Scott Lassar, who was sworn in Wednesday as interim U.S. attorney in Chicago, is described by colleagues as a man of keen judgment, accessibility and dry wit.
When he returned to the office after a recent vacation, he greeted U.S. Atty. Jim Burns, long rumored to be leaving to make a run for governor, with: “Aren’t you gone yet?”
Lassar left private practice almost four years ago to join Burns, a longtime friend, as his top assistant.
After Burns stepped down Wednesday, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno appointed Lassar, 47, to fill the post until a permanent replacement can be selected. The appointment could last four or more months.
It isn’t the first time Lassar has been picked for an important assignment. In 1970, he and some college buddies were plucked from a crowd walking to a Vietnam War protest in Washington, D.C., and asked if they wanted to meet with an adviser to then-President Richard Nixon.
Moments later, they were seated in the Executive Office Building, next to the White House, chatting with Charles Colson, a top presidential aide who later became an infamous Watergate figure. Colson was supposed to get the pulse of the students, but it soon turned into a debate, Lassar remembered of his Forrest Gump-like moment.
After graduating from Northwestern University School of Law in 1975, Lassar, who grew up in Evanston, joined the U.S. attorney’s office. In 11 years there, he rose to deputy chief of the office’s public corruption unit and was one of the original prosecutors in the Operation Greylord probe.
He next spent eight years in private practice at the Chicago law firm of Keck, Mahin & Cate, specializing in commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense.
When Burns, also a partner at Keck, Mahin & Cate, was appointed U.S. attorney in November 1993, he brought along Lassar as his first assistant. Lassar played a key role in reorganizing the office in the aftermath of allegations of misconduct in the El Rukn prosecution and supervised the Operation Silver Shovel public corruption probe on a day-to-day basis during its undercover phase.
Lassar said he will throw his hat into what is expected to be a crowded ring of candidates for the permanent post as U.S. attorney.
Burns said, “He is so steady. His judgment is excellent. He is very well-liked by the staff.’
Even if he doesn’t get the permanent nod, Lassar intends to remain in the office until he finishes the prosecution of three Archer Daniels Midland Co. executives on charges they led a worldwide scheme to fix prices. That trial is scheduled for May.
