John R. Schmidt is a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and former

United States Associate Attorney General The associate attorney general of the United States is the third-highest-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice. The associate attorney general advises and assists the attorney general and the deputy attorney general in policies rela ...

who served from 1994 to 1997 under President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

. His responsibilities included oversight of the Civil, Antitrust, Civil Rights, Environment and Tax Divisions. He was also responsible for all aspects of the 1994 Federal Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, including its program to put 100,000 more police into community policing across the United States. Schmidt ran for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Illinois in the 1998 primary, losing to Congressman

Glenn Poshard Glendal William Poshard (born October 30, 1945) is an American educator and former politician who served as a Illinois State Senator and U.S. Congressman. He was also a Illinois gubernatorial candidate, and president of the Southern Illinois Univ ...

. He then ran for the Democratic nomination for Illinois Attorney General in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, losing to

Lisa Madigan Lisa Murray Madigan (born July 30, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as Attorney General of the U.S. state of Illinois from 2003 to 2019, being the first woman to hold that position. She is t ...

. Prior to his service as Associate Attorney General, Schmidt served as Ambassador and Chief United States Negotiator to the

Uruguay Round The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), spanning from 1986 to 1993 and embracing 123 countries as "contracting parties". The R ...

under the

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its pre ...

. He previously served as the first Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

. He was also Chair of the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, a joint state-city agency that was responsible for the redevelopment of Navy Pier in downtown Chicago. Schmidt is a partner in the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown LLP.

References

External links

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Justice Dept. Will Lose Its No. 3 Official

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, December 6, 1996. Accessed January 1, 2009.
John R. Schmidt , People , Mayer Brown
Accessed July 9, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, John 1943 births Illinois Democrats Living people United States Associate Attorneys General Harvard College alumni Harvard Law School alumni