WASHINGTON – Christopher
J. Meade was confirmed by the United States Senate yesterday evening to serve
as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s General Counsel. In this role,
Meade will be the chief legal officer of the Department and the principal
advisor to the Secretary and other senior Treasury officials on legal and
policy matters. He will also head the Treasury Legal Division, which
includes the consolidated legal staff of the Department of the Treasury.
Since March 2010, Meade has served as Principal Deputy
General Counsel. In that position, he has advised the Secretary on legal
issues ranging from domestic and international economic affairs, terrorism
finance and financial crimes enforcement, tax policy, ethics, administrative
law, and government law. He has served as Acting General Counsel since
June 2012.
“For three years, Chris’s sound judgment and deep knowledge
have made him a tremendous asset to Treasury and the Administration,” Treasury
Secretary Jacob J. Lew said. “His impressive grasp of a wide set of legal
and policy matters ranging from the tax code to terrorism finance has been and
will be vital as we move forward with initiatives of immense scope and complexity.
I am delighted the Senate took action on this critical nomination.”
Prior to joining Treasury, Meade was a partner at Wilmer
Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, LLP in New York. Earlier in his career,
he served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and to
Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit.
Meade received a B.A. from Princeton University, magna cum
laude, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, magna cum laude,
where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. He is married to Stella
Schuhmacher and has a daughter, Nora, and a son, Elliot.
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