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Kedric L. Payne formerly servered as the Deputy General Counsel for Environment and Compliance.  He was primarily responsible for providing legal counsel concerning environmental protection laws, international and national security, ethics, and personnel matters.  He managed a legal team that advised various offices throughout the Department, including the Office of Environmental Management, the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer.

Prior to joining the Department, Mr. Payne was Deputy Chief Counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics where he supervised investigations of Members of Congress for violations of various laws and standards of conduct.  He practiced in the political law group of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, advising clients on compliance with campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws.  As a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, he defended clients in commercial litigation matters.  Mr. Payne was a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Payne is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a recipient of the 2014 Adjunct Teaching Award.  He often lectures on ethics at universities and professional conferences and has published on the subject.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Yale University and he received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

The following offices report to Mr. Payne:  the Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Environment, the Office of the Assistant General Counsel for International and National Security Programs, the Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance and the Office of the Assistant General Counsel for General Law.