Cheri Lynn Cannon

With over two decades of experience working in the federal government – including extensive experience as a senior attorney and member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) – Cheri is a vital component of Tully Rinckey PLLC’s nationally recognized federal labor and employment practice group. Additionally, as a former panel member of the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records (BCMR), she bolsters the firm’s military law practice group by assisting with the removal of injustices from and the correction of errors in service military records.

As Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, Cheri oversees all federal sector legal matters handled by the firm at its D.C. location and manages the staff and resources of the office. Cheri represents federal managers, employees, and contractors who are primarily litigating Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints and U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) appeals. She also represents employees seeking whistleblower protection, those involved in Office of Special Counsel (OSC) cases and those employees who are involved with Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigations across the government. Due to her extensive knowledge of the SES, Cheri focuses her work on senior executives and other senior leaders across government who need representation in all of these forums. She is the firm’s Chairperson of the Federal Labor and Employment Law practice group.

Prior to joining Tully Rinckey PLLC, Cheri served as the Department of the Air Force’s deputy general counsel for fiscal, ethics and administrative law at the Pentagon. While working at the Pentagon, Cheri also was appointed as a panel member (and later panel chair) on the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records. There, she reviewed and voted on cases. In her role as deputy general counsel for fiscal, ethics and administrative law, she was also called upon by the Air Force Review Boards Agency to provide legal advice to several of the boards on legal, policy and procedural matters that arose in a variety of cases. At the MSPB, she was the chief counsel to the chairman of the board. And at the Small Business Administration (SBA), she served as an associate general counsel for general law, the chief counsel for administrative law and a trial attorney.

Cheri also has extensive private sector experience. She began her legal career working in the litigation department of a large Maryland law firm and later moved on to a Washington, D.C. law firm where she handled all facets of federal civil litigation. As a consultant, she has assisted a law firm with Whistleblower Protection Act litigation and drafted federal agency non-SES performance plans for submission to and approval by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Cheri received her juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, California, where she studied political science.

NOT ADMITTED TO THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR. DC PRACTICE LIMITED TO PROVIDING LEGAL SERVICES TO MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC SOLELY BEFORE A SPECIAL COURT, DEPARTMENT, OR AGENCY OF THE UNITED STATES. ADMITTED TO PRACTICE IN MARYLAND.