Malcolm Richard Wilkey

Malcolm Richard Wilkey
Born	(1918-12-06)December 6, 1918 Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Died	Santiago, Chile
Cause of death	Prostate cancer
Residence	Santiago, Chile 1990–2009
Education	A.B. 1940 (Phi Beta Kappa) LL.B. 1948
Alma mater	Harvard College, Harvard Law School
Occupation	Lawyer, judge, ambassador
Employer	Private practice of law in Houston until 1954 U.S. Attorney, Houston, Texas, 1954–1958 Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, 1958– General Counsel, Kennecott Copper, 1963–1970 Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1970–1990 Ambassador to Uruguay, 1985–1990
Known for	investigating 1992 House banking scandal 1982 case ruled unconstitutional the legislative veto
Political party	Republican
Notes

Malcolm Richard Wilkey (December 6, 1918 – August 15, 2009) was a United States federal judge and ambassador.

Early life and education

Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Wilkey received an A.B. from Harvard University in 1940, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II in George S. Patton's Third Army from 1941 to 1945 (he left active duty as a Major and served in the U.S. Army Reserve until 1953, when he left as a Lieutenant Colonel). After the war he enrolled in law school and received an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1948.

Career

Early career

He was in private practice in Houston, Texas, from 1948 to 1954, also teaching at the University of Houston Law Center from 1949 to 1954.

He entered public service in Texas as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas (1954–1958). In 1958 he moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as the U.S. Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice (1958–1959), and Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division (1959–1961). He returned to private practice in Texas (1961–1963), before moving on to become the General counsel and secretary of Kennecott Copper Corporation (1963–1970), during which he was also a member of the Advisory Panel on International Law for the legal adviser at the U.S. Department of State (1969–1973).

Federal judgeship

Wilkey was nominated by President Richard Nixon on February 16, 1970, for the seat vacated by Warren E. Burger on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was confirmed by the Senate on February 24, 1970, and received his commission on the following day.

He assumed senior status on December 6, 1984, and his judicial service ended November 8, 1985, when he retired and went to Cambridge University as a visiting fellow of Wolfson College.

Political appointments

In 1989 he was chairman of the President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform and worked alongside his Vice Chairman Griffin B. Bell, who was the U.S. Attorney General under President Jimmy Carter.

President Ronald Reagan appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay in 1985, and President George H. W. Bush continued him in that post until his retirement in 1990.

In 1992 U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr appointed him to determine whether federal criminal violations had taken place in the House banking scandal.

External links

• Malcolm Richard Wilkey at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• (useless State Department biography)

Legal offices
Preceded by Warren E. Burger	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 1986–2001	Succeeded by Stephen F. Williams