Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) has announced that it has named Jay B. Stephens as chairman of its Legal Policy Advisory Board. Mr. Stephens succeeds The Honorable Dick Thornburgh, who served as chairman for 18 years. Mr. Stephens recently retired from Raytheon Company after serving for nearly 13 years as a member of the company’s senior leadership team. As senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Raytheon, he led the company’s corporate governance, risk management, and global compliance and ethics programs as well as its legal function, and participated in the company’s operational management and strategic planning. Prior to joining Raytheon, Mr. Stephens had a distinguished career in the public and private sectors, serving as associate attorney general of the United States (2001-2002); United States attorney for the District of Columbia (1988-1993); deputy counsel to the President of the United States (1986-1988); deputy general counsel of Honeywell International; and as a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. In 2014, National Law Journal named him among the top fifty general counsel in America, and in 2015 New York Stock Exchange Governance Services honored him with its Lifetime Achievement award.
Constance Larcher, WLF’s president and CEO, praised Governor Thornburgh for his nearly two decades of leadership of WLF’s Legal Policy Advisory Board: “We deeply appreciate Dick’s humble guidance, extensive involvement in WLF’s litigation, publishing, and communications programs, and devoted friendship. WLF is honored to have Jay Stephens as Dick’s successor, and we look forward to his direction of the Board and his engagement in WLF’s public-interest mission.”
Mr. Stephens noted, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with the talented and dedicated team at WLF and to provide leadership to its very capable Advisory Board as together we advance the important public interest mission of WLF. I look forward to building on Dick Thornburgh’s many significant contributions to the success of the Foundation’s mission of being an advocate for freedom, justice, and free enterprise.”
Washington Legal Foundation is America’s premier public interest law and policy center. WLF preserves and defends the nation’s free-enterprise system by advocating for free markets, a limited and accountable government, individual and business civil liberties, and the rule of law. For more than 38 years WLF has successfully advanced these principles through a unique three-pronged strategy of original and amicus litigation; publications offering single-issue advocacy in eight distinct formats; and direct communications outreach through webcast programs, timely blogging, and other mechanisms.