Nick Katzenbach

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Nicholas Katzenbach's career of public service includes several key posts and accomplishments. After joining the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, he was promoted to Deputy Attorney General in April 1962. In that role, and working closely with President Kennedy, he was responsible for securing the release of prisoners captured during the Bay of Pigs raid on Cuba. He also oversaw the Justice Department's efforts to desegregate the University of Mississippi in September 1962 and the University of Alabama in June 1963 and worked with Congress to ensure the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him Attorney General of the United States in 1965. He helped to draft the 1965 Voting Rights Act before resigning in 1966 after clashes with J. Edgar Hoover. President Johnson then appointed him Under Secretary of State (1966-1969) and one of a three-member commission charged with reviewing Central Intelligence Agency activities. Nicholas Katzenbach also chaired the 1967 Commission on Crime in the United States. After President Johnson decided not to run for re-election, in 1969 Nicholas Katzenbach became General Counsel of the IBM Corporation, where he remained until 1986. He is currently Non-Executive Chairman of the MCI Board of Directors.

Nicholas Katzenbach's public service began when he joined the United States Army Air Force. During the Second World War, he was captured by enemy troops and spent two years as a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany. After the war, he attended Princeton University and then Yale Law School, becoming editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. He also received a Rhodes scholarship and studied at Oxford University for two years. Early in his legal career, he was Associate Professor of Law at Yale University (1952-1956) and also Professor of Law at the University of Chicago (1956-1960).