Counsel to the President. She was asked to join the White House staff while serving as Senior Attorney in the Personnel Law Division at the Commerce Department. During the significant formative period of the Merits Systems Protection Board (1979–84), Koch participated in the development of the adjudicatory agency's procedural and substantive precedents. Her government career began in 1977 when she was appointed an Honors Program attorney at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Koch studied at Concordia College in Riverside, Illinois. She received her B.S. degree with honors from the University of Missouri at St. Louis in 1971, and was honored that year as a finalist in the Danforth Urban Leadership Fellow competition. Koch took her J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School, graduating in 1977. Mary F. Weiseman (September 1986 – 1991). The third Special Counsel appointed by Ronald Reagan, Weiseman formerly served as Inspector General of the Small Business Administration. As Special Counsel, Wiseman focused on enforcement of the Hatch Act, which was then under review for statutory change, weakening its provisions. Wiseman's goal was to vindicate the rights of government employees to be free from direct and indirect pressure by their supervisors to engage in partisan politics both on and off the job. Lynn R. Collins, Acting (June 1986 – September 1986). Collins had been the Deputy Special Counsel; in the next decade he served as Special Assistant to the Regional Solicitor, U.S. Department of Interior, Sacramento, California. K. William O'Connor (October 1982 – June 1986). The second Special Counsel appointed by President Ronald Reagan, O'Conner formerly served as Inspector General of the Community Services Administration. Prior to 1981, O'Connor had served as Special Counsel for Interagency Coordination and Staff Director of the Executive Group Staff. His duties included advising the Deputy Attorney General on policy, programs, and matters affecting the Executive Group. In 1978–80 he was Senior Trial Attorney (Prosecutor/GSA Task Force) and led teams of investigators and lawyers in grand jury investigations of fraud schemes at the General Services Administration. In 1976–78 he was Associate Justice and then Chief Justice, High Court of American Samoa. O'Connor was vice president and counsel, Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Inc., in 1975–76; Special Counsel, Intelligence Coordination, Department of Justice, in 1975; Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, in 1971–75; Chief, Criminal Section, Civil Rights Division, in