About Us
Wharton Advocacy is a two-partner firm by design. Clients work directly with the principals whose names are on the door.
Tom Wharton
Managing Partner
Tom Wharton is the founder and Managing Partner of Wharton Advocacy. He has more than 20 years of policy and political experience, having served as a senior health care advisor in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Wharton began his career in 2002 on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee working under then-Chairman Joe Biden and Staff Director (later Secretary of State) Tony Blinken. In 2005, he joined the staff of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee under the leadership of Senator Chuck Schumer. In that election cycle, Senate Democrats won back the majority and elevated Senator Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader.
In 2008, Wharton returned to Capitol Hill on the legislative staff of Congressman Dan Boren (D-OK), an influential member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition. The Coalition’s political power was at an all-time high during this period, with a record membership of more than 60 members, and it played a central role in passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Economic Recovery Act of 2009, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Following his work in the House, Wharton became the senior health care policy advisor to Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT). He led Senator Lieberman’s work on all health care matters, including Medicare and Medicaid reform, and advised him — then Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee — on efforts to reform the U.S. military’s Tricare program, the U.S. Postal Service health insurance program, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits program.
After Senator Lieberman announced his retirement in 2012, Wharton joined the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, whose health care plans insure more than 107 million Americans. He served as BCBSA’s principal liaison to Senate Democrats and the majority staffs of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, spending more than five years working to launch and stand up the law and the federal and state-based exchanges.
Wharton went into private practice in 2017, where he has represented multiple Fortune 500 companies and health care trade associations.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Office of Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK)
Office of Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Kendra Wharton
SENIOR ADVISOR
Kendra Wharton is a Senior Advisor at Wharton Advocacy and a former senior official at the U.S. Department of Justice. She brings to the firm more than two decades of experience at the intersection of federal enforcement, congressional oversight and executive branch decision-making.
Kendra most recently served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, where she advised the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General on sensitive law enforcement and policy matters and represented DOJ leadership in White House and interagency policy discussions. She supervised major DOJ components, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Office of the Inspector General, and was one of the highest-ranking women at the Department during her tenure.
Kendra began her career in government on the legislative staff of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, advising him on federal banking, tax and financial services policy during the 2008 financial crisis and recovery — experience that informs the firm’s work on both sides of the aisle.
Before her appointment to the Department of Justice, Kendra was Special Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. During nearly a decade with the firm’s Global Litigation Group and White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice, she led multinational investigations and compliance matters and represented leading corporations and executives before the DOJ, SEC, CFTC and CFPB, and in congressional investigations and hearings. Her clients included health care providers, life sciences companies, universities and global financial institutions.
Kendra has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for excellence in White-Collar Criminal Defense from 2021 through 2025, and has served as Global Co-Chair of the Young Professionals Committee of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association.
She earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.S., magna cum laude, from the University of Louisville. Kendra is barred in Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Office of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell
J.D., Georgetown University Law Center