Speakers
Paul Brest
President, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Paul Brest is president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and serves as director of its philanthropy program. A distinguished legal scholar, Mr. Brest began his career as a law clerk for Judge Bailey Aldrich of the First Circuit Court of Appeals and for Justice John M. Harlan of the United States Supreme Court. He practiced law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Jackson, Mississippi, working on civil rights litigation. In 1969, Mr. Brest joined the faculty of Stanford Law School. His academic research and teaching focused on constitutional law and issues of problem-solving and decision-making. From 1987 to 1999, he served as the dean of Stanford Law School. Mr. Brest is co-author of Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking and currently teaches a law school course called “Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment.” Most recently, he is co-author, with Hal Harvey, of Money Well Spent: A Strategic Guide for Smart Philanthropy. Mr. Brest holds a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and a law degree from Harvard University, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
