Concurrent Breakout Sessions 9 Breakout Sessions 12

Honorable Edwin Meese III

Edwin Meese is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He served as the seventy-fifth attorney general of the United States from February 1985 to August 1988.

Meese is an expert on the U.S. legal system, law enforcement and criminal justice, intelligence and national security, and the Reagan presidency. His current research focuses on the criminal justice system, federalism, emergency response management, and terrorism.

Meese is also a distinguished fellow and holder of the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation; a member of the Board of Regents of the National College of District Attorney; distinguished senior fellow, Institute for United States Studies, University of London; and a member of the boards of directors of both the Capital Research Center and the Landmark Legal Foundation.

Before serving as U.S. attorney general, he was counselor to the president from 1981 to 1985. In this capacity he functioned as the president's chief policy adviser and had management responsibility for the administration of the cabinet, policy development, and planning and evaluation. During the time he held both these positions, Meese was a member of the president's cabinet and the National Security Council.

Formerly, he served as Governor Reagan's executive assistant and chief of staff in California from 1969 through 1974 and as legal affairs secretary from 1967 through 1968. Before joining Governor Reagans staff in 1967, Meese served as deputy district attorney of Alameda County, California.

From 1977 to 1981, Meese was a professor of law at the University of San Diego, where he was also director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management.

Meese is a graduate of Yale University (1953) and holds a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.