Misha Lehrer

Misha Lehrer is a Washington, D.C., public policy professional and member of Holland & Knight's National Security, Defense and Intelligence Team. With more than a decade of collective experience in politics and public policy in both the public and private sectors, Mr. Lehrer develops and implements strategies with clients navigating Capitol Hill and federal agencies, in particular the congressional defense committees and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

Mr. Lehrer focuses his practice on representing clients in an array of public policy, government oversight and regulatory issues, particularly those related to the defense industry. He handles a variety of matters related to emerging and dual-use technologies, acquisition policy, manufacturing and defense industrial base policy and advises clients with applications in civilian sectors in finding an application in the defense sector. In this role, he focuses on work related to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that authorizes the yearly defense budget and establishes policy for the DOD, as well as analyzes defense appropriations.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Lehrer served as a legislative and economic aide to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on matters related to various committees, including the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations and U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). In these roles, he advised the senator on all issues related to manufacturing, from federal funding, workforce development and economic development to Buy American policy, trade and matters that help sustain a more resilient defense industrial base. He also served as an economic advisor, where he regularly provided briefs on national and global economic progress, analyzed information on economic developments and trends, reviewed federal government policies and programs, and recommended economic policies that benefit American workers. Through this work, Mr. Lehrer developed strategic initiatives to ensure that constituent interests were reflected in yearly budgets by drafting funding requests and legislative language ideas in all 12 appropriations bills.

Mr. Lehrer began his career on Capitol Hill as special assistant to Sen. Murphy, where he gained invaluable experience accompanying the senator around the Washington, D.C., region. Prior to that, Mr. Lehrer served as an intelligence fellow at a private military company and a legislative fellow at a public policy think tank while completing his master's degree in international relations in the United Kingdom. Prior to working in public policy, Mr. Lehrer worked in the music industry, where he gained similar experience advising clients, developing business opportunities and building coalitions through strategic initiatives.