James L, Connaughton served as the chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality frome June 18, 2001, until the concusion of George W. Bush's presidency.. At Yale University, Connaughton graduated second in his class in 1983. He earned his JD at the Northwestern University School of Law, graduating in 1989. At Northwestern, he was an Austin Scholar and served as coordinating articles editor of the Northwestern University Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for US District Judge Marvin Aspen in the Northern District of Illinois.

 

Connaughton began his career working on behalf of asbestos victims who worked in the major construction trades.

 

From 1993 to 2001, Connaughton served as one of the lead US negotiators of the ISO 14000 series of international environmental consensus standards. He worked with officials from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California EPA and the Environmental Law Institute to help form the Multi-State Work Group on Environmental Management Systems (MSWG).

 

Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Connaughton was a partner in the law firm of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, specializing in lobbying to reduce government regulations for clients such as the Chemical Manufacturers Association of America, General Electric and Alcoa.

 

Official Bio

Highlights of James Connaughton’s Testimony to the Senate Environment Subcommittee (by Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo)