Christopher P. Lu (Chinese: 盧沛寧; pinyin: Lú Pèiníng; born June 12, 1966) is a Taiwanese-American lawyer and political advisor who served as the U.S.

Born to Taiwanese American immigrants, Lu graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was a classmate of Barack Obama.

[6] Lu's grandfather, Wang Renyuan, was the Minister of Justice of Taiwan from 1970 to 1976 and was elected to the first Legislative Yuan in 1948 to represent Tianjin.

[8] Lu said he was heavily influenced by his father, who worked as an electrical engineer but loved literature and history; the two would read biographies of politicians and watch the evening news together.

[9] Lu attended the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he was the senior news editor of the Daily Princetonian.

Lu's ambition for a political career developed at Princeton, particularly during his internship in the Capitol Hill office of Senator Charles Mathias.

[10] He graduated magna cum laude in 1988,[11] after writing a 161-page long senior thesis titled "Press Coverage of Presidential Primaries, 1972-1984.

"[10][12] After graduating from Princeton, Lu attended Harvard Law School, where he was one of Barack Obama's classmates,[13] from 1988 to 1991 and earned a Juris Doctor degree.

After graduating cum laude from Harvard in 1991,[11] Lu started his career as a law clerk to Judge Robert Cowen at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

David Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter and Obama biographer, said Lu was among the "moderate voices in this atmosphere of smart young staffers.

[17] Obama warned him to tell no one about the nascent operation, even his own wife, so Lu quietly rented a small office in D.C.[17] and secretly met with people who had worked on previous Democratic presidential transition efforts.

[18] The planning efforts produced policy options on a wide range of topics, compiled names of and began vetting potential political appointees for top jobs, arranged over 100 security clearances, and managed the logistics for expanding the operations after Election Day.

"[4] Lu's responsibilities included representing Obama's positions to each of the Cabinet secretaries and agencies and coordinating a common White House agenda among them.