Contact: Sammy McDavid
U.S. District Judge William Alsup
A Jackson native and Mississippi State alumnus now serving as a California federal judge is this year's honoree of the university's Pre-Law Society.
On March 25, William Alsup of San Francisco will become the 27th person to receive a Distinguished Jurist Award from the student organization of future attorneys. He will receive the distinctive plaque during an 11 a.m. public program in the John Grisham Room of Mitchell Memorial Library.
Preceding the presentation by society president Christen Kazery of Jackson, Alsup will address the audience on a legal topic of his choosing. Later, at 2 p.m. in 115 Bowen Hall, he and society members will engage in a roundtable discussion--also open to the public--of current legal issues.
Alsup, a Provine High School graduate, was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1999 to a seat on the United States District Court from the Northern District of California. In the early 1970s, he briefly had practiced law in his hometown before moving west to forge a career in the home state of his wife, Suzan.
First presented to retired U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Tom C. Clark in 1977, the Pre-Law Society recognition includes both sitting and retired jurists at all levels of service. Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox; former U.S. attorneys general Griffin Bell, Edward Levi and William Webster; Lafayette, La., municipal judge Kaliste J. Saloom Jr.; and District of Columbia federal district judge Norma Holloway Johnson have been among earlier honorees.
After receiving a bachelor's degree, with honors, in mathematics from MSU in 1967, Alsup went on to Harvard University Law School, where he graduated with honors in 1971. A year later, he completed a master's degree in public policy from the Cambridge, Mass., institution before moving to Washington, D.C., to serve as law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
Alsup had completed five years of private practice in San Francisco when he returned to Washington with a Justice Department appointment as assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General. After two years in the nation's capital, he re-entered private practice in his adopted state.
In 1997, the Clinton Administration asked Alsup to serve as a special trial counsel for a major government case brought to block the merger of two leading defense contractors. This federal service immediately preceded his nomination to the district court bench.
In addition to the study, practice and adjudication of law, Alsup has spent considerable time helping to conserve the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Northern California. He has written two books about the region, the latest of which details the mysterious 1933 disappearance of a San Francisco attorney among the area's rugged peaks.
For additional information on the awards program, telephone Diane Wall of the MSU political science department at (662) 325-2711.