Georgetown Law

Meryl Chertoff is the Executive Director of SALPAL and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law. She is Managing Editor of SLoGLaw, the State and Local Government Blog. From 2009 to 2019 she served as the Executive Director of The Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program. Among her notable work at Aspen was direction of seminars for judges, lawyers and state government officials, creation of the Inclusive America Project, and direction of the Sandra Day O’Connor Conversation.

Professor Chertoff has had a variety of positions in and around state government. She was Director of the New Jersey Washington Office, served on the legislative staff of a New Jersey Assembly leader, and worked as a lobbyist in Trenton. Professor Chertoff worked in the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) participating in the agency’s transition into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

From 2006-2009 she directed the Sandra Day O’Connor Project at Georgetown Law, on judicial independence and civic education.

She is a graduate of Harvard College and Law School, and served as a law clerk to Federal District Judge Myron H. Thompson (M.D. Ala).

She contributes opinion writing to The Hill, Bloomberg Law, and other publications, has provided expert testimony before state legislatures on various bills, and provides briefings on American federalism to international visitors through US State Department sponsored programs.

Professor Chertoff is admitted to the Bar in New York and New Jersey, is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and served as an ABA Advisor to the Uniform Law Commission’s Study Committee on State Governance During Public Health Emergencies in 2020. She is a member of the Board of ChangeLab Solutions.