On April 28, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Leon Panetta B.A. ’60, J.D. ’63, as the new U.S. Secretary of Defense. “These are the leaders that I’ve chosen to guide us through the difficult days ahead,” President Obama said during the ceremony in the East Room. Assuming Senate confirmation, Panetta, who has served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency since January 2009, would begin his new position on July 1.
ABOUT LEON PANETTA
Panetta earned his bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara in 1960 magna cum laude and also received his J.D. from the Santa Clara School of Law in 1963. As a law student, he was an editor of the Law Review. Panetta has also been on SCU’s Board of Trustees since 1988. He gave a lecture at SCU in October 2010, as part of the SCU President’s Speaker Series, which was co-sponsored by Santa Clara Law in recognition of its centennial.
Panetta served in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1966, and participated in daily intelligence briefings with President Clinton while serving as chief of staff from 1994 to 1997. Panetta was a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that was charged with assessing a way to end the Iraq war.
Panetta served eight terms in Congress as the representative from California’s 16th (now 17th) district. He authored the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988, the Fair Employment Practices Resolution extending civil rights protections to congressional employees, and legislation extending Medicare and Medicaid to hospice care for the terminally ill. In addition, he was successful in introducing legislation to protect the California coast, including the creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Panetta is well known for his leadership on budgetary matters. He served on the House Committee on the Budget for 14 years and chaired it from 1989 to 1993. In 1993, he left Congress to become President Clinton’s director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Panetta was born in Monterey, California, and still lives there with his wife, Sylvia. Together they established and directed the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy. The Institute serves as a nonpartisan study center for the advancement of public policy.
For more information on Panetta, visit www.scu.edu/visitors/2011speakers/panetta.cfm and law.scu.edu/lawyerswholead/leon-panetta.cfm.
ABOUT SANTA CLARA LAW
During this academic year, Santa Clara University School of Law is celebrating its first 100 years of educating lawyers who lead. Founded in 1911 on the site of California’s oldest operating higher-education institution, Santa Clara Law is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead, with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. One of the nation’s most diverse law schools, Santa Clara Law offers its 975 students an academically rigorous program, including graduate degrees in international law and intellectual property law; a combined J.D./MBA degree; a combined J.D./MSIS degree; and certificates in high technology law, international law, and public interest and social justice law. Santa Clara Law is located in the world-class business center of Silicon Valley, and is distinguished nationally for its top-ranked program in intellectual property. For more information, see law.scu.edu.
