After graduating from Harvard Law School, Edelman worked as a clerk forSupreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and later as special assistant toAssistant Attorney General John Douglas. During the 1960s, he worked as alegislative assistant for Senator Robert F. Kennedy and was issues director forKennedy's presidential campaign in 1980. Before joining the faculty atGeorgetown University Law Center, Edelman held a variety of public servicepositions, including vice president of the University of Massachusetts.
In 1996, Edelman resigned from his post as assistant secretary of HHS toprotest President Clinton's signing of the welfare reform bill, calling it "theworst thing that Bill Clinton has done."
Edelman is the author of numerous articles on poverty, constitutional law andissues relating to children and youth.
Edelman's talk is the first in a series that will focus on welfare andpoverty. Kathryn Edin, professor of sociology at the University ofPennsylvania and co-author of Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers SurviveWelfare and Low-Wage Work (Russell Sage Foundation, 1997), and VivyanAdair, lecturer in English and women's studies at the University of Washingtonand a former welfare recipient, also will deliver talks later this spring.
The lecture series is sponsored by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center andthe Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture.