John Podesta
Distinguished Visitor from Practice
B.A., Knox; J.D., Georgetown
Professor Podesta is the founder and Chair of the Center for American Progress, a Washington D.C. based multi-issue think tank. He previously served as Co-Chair...
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Professor Podesta is the founder and Chair of the Center for American Progress, a Washington D.C. based multi-issue think tank. He previously served as Co-Chair of the Obama Biden transition and as White House Chief of Staff to President Clinton. He served in the first Clinton administration as an assistant to the President and staff secretary at the White House, where he managed the paper flow to and from the President, including coordination of White House Senior Staff advice on Presidential decision memoranda and approval on all Presidential documents. He also served as the principal White House spokesperson on the Whitewater investigation and as the senior policy advisor to the President on government information, privacy, telecommunications, and regulatory policy. Before joining the Clinton administration, Professor Podesta was president and general counsel of Podesta Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C., government relations and public affairs firm. He has had extensive Capitol Hill experience, serving as Counselor to Majority Leader Tom Daschle and chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and as chief minority counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform. He was special assistant to the director of Action, a federal volunteer agency and served as trial attorney in the Department of Justice, Land and Natural Resources Division. Professor Podesta has taught as an adjunct at the Law Center and has been a guest lecturer at American University Washington College of Law and at Harvard Law School. He was a visiting professor at the Law Center in the 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 academic years, and since 2001.
Recent Scholarship
Books
- John Podesta, The Power of Progress: How America's Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country (New York: Crown Publishing Group 2008).
- John Podesta, Think Progress: Ten Big Ideas to Change the Country (New York: Crown Publishing Group 2007).
- John Podesta, William J. Perry, Madeleine K. Albright, Graham T. Allison, Samuel R. Berger, Ashton B. Carter, Wesley K. Clark, Thomas E. Donilon, Michele A. Flournoy, Susan E. Rice, John M. Shalikashvili, Wendy R. Sherman, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall & James Steinberg, The U.S. Military: Under Strain and at Risk (Wash., D.C.: National Security Advisory Group 2006).
Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
- John Podesta & Peter Ogden, The Security Implications of Climate Change, 31 Wash. Q. 115-138 (2008). [W]
Book Chapters and Collected Works
- John Podesta & Peter Ogden, Security Implications of Climate Scenario 1: Expected Climate Change over the Next Thirty Years, in Climatic Cataclysm: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change (Kurt M. Campbell ed., Wash., D.C.: Brookings Institution Press 2008).
All Scholarship 2000 - Present
Books
- John Podesta, The Power of Progress: How America's Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country (New York: Crown Publishing Group 2008).
- John Podesta, Think Progress: Ten Big Ideas to Change the Country (New York: Crown Publishing Group 2007).
- John Podesta, William J. Perry, Madeleine K. Albright, Graham T. Allison, Samuel R. Berger, Ashton B. Carter, Wesley K. Clark, Thomas E. Donilon, Michele A. Flournoy, Susan E. Rice, John M. Shalikashvili, Wendy R. Sherman, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall & James Steinberg, The U.S. Military: Under Strain and at Risk (Wash., D.C.: National Security Advisory Group 2006).
- A Little Knowledge: Privacy, Security, and Public Information After September 11 (John Podesta, Peter M. Shane & Richard C. Leone eds., New York: Century Foundation Press 2004). [BOOK]
Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
- John Podesta & Peter Ogden, The Security Implications of Climate Change, 31 Wash. Q. 115-138 (2008). [W]
- John Podesta & Raj Goyle, Lost in Cyberspace? Finding American Liberties in a Dangerous Digital World, 23 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 509-527 (2005). [HEIN] [L] [W]
- John Podesta, Shadow Creep: Government Secrecy Since 9/11, 2002 U. Ill. J.L. Tech. & Pol'y 361-373. [HEIN] [L] [W]
Book Chapters and Collected Works
- John Podesta & Peter Ogden, Security Implications of Climate Scenario 1: Expected Climate Change over the Next Thirty Years, in Climatic Cataclysm: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change (Kurt M. Campbell ed., Wash., D.C.: Brookings Institution Press 2008).
- John Podesta, Peter M. Shane & Richard C. Leone, Introduction, in A Little Knowledge: Privacy, Security, and Public Information After September 11 1-10 (John Podesta, Peter M. Shane & Richard C. Leone eds., New York: Century Foundation Press 2004). [BOOK]
- John Podesta, Need to Know: Governing in Secret, in A Little Knowledge: Privacy, Security, and Public Information After September 11 11-22 (John Podesta, Peter M. Shane & Richard C. Leone, eds., New York: Century Foundation Press 2004). [BOOK]
- John Podesta, Need to Know: Governing in Secret, in The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism 220-236 (Richard C. Leone & Greg Anrig eds., New York: BBS Public Affairs 2003). [BOOK]
Selected Contributions to Other Publications
- John Podesta, Postcard from America, 14 Pub. Pol'y Research 193-196 (2007).
- John Podesta, USA Patriot Act: The Good, the Bad, and the Sunset, 8 Internet Connection 1 (2002). [L] [W]
- John Podesta, USA Patriot Act: The Good, the Bad, and the Sunset, Hum. Rts., Winter 2002, at 3-7. [HEIN] [L] [W]
- John Podesta & Josh Gottheimer, Civil Rights: Mixed Messages From the Bush Administration, Hum. Rts., Spring 2001, at 3-6. [HEIN] [WWW]
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