Peter J. Wallison holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Financial Policy Studies and is co-director of AEI’s program on financial markets deregulation. Prior to joining AEI, he practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. Mr. Wallison has held a number of government positions. From June 1981 to January 1985, he was general counsel of the United States Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration’s proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry, served as general counsel to the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee, and participated in the Treasury Department’s efforts to deal with the debt held by less-developed countries. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan. Between 1972 and 1976, Mr. Wallison served first as special assistant to New York’s Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller when he was vice president of the United States.

Mr. Wallison is admitted to practice before the courts of the District of Columbia, and he is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1963 and law degree from Harvard Law School in 1966.

Mr. Wallison is the author of Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency (2002) by Westview Press. On financial or regulatory matters, he is the author of Back From the Brink (1990), a proposal for a private deposit insurance system, and coauthor of Nationalizing Mortgage Risk: The Growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (2000), The GAAP Gap: Corporate Disclosure in the Internet Age (2000), and Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds (2007), all published by AEI Press. He is the editor of Optional Federal Chartering and Regulation of Insurance Companies (2000) and Serving Two Masters, Yet Out of Control: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (2001), also published by AEI Press.

He is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. He has been a speaker at many conferences on financial services, accounting, and corporate governance, and is a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee and the Council on Foreign Relations.