Michael J. Astrue  He graduated "magna cum laude" from Roxbury Latin School in 1974. He received his B.A. "magna cum laude" from Yale University in 1978 with honors in Philosophy and English, where he was also President of the Yale Political Union and won the Pierson Scholarship Award. He received his Juris Doctor "cum laude" from Harvard Law School in 1983. In 2013 he received an honorary doctor of laws from the New England School of Law and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Southern Vermont College. After graduating from Yale, he worked briefly as a staff assistant for Senator Richard Schweiker (R-PA) and as a demonstration program evaluator for two non-profit organizations. He also took a two-month leave of absence to be co-coordinator of the 1980 John B. Anderson primary campaign in Connecticut, but did not support Anderson’s run as an independent. After graduating from law school, he clerked from 1983-1984 for U.S. District Court Judge Walter Jay Skinner. He worked as a litigation associate at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray from 1984-1985 and then worked in the United States Department of Health and Human Services as an Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation (Human Services) from 1985-1986. He then served as Counselor to the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 1986-88 where he led the agency’s efforts to end its controversial policy of “nonacquiescence” to certain federal court decisions. In April 1988, President Reagan named him Associate Counsel to the President where he served until June 1989. In that capacity he served briefly as White House Ethics Officer, oversaw litigation responses related to the Iran-Contra affair, and drafted the first operations plan for the 25th Amendment. President Bush nominated him for General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in June 1989 and the Senate unanimously confirmed him later that month. He served until November 1992 and, by virtue of his position, he also had concurrent appointments to the United States Access Board, which received broad regulatory authority after enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and to the Administrative Conference of the United States. As General Counsel, Astrue personally tried and won the first federal HIV discrimination enforcement suit, he personally argued and won the first patient dumping enforcement suit, and co-authored with David M. McIntosh the first accelerated drug approval regulation targeted for treatments for fatal diseases for which there was no significant treatment.