The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is pleased to announce that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen ACS Executive Director Lisa Brown as White House Staff Secretary. "Lisa Brown has made an enormous contribution to the development of ACS over the last six years. While we are saddened to lose her, we are pleased that such an able leader and extraordinary person will be serving President-elect Barack Obama in this vital position," said Chair of the ACS Board of Directors Paul M. Smith. Prior to becoming the Executive Director of the ACS, Lisa was Counsel to Vice President Gore from September 1999 through January 2001, and Deputy Counsel from April 1997 through August 1999. Lisa was an Attorney Advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice from June 1996 until April 1997.

ACS released a package of proposals for a new Administration - of either party - and hosted a panel discussion on the topics they address. The proposals, contained in two dozen papers, cover a range of law and justice policy areas, including: the Department of Justice's role in civil rights enforcement, criminal justice, and legal advice to the President; liberty, security and the rule of law in the post-911 era; environmental policy; workplace fairness; government transparency; and the regulatory process. Authors of the papers - some of which appear in new issues of ACS's two journals, The Harvard Law & Policy Review and Advance - include former Attorney General Janet Reno, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, former Senator Timothy Wirth, Professors Geoffrey Stone and Dawn Johnsen, and other former high-ranking government officials, distinguished legal scholars, and policy experts. Click here for full text of all the papers or here for video of the event in our multimedia archives.

U.S. Representative Donna Edwards gave opening remarks. The panel discussion featured:

Moderator, Ronald Klain; William Yeomans,
Deborah Pearlstein, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, and Sally Katzen

Representative Donna Edwards, United States House of Representatives (D-MD)

• Moderator, Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to the Attorney General, 1995-1999; Associate Counsel to the President, 1992-1995
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Professor of Law and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar, Stanford Law School
• Sally Katzen, Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), 1999-2001 and Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in OMB, 1993-1998
• Deborah Pearlstein, LAPA Visiting Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
• William Yeomans, Chief Counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Keynote Speaker at the 2008 ACS National Convention, and Eric Holder, former Deputy Attorney General and ACS Board Member, addressed the 2008 ACS National Convention. Click here for the convention program, videos, and transcripts.

More convention coverage is available on ACSBlog.