Peter Edelman
Speaker, 2014 Member Luncheon
Updated: June 1, 2022
Peter Edelman began his distinguished career in the field of social insurance before graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, when he served as a law clerk to Judge Henry Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals and then as a law clerk for United States Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg. A member of the Academy since 1994, Edelman served as a co-chair of the Academy’s 13th Annual Conference in 2001. He spoke at the Membership Luncheon during the 26th Annual Policy Conference, Strengthening the Web of Financial and Retirement Security for Today’s Working Americans.
Known extensively for his scholarly work on poverty, Edelman the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law at Georgetown University, Law Center. He teaches constitutional law and poverty law and is faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. On the faculty since 1982, he has also served in all three branches of government. During President Clinton’s first term he was Counselor to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and then Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Professor Edelman has been Associate Dean of the Law Center, Director of the New York State Division for Youth, and Vice President of the University of Massachusetts. He was a Legislative Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Issues Director for Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s Presidential campaign in 1980, and Law Clerk to Justice Arthur J. Goldberg on the Supreme Court of the United States. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Douglas. Edelman is a member of both the District of Columbia and the New York City Bar. Early in his career, he was a partner at Foley, Lardner, Hollabaugh & Jacobs.
Edelman is currently chair of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, and formerly board chair of the National Center for Youth, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, and the Public Welfare Foundation, board president emeritus of the New Israel Fund, and a board member of the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and a half dozen other nonprofit organizations.
Friend and colleague William Arnone praised him for his extensive work in furthering social insurance. “Peter Edelman is one of the nation’s foremost experts on poverty,” said Arnone, Chief Executive Officer of the National Academy of Social Insurance. “He has dedicated his extraordinary career to dispelling myths about income equality and explaining the importance of social insurance in the United States.”
Edelman is a prolific writer who has authored several publications on poverty, constitutional law, and youth. Professor Edelman’s recent book, Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America, was published by The New Press in 2017. He previously wrote So Rich So Poor: Why It’s So Hard To End Poverty in America which was also published by The New Press in 2012. Before that, he wrote Searching for America’s Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope, which was published by Houghton-Mifflin in 2001. He also co-authored Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men, which was published by the Urban Institute in 2006, and is the author of many articles on poverty, constitutional law, and issues about children and youth. His article in the Atlantic Monthly, entitled “The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done,” received the Harry Chapin Media Award.
He has been a United States-Japan Leadership Program Fellow, was the J. Skelly Wright Memorial Fellow at Yale Law School, and has received numerous honors and awards for his work.
Edelman is married to Marian Wright Edelman, with whom he loves to travel and enjoys watching movies during his free time. Together they have three adult boys; Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra, and four grandchildren.
Updated: June 1, 2022
Peter Edelman began his distinguished career in the field of social insurance before graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, when he served as a law clerk to Judge Henry Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals and then as a law clerk for United States Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg. A member of the Academy since 1994, Edelman served as a co-chair of the Academy’s 13th Annual Conference in 2001. He spoke at the Membership Luncheon during the 26th Annual Policy Conference, Strengthening the Web of Financial and Retirement Security for Today’s Working Americans.
Known extensively for his scholarly work on poverty, Edelman the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law at Georgetown University, Law Center. He teaches constitutional law and poverty law and is faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. On the faculty since 1982, he has also served in all three branches of government. During President Clinton’s first term he was Counselor to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and then Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Professor Edelman has been Associate Dean of the Law Center, Director of the New York State Division for Youth, and Vice President of the University of Massachusetts. He was a Legislative Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Issues Director for Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s Presidential campaign in 1980, and Law Clerk to Justice Arthur J. Goldberg on the Supreme Court of the United States. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Douglas. Edelman is a member of both the District of Columbia and the New York City Bar. Early in his career, he was a partner at Foley, Lardner, Hollabaugh & Jacobs.
Edelman is currently chair of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, and formerly board chair of the National Center for Youth, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, and the Public Welfare Foundation, board president emeritus of the New Israel Fund, and a board member of the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and a half dozen other nonprofit organizations.
Friend and colleague William Arnone praised him for his extensive work in furthering social insurance. “Peter Edelman is one of the nation’s foremost experts on poverty,” said Arnone, Chief Executive Officer of the National Academy of Social Insurance. “He has dedicated his extraordinary career to dispelling myths about income equality and explaining the importance of social insurance in the United States.”
Edelman is a prolific writer who has authored several publications on poverty, constitutional law, and youth. Professor Edelman’s recent book, Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America, was published by The New Press in 2017. He previously wrote So Rich So Poor: Why It’s So Hard To End Poverty in America which was also published by The New Press in 2012. Before that, he wrote Searching for America’s Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope, which was published by Houghton-Mifflin in 2001. He also co-authored Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men, which was published by the Urban Institute in 2006, and is the author of many articles on poverty, constitutional law, and issues about children and youth. His article in the Atlantic Monthly, entitled “The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done,” received the Harry Chapin Media Award.
He has been a United States-Japan Leadership Program Fellow, was the J. Skelly Wright Memorial Fellow at Yale Law School, and has received numerous honors and awards for his work.
Edelman is married to Marian Wright Edelman, with whom he loves to travel and enjoys watching movies during his free time. Together they have three adult boys; Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra, and four grandchildren.