Meryl Chertoff is an administrator at Georgetown University Law Center. She has been a legislative relations professional, attorney and community volunteer.

Mrs. Chertoff has just completed service as Project Director for The Conference on the State of the Judiciary, chaired by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Stephen Breyer. As a legislative relations consultant in New Jersey, Mrs. Chertoff represented corporations, professional associations and charitable organizations before the New Jersey State Legislature and regulatory agencies. She specialized in health, education, youth and financial services issues. She has spoken to private groups and on television about homeland security preparedness issues, and has written about preparedness for state audiences.

Mrs. Chertoff served as Director of New Jersey’s Washington, D.C. Office under two governors, and served in the Office of Legislative Affairs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), participating in the agency’s transition into the Department of Homeland Security from 2002-2003.

She served as legislative counsel for former New Jersey Assemblyman Richard H. Bagger (R-22nd District), and as an adjunct instructor at Seton Hall University School of Law.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College, Mrs. Chertoff earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and practiced law for seven years in New York City and New Jersey.

She is a member of the Board of Meridian International Center, a member of the Metropolitan Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, a volunteer for the Red Cross of the National Capital Region, and a member of the Board of the New Jersey Excellence in Public Service Series. In 2000, she earned the New Jersey Region of the Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Service in Civil Rights Award. She is a former trustee of the United Way of Somerset County, New Jersey, and of the United Fund of Westfield.

She and her husband have two children.