Sue Ellen Wooldridge (born February 15, 1961) is an American attorney and a former politically appointed U.S. government employee. She was formerly the United States Assistant Attorney General in charge of

environment and natural resources Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism o ...

, a division of the United States Department of Justice. As such, she was the U.S.'s top environmental prosecutor. She resigned from this post on January 8, 2007.

Personal

Wooldridge grew up on a farm in

Artois, California Artois (), formerly known as Germantown, is a census-designated place in Glenn County, California, USA. It is located north of Willows, at an elevation of 167 feet (51 m), in the northern Sacramento Valley of California. It is located on the for ...

. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science and history from the University of California, Davis (1983). She graduated with a J.D. degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1987. She is admitted to practice law in the United States Supreme Court and in the state and federal courts of California. She lived with

J. Steven Griles James Steven "Steve" Griles (born December 13, 1947) was an American coal industry lobbyist and the United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior during the George W. Bush administration from July 12, 2001, until his resignation on December 7, ...

, whom she began dating while he was one of her supervisors at the United States Department of the Interior, and they were married in March, 2007, "three days after Griles pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his relationship with Jack Abramoff and a previous romantic partner."

Career

Prior to her service with the Department of Justice, Wooldridge served as

Solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

for the United States Department of the Interior, that agency's highest ranking lawyer, after being appointed by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

in a recess appointment. Prior to her employment in that capacity, she served as Counselor to

Deputy Secretary Deputy or depute may refer to: * Steward (office) * Khalifa, an Arabic title that can signify "deputy" * Deputy (legislator), a legislator in many countries and regions, including: ** A member of a Chamber of Deputies, for example in Italy, Spain, ...

of the United States Department of the Interior; she also served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor for

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

Gale Norton, serving in that position beginning on January 31, 2001. Prior to her position with the Department of the Interior, Wooldridge worked as a lawyer in private practice in Sacramento, California, from 1987 to 1994; and again from 1999 to 2001; served as general counsel to the non-partisan California Fair Political Practices Commission in 2000; and served as a special assistant attorney general in the

California Department of Justice The California Department of Justice is a statewide investigative law enforcement agency and legal department of the California executive branch under the elected leadership of the California Attorney General (AG) which carries out complex cri ...

Controversies

In February 2007, a newspaper claimed in March 2006 that before Wooldridge resigned as assistant attorney general for Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), she had purchased a $980,000 vacation home on

Kiawah Island Kiawah may refer to * Kiawah Island, South Carolina * the Kiawah people The Kiawah were a constituent group of the Cusabo people,

, South Carolina, with two other individuals: J. Steven Griles, a former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, her boyfriend at the time; and Don R. Duncan, vice president for federal and international affairs and a lobbyist for

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...

, a Houston based oil corporation. Griles himself became an oil and gas lobbyist and subsequently pled guilty to obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff affair. The allegation was that Wooldridge acted improperly by approving several consent decrees in litigation between the government and ConocoPhillips, supposedly giving the company preferential treatment. Nine months after buying the home with Duncan and Griles, and just before stepping down, Wooldridge had approved the consent decrees, giving ConocoPhillips three more years to pay millions of dollars in fines for a

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

toxic waste cleanup and the installation of pollution controls, which had been estimated to cost US$525 million, at nine of ConocoPhillips' refineries. The claims received wide circulation in the media and in Congress.

References

External links

Sue Ellen Wooldridge page
from United States Department of Justice site
Article from ''Orange County Register''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wooldridge, Sue Ellen 1961 births Living people United States Assistant Attorneys General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division Lawyers from Sacramento, California People from Carpinteria, California University of California, Davis alumni Harvard Law School alumni Place of birth missing (living people) ConocoPhillips people People associated with the Jack Abramoff scandals Recess appointments during the George W. Bush administration Solicitors of the United States Department of the Interior California Republicans American women lawyers People from Glenn County, California 21st-century American women