Sanford Charles "Sandy" Coats (born 1971) is the former

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Early life and education

Coats was born in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

in 1971. His father,

Andy Coats Andrew Montgomery Coats (born January 19, 1935) is an American politician. A Democrat, he served as mayor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from 1983 to 1987. He attended the University of Oklahoma and is an attorney. From 1996 to 2010, he was the Dean o ...

, served as mayor of Oklahoma City and was the Democratic Party's unsuccessful candidate in the 1980 Oklahoma Senate election. Coats attended Bishop McGuinness High School in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

and received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

in 1994. He then attended the

University of Oklahoma College of Law The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Boar ...

, where his father served as dean beginning in 1996, and earned his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1998. After completing law school, Coats served as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

for Judge Marian P. Opala of the

Oklahoma Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Oklahoma is a court of appeal for non-criminal cases, one of the two highest judicial bodies in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and leads the judiciary of Oklahoma, the judicial branch of the government of Oklahoma.

Career

Coats served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Oklahoma from 2004 to 2009. From October 2007 to August 2008, Coats was Chief of the Major Crimes Section and also Project Safe Childhood coordinator. In the aftermath of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

, Coats volunteered to temporarily serve as an Associate U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Louisiana, based in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, from April 2007 to September 2007. On September 30, 2009, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Coats to serve as the

for the Western District of Oklahoma. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on December 24, 2009 and was sworn into office on December 30, 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coats, Sanford 1971 births Living people Lawyers from Oklahoma City Tulane University alumni University of Oklahoma College of Law alumni United States Attorneys for the Western District of Oklahoma 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers