April 27, 2007

Patrick Fitzgerald (AP photo)

Patrick Fitzgerald ’85, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and special prosecutor in the investigation of the leaking of the identity of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, received Harvard Law School’s Cox-Richardson-Coleman Award for distinguished public service yesterday.

“Public service is not a sacrifice at all,” Fitzgerald told an audience of alumni and students after accepting the award. He touched on the rewards of public work, and cautioned students not to let interesting career choices pass them by.

Introducing Fitzgerald, Dean Elena Kagan ’86 hailed him as “a great prosecutor, a lifelong public servant dedicated to the thorough, energetic and just prosecution of crime and to the advancement of the rule of law. He embodies the best of the values that Harvard Law School holds dear.”

Kagan also read aloud from a letter to Fitzgerald given to her for the occasion by Ted Wells ’76, the lawyer for former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in the CIA leak case. Wells, who defended Libby in the trial that ended in Libby’s multiple-count conviction, said:

“Dear Pat, …. Having spent the last year as your adversary in the epic Scooter Libby trial, I can say without hesitation: you have earned this award. In Libby, you were a dedicated, tenacious and gifted public advocate. You are a great competitor and public servant. I wish you continued success in the future—except, of course, in the Libby appeal.”

Fitzgerald, a native New Yorker, graduated from Amherst College in 1982 before coming to HLS. After a brief period in private practice in New York City, he spent 13 years as an Assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, including a stint as chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Unit. He was named U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in 2001, and became the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case in 2003.

The Cox-Richardson-Coleman award is given annually in honor of three of the law school’s most distinguished alumni in public service: Professor and Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox ’37, former Attorney General Elliot Richardson ’47 and William T. Coleman ’46, who served in the cabinet as secretary of transportation in the Ford administration. Recipients of the award in years past have included former U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes ’60, U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine ’85 and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer ’84.

Click here to view a webcast of the event. (RealPlayer required.)

-- Robb London ’86