The following blog post was written by Hala Shabaneh, the 2025 summer law clerk for the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) and a second-year law student at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.
This summer, I had the opportunity to serve as a law clerk at the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). OGIS offers mediation services to resolve Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disputes and conducts compliance reviews across federal agencies. From my very first day, I was immersed in the unique legal and policy work that supports transparency and government accountability, and I quickly realized that OGIS occupies a distinctive space in the federal landscape.
Over the course of my clerkship, I engaged with case law, federal statutes, and scholarly commentary to support the work OGIS carries out daily. This work allowed me to improve my legal research and writing skills. One of the projects I worked on was drafting a legislative history memo on OGIS. I examined congressional reports, hearings, and statutory language to gain a better understanding of OGIS’s mandate and evolution. I also explored and drafted a memo regarding the intersection between the Privacy Act and the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act (ADRA), highlighting the tension between confidentiality and the public’s right to access information. These projects allowed me to think critically about what OGIS is and what it should be moving forward, and helped me connect the dots between FOIA’s legal framework and the way agencies execute their statutory mandate.
I assisted both the compliance and mediation teams with legal research and internal analysis. One of my primary assignments for the compliance team included reviewing FOIA litigation involving the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and preparing a case appendix to identify potential patterns in how FOIA is administered across the VA. As a trained mediator, I was excited to learn about OGIS’s mediation function. The mediation team’s efforts are central in helping resolve disputes between agencies and requesters. I had the opportunity to help the mediation team by researching case law surrounding specific FOIA exemptions and novel legal issues they encountered while assisting requesters and agencies. This type of applied casework helped me see how legal interpretation and agency processes come together in real-world situations.
My legal clerkship at OGIS has been a meaningful and formative experience. I learned just how important OGIS was for creating a space for conversation, increasing mutual understanding, and helping the public engage with their government. I am grateful to the OGIS team for their mentorship, thoughtfulness, and commitment to the values of open government and transparency. I will carry the lessons I have learned here into my future public service endeavors.
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