I also think people are deluding themselves if they think she didn't have policy ideas bounced off her - you can argue she wasn't elected to the position, but then neither were the millions of presidential advisors there have been over the years.

1970 - awarded grant to work at Marian Wright Edelman's Washington Research Project, where she was assigned to Senator Walter Mondale's Subcommittee on Migratory Labor, researching migrant workers' problems in housing, sanitation, health and education.

1972 - worked on McGovern campaign in Texas, registering latino voters (among other things)

After graduating from law school, she did a year of post-graduate study on children and medicine at the Yale Child Study Center.  Her first scholarly paper, "Children Under the Law", was published in the Harvard Educational Review in late 1973 and became frequently cited in the field.  During her post-graduate study, Rodham served as staff attorney for Edelman's newly founded Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children.

1974 - worked on the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate scandal.

1977 - joined Rose Law Firm, specializing in patent infringement and intellectual property law while also working pro bono in child advocacy.

1977 - She co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a state-level alliance with the Children's Defense Fund.

1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation, and she served in that capacity from 1978 through the end of 1981. For much of that time she served as the chair of that board, the first woman to do so. During her time as chair, funding for the Corporation was expanded from $90 million to $300 million and she successfully battled against President Ronald Reagan's initial attempts to reduce the funding and change the nature of the organization.

1978 - First Lady of Arkansas, appointed chair of Rural Health Advisory Committee, where she successfully obtained federal funds to expand medical facilities in Arkansas' poorest areas without affecting doctors' fees.

1982-92 Chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee from 1982 to 1992,[80] where she sought to bring about reform in the state's court-sanctioned public education system. One of the most important initiatives of the entire Clinton governorship, she fought a prolonged but ultimately successful battle against the Arkansas Education Association to put mandatory teacher testing as well as state standards for curriculum and classroom size in place. She introduced Arkansas' Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth in 1985, a program that helps parents work with their children in preschool preparedness and literacy.

From 1987 to 1991 she chaired the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, which addressed gender bias in the law profession and induced the association to adopt measures to combat it.

Clinton has served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital Legal Services (1988-1992) and the Children's Defense Fund (as chair, 1986-1992).