MICHAEL CHERTOFF

Michael Chertoff is a highly respected lawyer who served the nation as the second Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2005-2009.

Chertoff was educated at Harvard University (B.A., 1975; J.D., 1978) and graduated with top honors. He was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia (1980), New York (1987), and New Jersey (1990) and began his career as a federal prosecutor. After receiving his law degree, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and later worked in the U.S. attorney’s office, becoming U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey in 1990. From 1994 – 1996, he was special counsel for the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee, which led an investigation into President Clinton’s pre-presidential financial dealings. Chertoff also worked in the private sector at Latham & Watkins in 1980–83 and again in 1994–2001.

Chertoff first worked for President George W. Bush as an adviser in his campaign for the presidency in 2000. Following the election, he served in the Department of Justice Criminal Division, and in June 2003 became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In February 2005 Chertoff was appointed Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) upon the retirement of Tom Ridge and received immediate and unanimous confirmation by the Senate. He immediately set about reorganizing the sprawling DHS, focusing on improving the screening of passengers boarding airplanes, the security of the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, and the safety of urban mass transit, all the while maintaining the balance between the need for homeland security and respect for civil liberties.

During his first year in office, Chertoff’s biggest challenge turned out to be not an external terrorist threat but a domestic natural disaster. In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, killing more than 1,000 Americans and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), since 2003 subordinate to DHS, bore primary responsibility for providing immediate assistance to victims of natural disasters of this sort and for managing the initial response to the disaster and the subsequent recovery effort.

After stepping down from DHS in 2009, he resumed his legal career and helped form the Chertoff Group, a security consulting firm.