Paul Schott Stevens is an American attorney serving as the president of Investment Company Institute. He served on the National Security Council under President Ronald Reagan. Education and early law career Paul Schott Stevens was born November 19, 1952, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. from Yale University in 1974, and received a J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1978. Following his graduation, Stevens practiced law in Washington, D.C., and was a partner in the firm of Dickstein, Shapiro and Morin. In 1984 he was part of a team representing Edwin Meese during an investigation by the Independent Counsel prior to his confirmation as Attorney General. In 1992, Stevens argued before the United States Supreme Court in Saudi Arabia v. Nelson, representing the respondents. From 1980 to 1983, he was also an adjunct lecturer in law at the Washington College of Law at the American University. Government service From September 1985-July 1986, Stevens served as Deputy Director and General Counsel of President Reagan's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, also known as the Packard Commission. In January 1987, President Reagan appointed him Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the first Legal Adviser of National Security Council. He appointed Stevens Executive Secretary of the National Security Council in November of the same year, replacing Grant S. Green Jr., who assumed responsibilities at the Department of Defense. In 1989, Stevens joined the transition team for Sen. John Tower, following his nomination for Secretary of Defense by President George H. W. Bush. After Tower's nomination was rejected, Stevens remained at the Pentagon, serving Dick Cheney as Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. Upon leaving government service, he was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Defense Department's highest civilian decoration. Continued involvement in national security affairs From 2002 to 2006, Stevens served as a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. Established by the Markle Foundation, the task force was a bipartisan collaboration of national security experts from six presidential administrations, as well as senior information technology executives and privacy and civil liberties advocates. In its reports, the task force recommended ways to use information and information technology to establish national information systems that would both protect privacy and prevent terror. Many of the task force's recommendations informed the 9/11 Commission Report and were