Senate OKs General Counsel for Education Department

The Senate has voted to confirm Kent D. Talbert as the general counsel of the Department of Education.

Mr. Talbert, whom lawmakers approved by a voice vote on May 19, has been the department’s acting general counsel since January 2005. The general counsel is the secretary of education’s principal adviser on all legal matters affecting the department and its activities.

Mr. Talbert, 46, joined the department in 2001 as the deputy general counsel for the division of business and administrative law and the division of legislative counsel. Previously, he served on the staffs of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. He has practiced law in Columbia, S.C.

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