Administrative Channeling: An Obstacle to Federal Employees’ Quest for Justice

Margaret Donaghy Related Seminars and Products

Arbitrator and Mediator

Donaghy Dispute Resolution

Margaret A. Donaghy is a labor arbitrator and mediator. She has 16 years’ experience as a neutral as well as an extensive history in federal labor relations on both the management and union sides. In 2009, Ms. Donaghy was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge for the Office of Hearings Operation for the Social Security Administration where she presided over thousands of due process hearings adjudicating disability claims. Prior to that, she spent eight years as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Social Security Administration handling federal court appeals and all aspects of the agency’s labor and employment law practice, including representing management in arbitrations and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

From January 2022 to August 2025, Ms. Donaghy also served as the Deputy National Grievance Chair for Judicial Council 1 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) (a/k/a AALJ). In that capacity, she represented AALJ bargaining unit members in all matters pursuant to SSA and AALJ’s collective bargaining agreement.

Ms. Donaghy earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and French from Hofstra University in 1997 and a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School in 2000.

Hal J. Krent Related Seminars and Products

Professor of Law

Chicago-Kent College of Law

Harold Krent graduated from Princeton University and received his law degree from New York University School of Law, where he served as notes editor of the Law Review and garnered several awards for excellence in writing. Krent clerked for the Honorable William H. Timbers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then worked in the Department of Justice for the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division, writing briefs and arguing cases in various courts of appeals across the nation. He has been teaching full-time since 1987 and has focused his scholarship on legal aspects of individuals' interaction with the government. His book, Presidential Powers, is a comprehensive examination of the president's role as defined by the U.S. Constitution and judicial and historical precedents. In addition, Krent has served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has also litigated numerous cases with students on behalf of indigent prisoners. Krent joined the IIT Chicago-Kent faculty in 1994. He was appointed associate dean in 1997 and interim dean in 2002 before assuming the deanship on January 1, 2003. He continued is his role as dean until July 31, 2019.

Judge Som Ramrup Related Seminars and Products

President

Association of Adminstrative Law Judges

Judge Ramrup has been an administrative law judge (ALJ) since July 2016 with the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of Hearings Operations in New York City (New York Varick). As an ALJ, Judge Ramrup adjudicates disability benefits and non-disability cases that require a decision after an opportunity for a hearing. Since January 2022, she has served as the President of Judicial Council No. 1 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO, which represents over 1000 non-supervisory SSA ALJs. Judicial Council 1 is also known as the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ). Before becoming an ALJ, Judge Ramrup spent 17 years at SSA’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and was appointed the Deputy Regional Chief Counsel in New York City in 2011. As Deputy Regional Chief Counsel, she supervised approximately 50 OGC attorneys and handled an expansive range of legal issues for all agency component clients, including supervising significant litigation, providing legal advice to client components and interacting with outside stakeholders, such as the federal district court judges and their staff, the Department of Justice, various United States Attorney’s Offices, and the plaintiffs’ bar. Prior to that, she defended SSA in federal court as a Special Assistant United States Attorney as well as before the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Federal Labor Relations Authority. Judge Ramrup earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from SUNY-Binghamton in 1989 and her Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School in 1992.

Judge Ramrup is appearing on behalf of the AALJ. She is not speaking on behalf of SSA. The views expressed are her own and those of AALJ and do not necessarily represent the views of SSA or the United States Government.