John P. Schmitz

John Patrick Schmitz (born April 19, 1955) is an American politician who served as White House Deputy Counsel to President George H.W. Bush (1989–1993), and Deputy Counsel to Vice President Bush during the Reagan Administration (1987–1989).[1] Schmitz clerked for Antonin Scalia at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (1983–1984).[2] Fluent in German, Schmitz has worked extensively on German-American issues both in government, and since 1993, in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Berlin. He was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class (Bundesverdienstkreuz).[3]

John P. Schmitz

Education

Schmitz graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University (1976) with a B.A. in Economics and was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He received a M.S. in Economics at the California Institute of Technology (1978). Schmitz was a research fellow to Professors John Ferejohn and Morris Fiorina at the Caltech Environmental Quality Lab. In 1981, he graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was on the Stanford Law Review and was a founding member of the Stanford Foundation for Law and Economic Policy. Schmitz graduated from Georgetown Preparatory School in 1972.

In 1984, Schmitz was awarded a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship in Germany where he worked with Matthias Wissmann in the German Bundestag and the Office of General Counsel, Robert Bosch GmbH.[4]

Government service

While at Georgetown, Schmitz worked for U.S. Congressmen Goodloe E. Byron (1977) and Charles W. Sandman, Jr. (1973–1975). After law school, he worked in the U.S. Justice Department as Special Assistant to William Baxter, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. In 1983-1984, he clerked for Antonin Scalia at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.[2]

Schmitz served as White House Deputy Counsel to US President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993), and earlier as Deputy Counsel to Vice President Bush during the Reagan Administration (1987–1989).[1] Schmitz worked on the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, [5], Forests for the Future Initiative[6], and attended the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. He also worked extensively on regulatory reform and on issues relating to German Reunification.

Schmitz, fluent in German from a young age, has received recognition as a prominent German-American, receiving honors including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (1990) from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, the Officers Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Deutsches Bundesverdienstkreuz First Class), awarded by German President Richard von Weizsaecker (1990), the Distinguished German American of the Year Award (2000) from the United German American Committee,[7] and Robert Bosch Fellow of the Year (2011).

Before joining the Reagan Administration, Schmitz was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler, and Pickering LLP. After the White House, Schmitz joined Mayer Brown LLP (1993–2009) as a partner to help establish its first German office in Berlin, primarily working on issues related to antitrust, media, energy and environment, and being admitted to the Berlin Rechtsanwaltskamer in 1994. Schmitz was a founder and Managing Partner at Schmitz Global Partners LLP, and a Managing Director at Prime Policy Group. He is now the President of Prime Transatlantic.[8]

Schmitz’s career has focused on Transatlantic relations, especially German-American relations. He has worked on international agreements including the 1996 US-German Open Skies Aviation Agreement (superseded by the EU-US Open Skies Agreement), and the 1997 US-EU Heavy Electrical Equipment Procurement Agreement, which resulted in German Procurement Code reform. Schmitz has been a proponent of market-based instruments to address environmental concerns.[9]

Throughout his career, Schmitz has served on numerous boards, including The Atlantic Council, The American Council on Germany, C2ES (formerly The Pew Center on Global Climate Change)[10], Aspen Institute Berlin, IESE, and Friends of Dresden.

Personal life

Schmitz lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife, Joan M. Schmitz (née Manee). The two have five grown children, Mary, Anna, John M., C. Maximilian, and Julia, and two grandsons. In 1995, Schmitz and his family planted a vineyard, Chappelle Charlemagne, in Rappahannock County, Virginia.[11]

Schmitz is the older brother of Joseph E. Schmitz, former Inspector General of the Department of Defense under President George W. Bush, and Mary Kay Letourneau, an American schoolteacher who pleaded guilty in 1997 to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child, who at the time had been her sixth-grade student.

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References
  1. "Bush's Team: The First Choices". January 23, 1989 – via NYTimes.com.
  2. "Antonin Scalia — A Justice in Full". February 29, 2016.
  3. "Schmitz, Simpkins to Join as Managing Directors".
  4. "Thank you to everyone who gave to the RBFAA in 2015!". Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association.
  5. The SO2 Allowance Trading System and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Chan, Stavins, Stowe & Sweeney, Harvard Kennedy School 2012
  6. "George Bush: White House Statement on the Forests for the Future Initiative". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  7. "Distinguished German-Americans". April 18, 2018.
  8. "Bio". www.c2es.org. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  9. Market-Based Environmental Policies, Robert N. Stavins, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, September 22, 1998, available at
  10. "Bio". www.c2es.org. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
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