Kent D. Talbert is the U.S. Department of Education's General Counsel. He was nominated by President Bush on September 27, 2005, and confirmed by the United States Senate on May 19, 2006. As General Counsel, Mr. Talbert serves as the principal adviser to the Secretary on all legal matters affecting Departmental programs and activities.
Prior to his confirmation, he served as the Department's Deputy General Counsel for the Division of Business and Administrative Law and the Division of Legislative Counsel. Before coming to the Department, Mr. Talbert served as Education Policy Counsel for the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the United States House of Representatives, as well as on the staff of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the United States Senate, and the staff of the late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC).
Mr. Talbert was born in Greenwood, South Carolina and graduated from its public schools in 1978. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Erskine College (1982) and a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law (1985), where he served on the International Moot Court team. He also practiced law in Columbia, South Carolina.
