Deputy Attorney General: Warren M. Christopher

Warren M. Christopher was the 9th Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He served as the Department’s second-ranking official from July 1967 to January 1969.

President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Mr. Christopher for the position of Deputy Attorney General in June 1967. At his swearing-in ceremony in the White House’s Cabinet Room, President Johnson stated, “Warren Christopher has entered the Department of Justice at a time when America needs the kind of thoughtful leadership that he has demonstrated in many fields. The Attorney General feels, and I believe, that we have in Warren Christopher a counselor of deep convictions and very sound judgment.”

In 1965, Mr. Christopher served as vice chairman of the McCone Commission, appointed by California Governor Edmund G. Brown to investigate the severe rioting that occurred in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16 of that year. 

Mr. Christopher joined the Los Angeles law firm O’Melveny & Myers in 1950 and initially practiced with that firm for more than 16 years, becoming a partner in 1958. Beginning in 1961, Mr. Christopher also served as a consultant to the Office of the Under Secretary of State. In addition, he chaired the U.S. Delegation for International Textile Negotiations in Geneva and Tokyo in 1961.

A native of North Dakota, Mr. Christopher served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. He earned his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1945 and his law degree from Stanford University in 1949. Upon completing law school, Mr. Christopher clerked for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court William O. Douglas (October 1949 to September 1950).