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Alumni

Alumni Profiles

George Mitchell (L‘61)

It is the rare individual who can take on problems as difficult and varied as Northern Ireland, the use of illegal substances in Major League Baseball — and now peace in the Middle East. On January 22, former Senate majority leader George Mitchell (L’61) was named by President Barack Obama as the special envoy to the region.

It’s hardly an unfamiliar role for Mitchell, who chaired an international fact-finding committee on violence in the Middle East at the request of former President Bill Clinton in 2000 and headed peace negotiations in Northern Ireland several years earlier. As the Washington Post noted in a January 23 article, years before the words “Mitchell Report” became irrevocably linked to baseball, there was a “Mitchell Report” on the Arab-Israeli conflict, published in April 2001.

“We welcome this mission,” Rafael Harpaz, minister-counselor and director of public affairs at the Israeli Embassy, said of Mitchell’s new role. Harpaz spoke at the Law Center January 26 at the invitation of the Jewish Law Students Association. Several days earlier, Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor said in a news release that “Israel holds Senator Mitchell in high regard” and that the country looked forward to working with him on achieving a future of peace and security in the region.

In a Webcast interview with Dean Alex Aleinikoff in November, Mitchell said that an end to the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel was indeed possible. “I think it will happen, and I believe that [then-] President-[elect] Obama has already signaled that he understands the right way to make it occur, which is to focus attention and resources on the issue in a manner that the current administration unfortunately has not,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell also said that on the first day of the principal set of negotiations he chaired in Northern Ireland in the 1990s, he told the delegates that he did not intend to leave until the job was done. Similarly, peace in the Middle East, he asserted, is “not a task for the faint hearted.” It requires “active, aggressive leadership” by the United States.

“I think it can be done; I think it will be done, largely because it’s in the self-interest of both sides in the Middle East… ,” he said. “There has to be a break from the past; I think they recognize that and they are prepared to move. I think it can be done — with the hope and the leadership that I hope and expect that President Obama will provide.”
Watch the interview with Mitchell.

Michael Steele
(L‘91)

Georgetown Law alum Michael Steele (L’91) made headlines January 30 when he was named chairman of the Republican National Committee — the first African American to assume the role. Steele is already well known as the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, serving under Gov. Robert Ehrlich from 2003 to 2007. He was, as well, the first African American ever elected to statewide office in Maryland.

“It is with a great deal of humility and a sense of service that I accept, and appreciate, and thank all of you for the opportunity to serve as the next national chairman of our very proud, our very strong and our very, very hardworking Republican National Committee,” Steele said in his acceptance speech. “To our friends, to those who support us, to those who believe in the ideals, those conservative principles that have made us the strong and proud party that we are, to Americans who believe in the future of this country, to those who stand in difference with us, it’s time for something completely different — and we’re going to bring it to them.”

While serving as lieutenant governor, Steele demonstrated a marked commitment to better education, greater economic opportunity, reduced crime, and increased community involvement, according to the Maryland State Archives Web site. He chaired the Governor’s Commission on Minority Business Enterprise Reform, as well as the Governor’s Commission on Quality Education.

Steele has spent the past two years as a partner at Dewey and LeBoeuf in Washington, D.C., advising on corporate securities, government relations and international affairs, with an emphasis on Africa.

Steele earned a B.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in 1981 and attended the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University for three years before entering Georgetown Law.

After earning his law degree in 1991, Steele spent several years at the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, practicing corporate securities law in Washington, D.C. He also headed his own public affairs firm, the Steele Group, and served as in-house finance counsel to the Arlington, Va.-based Mills Corporation.

A call to public service, however, led Steele to be elected chair of the Maryland Republican Party in 2000. He was elected Maryland’s lieutenant governor as Ehrlich’s running mate in 2002, spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2004, and also served on the executive committee of the Republican National Committee. A 2006 run for a seat in the U.S. Senate was unsuccessful. In 2007, he became the chairman of GOPAC, a Republican political action committee.