The lawyer picked Thursday to succeed Patrick Fitzgerald as Chicago’s U.S. attorney is a former federal prosecutor best known for taking on corrupt politicians and powerful institutions such as the University of Notre Dame.
Zachary Fardon would take over an office that has made its mark nationally by putting crooked government officials behind bars but increasingly faces pressure to do more to help in the fight against Chicago’s violent street gangs.
“Zachary Fardon will be unwavering in his commitment to justice, and I am confident he will serve the people of Illinois with excellence,” President Barack Obama said in making the long-awaited announcement.
Fardon, best known for helping prosecute former Gov. George Ryan, has big shoes to fill in succeeding Fitzgerald, who stepped down last June as the longest-serving U.S. attorney in Chicago history. But colleagues say he is up to the task, possessing an even temperament, Southern charm, courtroom savvy, more management experience than many of his predecessors held and a varied legal background that will help in making the tough decisions on whom to prosecute.
Fardon’s nomination needs the approval of the U.S. Senate, a process that could take several more months. He won the nod over Lori Lightfoot, who as a woman and an African-American would have represented a historic first for the Chicago office. More than 20 lawyers sought the powerful post with its 170 assistant U.S. attorneys and nearly $35 million budget.
Fardon grew up in Tennessee but has lived mostly in Chicago since 1997, except for a stint as the No. 2 official at the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville. For the past 61/2 years he has been a partner at the Latham & Watkins law firm, overseeing its Chicago litigation department and about 40 lawyers. The $155,540-a-year U.S. attorney’s post would represent a sharp pay cut for him.
Fitzgerald, who served as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor for nearly 11 years, called Fardon “fearlessly smart” and said he would benefit from having worked in more than one U.S. attorney’s office. Fitzgerald was a federal prosecutor in New York before taking the top job in Chicago.
“You get to experience how some things are done the same and differently,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said his biggest surprise in taking office in 2001 was how Chicagoans personalized the post, a “fact of life” that Fardon will need to accept.
“In New York, it was the U.S. attorney’s office did X,” he said. “In Chicago, it was U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald did X.”
Married and the father of three preteen children, Fardon relaxes by playing rock, pop and folk music on his guitar and running 6 to 7 miles during his lunch break. He completed last month’s Boston Marathon in a little under three hours, his personal best, crossing the finish line about an hour before explosions killed three and injured more than 260. He was already at the airport when he learned of the terrorist attack.
In an op-ed piece last month in the Tribune, Fardon recounted how at the age of 46 he had expected this to be his last marathon but vowed he would return to Boston next year.
“Whether as a runner or as a spectator, I am all in for Boston 2014,” he wrote.
With his nomination still to be confirmed, Fardon had little to say Thursday, calling his selection an honor.
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In lauding Fardon’s selection, Illinois U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk highlighted the need for the U.S. attorney’s office to go after street gangs and gun violence in Chicago.
Friends say he has no future political ambitions and will continue the nonpolitical tradition of the U.S. attorney’s office. Even in his private law practice, he has avoided politics, they said. He had never made a campaign contribution until David Hoffman, a friend and former colleague, sought the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010.
Hoffman, Chicago’s former inspector general, recalled being unsure about how Fardon would respond when Hoffman made the call seeking the contribution. The two had worked together in the U.S. attorney’s office.
“I do remember the phone call,” Hoffman said. “Zach said, ‘I’ve never given to a candidate before.’ He made the contribution.”
Records show that Fardon, who gave a $2,000 donation to Hoffman, has not contributed to another political candidate since.
Born in Kansas City, Mo., Fardon was the youngest of four children growing up in Knoxville, Tenn. His parents moved to Chicago in recent years largely to be closer to their grandchildren. His father, David, is a well-known orthopedic surgeon at Rush University Medical Center and his mother, Judy, is a retired elementary school English teacher.
Fardon graduated with a degree in German and political science from Vanderbilt University in Nashville and then stayed on campus to attend law school, where he met his wife, Rachel, a lawyer who currently is a stay-at-home mother for their two sons and a daughter.
After graduating from law school in 1992, Fardon went to work for the Washington law firm of King & Spalding, assisting Griffin Bell, a former attorney general under President Jimmy Carter, while handling white-collar criminal defense and corporate investigations.
He moved back to Nashville in 1996 and worked as a state public defender, representing criminal suspects too poor to pay for a lawyer.
A year later he became a federal prosecutor in Chicago, eventually joining the team involved in the Operation Safe Road probe, the licenses-for-bribes scandal that culminated in Ryan’s conviction.
By 2002, Fardon was lured back to Nashville to become the top assistant to then-U.S. Attorney Jim Vines. The two had met while working at King & Spalding. Vines said Fardon came highly recommended.
But it turned out to be a controversial time for the Nashville office, as Vines and another supervisor were accused in an age discrimination lawsuit alleging bias against older prosecutors. A former federal prosecutor complained that Vines forced him out of the job in a concerted effort to replace experienced prosecutors with younger attorneys. Fardon answered questions in a deposition before the suit was settled.
Michael Roden, an assistant U.S. attorney who did not bring the suit, told the Tribune that he was at a meeting in which Fardon told managers that he did not want younger lawyers teaming up on trials with older prosecutors. Roden recalled that Fardon said he did not want them “picking up any bad habits.”
“It offended me,” Roden said. “I knew he was talking about my colleagues who had even more seniority than me. It was the assumption they were lazy, dead weight. I saw them as litigators with experience.”
But Vines denied that Fardon made the remark and called Roden’s account “flat-out wrong.” He said Fardon did not have anything to do with the alleged age discrimination, insisting he “was caught in the drive-by.”
While the first assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville, Fardon oversaw about 35 prosecutors and led a public corruption investigation into a friend of former Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist.
“He’s methodical. He’s gifted at what he does,” Vines said. “He’s a natural.”
In 2005, with Ryan scheduled to go on trial for corruption, the Nashville office lent Fardon back to Chicago. During the marathon trial, Fardon played a critical role, handling about 20 government witnesses and delivering an opening statement that helped set the tone for the six-month battle.
Patrick Collins, the lead prosecutor on the Ryan investigation, had asked Fardon to help at the trial because of his past work on the case and his courtroom talents.
“Zach gave the opening (statement) without notes,” Collins said. “I think it’s rare to do a 45-minute opening without any notes. He was incredibly effective, striking the right level of detail, the right level of passion.”
During the trial’s tense moments, Collins said, his own blood pressure rose, but Fardon kept his emotions in check. Collins called him a “calming influence” but said courtroom foes should not get the wrong idea.
“One should not mistake his gentlemanly way with an understated passion,” Collins said. “He can turn it up when it’s warranted.”
On weekdays during the trial, Fardon stayed at the Chicago home of Sean Berkowitz, then an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago who was living in Houston while leading the prosecution into the Enron corporate scandal. Fardon traveled to Nashville on weekends to be with his family.
It was Berkowitz who later joined Latham & Watkins and recruited Fardon to the international firm in November 2006.
“He’s a guy you like to have a beer with,” Berkowitz said. “More importantly, he’s a guy you want on your side in the courtroom.”
In addition to supervising the firm’s Chicago litigation department, Fardon has specialized in internal investigations and white-collar defense as well as advising businesses on anti-corruption practices.
He represented John Wyma, one of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s closest confidants whose cooperation with federal authorities led to secret recordings that ultimately brought down Blagojevich and other top aides. Wyma was never charged with wrongdoing.
Fardon also led a 2012 investigation into the University of Michigan’s failure to immediately report that it found child pornography on a pediatric resident’s computer. The University of Illinois hired him in the wake of an admissions scandal.
He also represented the Northbrook family of Elizabeth “Lizzy” Seeberg, who killed herself days after accusing a Notre Dame football player of sexually attacking her. After at least one Chicago law firm passed up the opportunity, Fardon took up Seeberg’s cause for free, pressing Notre Dame to live up to its values when it refused to answer whether the football player had ever been disciplined.
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“In the end we could not have asked for a better advocate than Zach,” Seeberg’s father, Tom, said recently. “He understood and executed our mission well — to seek the truth, whatever it was.”
Berkowitz said the battle with Notre Dame was not a popular case for a Chicago lawyer to take given the school’s powerful alumni and illustrated Fardon’s commitment to his clients.
“When Zach represents a client, he will do everything within his ability and the law to zealously represent them,” Berkowitz said. “He will take that same passion to the U.S. attorney’s office.”
Twitter @tlighty