Luke Rosiak documents for Daily Caller readers the work of a group dedicated to keeping bad executives in top federal government posts.

A trade association that seeks to make it harder to fire the federal career civil service’s top managers is little more than an extension of a law firm that profits by representing the most notorious government bosses.

The Senior Executives Association (SEA) represents members of the federal Senior Executive Service (SES), the highest-ranked career managers who are paid between $150,200 and $205,700 annually. In return for the generous compensation, the more than 7,000 career SESers in federal departments and agencies can be transferred anywhere and fired more easily than other career civil servants.

At least that was the idea when Congress created the SES as part of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. But then along came the SEA and the Washington, D.C., law firm of Shaw Bransford & Roth. Barely a handful of SESers are actually fired in a typical year.

In recent months the firm has represented Sharon Helman, Diana Rubens and Kim Graves, Department of Veterans Affairs SESers who government investigators found used their jobs for personal gain. …

… The firm’s business model depends on having endless avenues to fight firings and other disciplinary actions before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) and in the federal courts. If a federal employee of any rank is accused of serious misconduct, odds are good the firm will take the case.