Law and Public Policy

Christopher Edley Jr.
Dean and professor, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall)

Expertise:
Public policy, administrative law, civil rights law, federal budget, national politics

Contact:
Office phone: (510) 642-6483
E-mail: edley@law.berkeley.edu

Additional contacts:
Roxanne Makasdjian, broadcast: (510) 642-6051, roxannem@berkeley.edu
Susan Gluss, School of Law, (510) 705-3366 (cell), (510) 642-6936 (office), sgluss@law.berkeley.edu

Background:
Christopher Edley Jr. combines academic expertise in public policy and civil rights law with an impressive record of hands-on public policy work in the White House, on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail.

A veteran of two tours of White House service and twice that many presidential campaigns, Edley has played a central role in the high-stakes world of national politics for nearly 30 years. As special counsel to President Clinton, he led the White House review of affirmative action programs and helped develop Clinton’s "Mend it, don’t end it" position on affirmative action; at the Office of Management and Budget he oversaw one-quarter of the federal budget. In the Carter administration he served as assistant director of the White House domestic policy staff, where his responsibilities included welfare reform, social security and a variety of anti-poverty measures.

Edley has served on numerous boards and commissions including the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Carter-Ford National Commission on Federal Election Reform, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Edley earned his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor and officer of the Harvard Law Review, and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

He taught at Harvard Law School for more than two decades and co-founded its Civil Rights Project, a multi-disciplinary research and policy think tank that conducted research and policy briefings for congressional staff, journalists and civil rights organizations. He became dean at Boalt Hall in July 2004.

Edley’s more recent publications include "Not All Black and White: Affirmative Action, Race and American Values," (1996) which grew out of his work as special counsel to President Clinton and explores arguments both for and against affirmative action; and "Administrative Law: Rethinking Judicial Control of Bureaucracy" (1990).

Highly quotable and insightful, Edley is a media favorite. He has appeared in numerous national broadcast news programs including ABC News’s Nightline, CNN’s Capital Gang, and CNBC’s Capital Report and has been quoted in major national print media including the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and Boston Globe.