William D. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Mitchell

William DeWitt Mitchell (September 9, 1874 – August 24, 1955) was appointed to the position of U.S. Solicitor General by Calvin Coolidge on June 4, 1925, which he held until he was appointed to the position of U.S. Attorney General for the entirety of Herbert Hoover's Presidency.

Biography

Born in Winona, Minnesota to William B. Mitchell, a future Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, he spent two years studying Electrical Engineering at Yale University before becoming interested in law. At that point he transferred to the University of Minnesota, where he received his A.B. degree in 1895 and was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi Epsilon chapter). He received his LL.B. degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1896, and was admitted to the Minnesota bar to begin practicing law in St. Paul. He formed the law firm of How, Taylor & Mitchell, which became prominent in the Midwest. This prestige allowed Mitchell access to both the regional council of the U.S. Railroad Administration in 1919, and then he served as chairman of the Citizens Charter Committee of St. Paul in 1922.

Combined with Mitchell's service as an infantry officer during the Spanish-American War and World War I, this placed him in position to be appointed to the position of Solicitor General of the United States. Having served well in his position, President Hoover appointed him Attorney General of the United States on March 4, 1929, and he held that office until March 4, 1933, one of his principal acts having been to order the Bonus Army dispersed and their camp destroyed. Mitchell then settled in New York City where he practiced law. He was named chairman of the Committee on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and chief counsel of the joint congressional committee investigating the attack on Pearl Harbor. He died in 1955, in Syosset, New York, aged 80.