Eleanor D. Acheson
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Policy Development
In office
1993-2001
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byStephen Markman[1]
Succeeded byViet D. Dinh[2]
Personal details
Born
Eleanor Dean

1947 (age 76–77)
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseEmily C. Hewitt
Parent(s)David Acheson
Patricia James Castles
RelativesDean Acheson (grandfather)
Ed Acheson (great-grandfather)
Will Gooderham (3x great grandfather)
ResidenceWashington, D.C.
Alma materWellesley College (BA)
George Washington University (JD)

Eleanor "Eldie" Dean Acheson (born 1947) is an American lawyer who served as Assistant Attorney General of the United States for the Office of Policy Development as part of the Clinton administration.

Early life

Acheson is the daughter of David Campion Acheson (1921–2018) and Patricia James Castles (1925–2000) who married in 1943.[3] Her mother was from New York and was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. She taught at the Cathedral School from 1959 until the mid-1960s and had earlier taught at the Potomac and Madeira Schools. She wrote books for students of American history including America's Colonial Heritage, Our Federal Government, and The Supreme Court.[3]

Her father, David Campion Acheson, was an American attorney who worked for the United States Atomic Energy Commission and served as an assistant to former Treasury secretary Henry H. Fowler. Her grandfather was the former United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Acheson's great-grandfather was Edward Campion Acheson (1858–1934), an English-born Church of England priest who moved to the U.S. to become Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut. Acheson's great-grandmother was Eleanor Gertrude Gooderham, the Canadian-born granddaughter of prominent Canadian distiller William Gooderham (1790–1881), who was a founder of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery.[4] Her grandmother, Alice Acheson, a painter and graduate of Wellesley College, was the daughter of Louis Stanley, a railroad lawyer and Jane C. Stanley, a watercolorist.[5] Alice's grandfather was John Mix Stanley, a renowned painter of American Indian life in the Wild West.[5][6]

Together Acheson's parents had three children:

  • Eleanor Dean Acheson
  • David Campion Acheson Jr., an architect and principal of Acheson Doyle Partners Architects, who married Susan D. Sturges in 1986[7]
  • Peter W. Acheson,[3] an independent film maker who married Mary Vaux, a freelance writer[8]

Acheson attended the Westover School graduating in 1965, followed by Wellesley College, graduating in 1969. She then attended the George Washington University Law School, graduating in 1973.[9]

Career

As Assistant Attorney General, Acheson worked on the Year 2000 readiness and responsibility act (H.R. 775) also known as the "Y2K Act".[10]

She was public policy and government affairs director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force until January 2007, in which capacity she led efforts on Capitol Hill to secure funds for the LGBT community.[11] Although she left that job after her appointment in 2007 as vice president and general counsel of Amtrak,[12] she continues to be a strategy advisor to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, representing the group in key meetings on Capitol Hill.[11]

Acheson attended Wellesley College with Hillary Clinton who, in her 1969 student commencement speech, acknowledges the influence of Acheson in helping Clinton become the first student in Wellesley College history to deliver its commencement address.[13] Acheson received her JD from George Washington University Law School and went on to serve as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Edward T. Gignoux in Maine from 1973 to 1974. She then practiced for 19 years with the Boston-based firm Ropes & Gray, becoming a litigation partner in 1983.[14]

During her confirmation process she came under criticism because of her longtime membership in an exclusive club that had no black members.[15] Senator Kennedy (D-MA), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that Ms. Acheson "clearly meets the Senate Judiciary Committee standard on the club issue".[15]

Personal life

Acheson is married to Emily C. Hewitt, the former chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "PN305 - Nomination of Eleanor Acheson for Department of Justice, 103rd Congress (1993-1994)". 2 August 1993.
  2. ↑ "Nominations Sent to the Senate".
  3. 1 2 3 Staff (March 9, 2000). "Patricia C. Acheson". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  4. ↑ David S. McClellan, Dean Acheson: The State Department Years (1976) pp 8–12
  5. 1 2 Weil, Martin (January 22, 1996). "ALICE STANLEY ACHESON DIES AT 100". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Miall, Leonard (January 24, 1996). "OBITUARY:Alice Acheson". The Independent. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Staff (July 6, 1986). "Susan D. Sturges To Wed Sept. 28". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Staff (December 29, 1983). "Mary Vaux Weds Peter W. Acheson". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "Eleanor Dean Acheson" (PDF). americanbar.org. American Bar Association. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  10. ↑ "Statement of Eleanor D. Acheson, Assistant Attorney General, United States Department of Justice, Year 2000 Readiness and Responsibility Act (H.R. 775)". The United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original on December 24, 2003. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Changes under way in Task Force Public Policy & Government Affairs Department". National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. December 19, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  12. ↑ McElhatton, Jim (September 2, 2010). "Amtrak hired private lawyers for executives". The Washington Times.
  13. ↑ "Wellesley College 1969 Student Commencement Speech". Wellesley College. May 31, 1969. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Amtrak Names Eleanor D. Acheson Vice President – General Counsel". National Railroad Passenger Corporation. March 6, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
  15. 1 2 Wines, Michael (July 3, 1993). "Justice Nominee Defended For Joining Exclusive Club". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Staff (January 21, 2010). "Six New Members Join Westover's Board of Trustees". No. ALUMNAE/SCHOOL NEWS. Westover School. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
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