Blog

Who Is Kevyn Orr?

Pingree's Potato Patch
Studying the Economics of Detroit

So, I saw earlier today that Snyder has appointed Kevyn Duane Orr as Detroit's new Grand Poobah. My first thought was "who's that?" So, I decided to find out. Here's what I was able to dig out from the interwebs: More... Ok, there'll be a bunch here, so I'll just bullet point things as I go along.

Professional Information

  • He worked for Jones Day law firm, and was apparently the "Firmwide Diversity Chair". Apparently Jones Day is huge.
  • According to his bio at Jones Day, he actually has some very applicable background given Detroit's conditions - "Kevyn also has served as both the chief government legal officer of a failed financial institution and a special master to oversee the operations of a real estate development firm. He also has assisted clients with government RFPs and inspector general audits."
  • He was also a part of Jones Day's Africa Practice, and one of the contacts for website copyright violations
  • He attended University of Michigan (J.D. 1983; B.A. in Political Science 1979)
  • In 2000 he was appointed Director of the Executive Office for United States Trustee, which supervises the administration of bankruptcy cases nationwide.
  • He testified before the Committee on the Judiciary in 1998 (boring, but noted for completeness sake).
  • He was the public representative of Jones Day in responding to the dismissal of a sexual harassment lawsuit against the firm
  • He was interviewed in 2010 by the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel about the "Diversity Integration Process"
  • There is a Kevyndorr.com website registered registered to Gulfstream-Atlantic Group at his home address (see below). A search for that company also brings up Pkj Investments, Inc., in which he is a Director along with Jay S. Steinman and Peter M. Kramer. Steinman may actually be married to a member of Orr's family. Both companies are/were registered in Florida.
  • PKJ Investments Inc. was founded in 1988 and is now inactive. There are a number of other PKJs in Delaware where he currently lives, but none of them are showing up as related to Orr, but that may be a matter of limited information online.
  • Both companies were located at 2200 Museum Tower 150 W Flagler St Miami, FL 33130. This is the address of a couple dozen other businesses, but physically the suite is home to the Miami branch of the law firm Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson. It's possible that this was a paper corporation of some sort, using the legal offices as the mailing address for paperwork, though it's also possible that suite has seen a series of occupants over the years. UPDATE: According to LexisNexis' record of TENNECO OIL COMPANY, a Delaware corporation, Appellant, v. JOHN E. ABDO, Trustee, Appellee, Orr actually worked for Stearns Weaver et al. So these were two private companies started out of the law firm that he worked at.

Personal Information

Associates

  • Jay Steinman appears to be an attorney with Carlton Fields working in similar areas to Orr

Videos (not watched yet unless noted)

Categories: Blog,Data,Politics