A graduate of Dartmouth College, Reich obtained an M.A. as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and has a J.D. from Yale Law School. Before becoming Secretary of Labor in 1993, Reich lectured for 12 years at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. His career in public service included a stint as Assistant to the Solicitor General, during which he represented the United States before the Supreme Court, and Director of the Policy Planning Staff of the Federal Trade Commission.
In his four years in Washington, Reich fought for pension-plan protections and a higher minimum wage, earning a reputation as an outspoken liberal voice in the Clinton Cabinet.
Reich will establish a Center on Jobs, the Economy and Society based at Brandeis university's Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare, continuing the work that has filled his career, first at Harvard University and later in the Cabinet.
He is the author of five books: The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 14 languages; The Power of Public Ideas; Tales of a New America; New Deals: The Chrysler Revival and the American System; and The Next American Frontier. He has honorary degrees from Dartmouth College, the University of Maryland, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Reich lives in Cambridge, Mass., with his wife, Professor Clare Dalton an associate dean at Northeastern University Law School in Boston, and their two sons, Adam and Sam aged 12 and 15.
(1997)