Mike Lee Becomes Youngest Elected Member in U.S. Senate

A ‘97 BYU Law School graduate, Senator-elect Mike Lee, R-Utah, became on November 2, 2010 the youngest member of the U.S. Senate and Utah’s first new Senator in 18 years.

Senator-elect Lee, who is one of the Tea Party movement’s first success stories, ran on a platform boasting a commitment to restoring Constitutional government to Washington.

“Brigham Young University’s J. Rueben Clark Law School provided me with a unique and thoroughly enjoyable learning experience,” Senator-elect Lee said. “My law school experience—and in particular, the insight I acquired while studying under great constitutional scholars like Richard Wilkins, Fred Gedicks, Stuart Kadison, Von Keetch, Kevin Worthen, and Lynn Wardle—has helped me recognize the need to keep the government from overstepping its boundaries. That insight will prove especially valuable to me while serving in the U.S. Senate.”

After graduating from law school, Senator-elect Lee served as a law clerk to Judge Dee Benson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. He then clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., who was serving at that time as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Court in Newark, New Jersey.

Upon completing his second clerkship, Senator-elect Lee joined the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley & Austin, where he specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation. Several years later, he returned to Utah to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Salt Lake City. Senator-elect Lee served as Governor Huntsman's General Counsel from January 2005 until June 2006, when he returned to Washington for a one-year clerkship with Justice Alito at the U.S. Supreme Court.

“As a friend and co-worker of Mike's during law school and BYU's student government, I always expected to see Mike active in politics,” said Amanda Bourne, a ‘97 Law School graduate. “I am thrilled for Mike and Sharon that Mike will have the opportunity to make significant political impacts so early in his life and career. Mike is an honest, thoughtful man with a heart set on doing good who works to surround himself with other honest, capable people. I am grateful to have a man of his integrity in Washington.”

Posted: November 10, 2010