Kenneth L. Khachigian J.D.

Kenneth L. Khachigian is an attorney in San Clemente, California and founding partner of the Los Angeles law firm of Smiland & Khachigian. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree with honors in political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara and holds a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University in New York City.

Khachigian is widely regarded in California and nationally for his versatility in combining legal and governmental affairs talents to set and implement strategies to guide corporations and other businesses in navigating the complex world where public issues, law, government, and politics intersect. Recognized for his exceptional communication abilities, he has also spent more than two decades providing critical counsel to companies for strategic positioning in governmental affairs. It was in recognition of these professional skills that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce selected him to serve as its Fellow for Politics —citing his reputation as “one of the nation’s most experienced and respected political and issues strategists.”

He began practicing public, government and administrative law in 1979 representing state, national and multinational businesses —including more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies —in diverse industries including energy exploration and development, paint manufacturing, telecommunications, public utilities, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food sales and packaging, data processing, insulation manufacturing and gaming.

Khachigian has complemented his legal practice by serving at the highest levels of government in a distinguished career of public service —beginning in the White House at the age of 25 as Staff Assistant and then Deputy Special Assistant to the President of the United States. Following this first White House stint, he was an editorial consultant to former President Nixon for the preparation of his memoirs.

In 1979, Khachigian joined the Reagan for President campaign and in 1980 traveled with Mr. Reagan as senior adviser and chief speechwriter during his successful presidential effort. President Reagan commissioned him as Special Consultant to the President and a senior member of the White House Staff where Khachigian collaborated on many of the President’s most prominent public addresses —his First Inaugural, two State of the Union Messages, two Republican National Convention addresses, foreign policy remarks at the U.N. General Assembly and dozens of other Presidential speeches —including President Reagan’s dramatic appearance at Bergen Belsen during what was then called the “Bitburg Crisis” (described by Reagan biographer, Edmund Morris, as “the best speech of his career”).

In 1984 Khachigian was one of only two senior campaign officials who accompanied President Reagan aboard Air Force One through 27 states as Director of Issues and Research for his landslide re-election effort and was consultant and writer to the Tuesday Team for preparing campaign commercials and the widely regarded 1984 Reagan documentary. He served a similar senior advisory role for the Bush-Quayle campaign in 1988, traveling with Vice-Presidential nominee Dan Quayle for 10 weeks through Election Day.

During two gubernatorial races in California, Khachigian was senior adviser and principal strategist for Governor George Deukmejian and served variously as campaign chairman, campaign manager and senior consultant to Dan Lungren for his two victories as Attorney General and to U.S. Senate Candidate Bruce Herschensohn —engineering come-from-behind wins for Lungren’s first campaign and for Herschensohn’s primary victory in 1992. For Herschensohn’s dramatic upset victory, the San Francisco Chronicle’s leading political reporter, Jerry Roberts, described Khachigian as “the wily veteran GOP message-maker” and dubbed him “best manager” for his efforts.

Former Governor Pete Wilson said of Khachigian: “He has the ability to penetrate very quickly right through the heart of an issue and put it in terms the voters can understand.” And nationally prominent political commentator Bob Novak has written that Khachigian is “perhaps the state’s premier Republican strategist and wordsmith.”

Khachigian counseled Wilson in his winning U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, served as National Senior Adviser and California campaign manager for Republican Presidential nominee Bob Dole in 1996, and in 1998 guided the successful statewide retention election of California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin. He was also a senior adviser traveling with Senator John McCain as he sought the 2000 Republican Presidential nomination and then subsequently served as adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign nationally as well as in California.

Khachigian is widely quoted in state and national publications, often appears on national television public affairs shows and frequently lectures before business groups and national associations on government affairs and politics. For two and a half years, he wrote a popular biweekly column of political commentary for the Los Angeles Times.

Khachigian is a member of the Board of Directors of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation, the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance and the UCSB Foundation. He served as a Board Member of the Armenian Assembly of America (1983-89) and as President Reagan’s appointee to the National Institute of Justice Advisory Board. He served on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace from 1986-1992 and has also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

He resides in San Clemente, California with his wife, Meredith. They have two married daughters, Merissa and Kristina.