations.  For example, he was on the management team of the defense of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, was responsible for the voluminous factual record presented to the court by the defendants and argued the constitutionality of some of the provisions before the three-judge district court. 

            From 1983 to 1991, Mr. Hershkowitz enforced the federal savings and loan laws as an attorney and eventually as Deputy Director of Enforcement with the Office of Thrift Supervision (then the Federal Home Loan Bank Board).  He received the agency’s management award for instituting numerous innovative enforcement programs and successfully concluding enforcement cases in what has since been called the “savings and loan debacle.” 

             Mr. Hershkowitz joined the enforcement division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission upon graduation from George Washington Law School in 1975.  He was responsible for investigating and resolving many violations of the securities laws.  He was named special counsel for exchanges and later became the first branch chief for municipal securities.