Mickey Kantor Biography

Mickey Kantor, the former Secretary of Commerce and US Trade Representative is a partner at Mayer Brown LLP, a Chicago-based international law company. Kantor is a global firm that represents businesses in corporate and financial operations. Kantor works out of the firm's Washington, D.C. headquarters. Morgan Stanley has Kantor as a senior advisor. He is a member of the CB Richard Ellis Board of Directors. He is also a member of ING Americas' Advisory Board. He is a member of Fleishman Hillard's International Advisory Board and Oilspace's International Advisory Board. He is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce's Capital Markets Commission and the National Equal Justice Library's Board of Directors. He is a trustee of the International Commercial Diplomacy Project and a member of the Board of Visitors of Georgetown University Law Center. He also serves on the Advisory Council of the John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress. He is also a member of the Annenberg School of Communication's Board of Councilors at the University of Southern California. He is a member of the Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and Drug Strategies, Inc.'s Board of Directors. He has served on the boards of Korea First Bank, Pharmacia Corporation, and Monsanto Company. Kantor serves on the Council for Biotechnology as a senior advisor. He was previously a member of the Federation of Korean Industries' International Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Shanghai Mayor's WTO Advisory Committee. Kantor was awarded the Order of the Southern Cross by the Brazilian government in January 2001. On January 21, 1993, Kantor was appointed to President Clinton's first cabinet as the United States Trade Representative. On foreign trade policy, he was the President's top adviser. Negotiations that resulted in the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”) and its side accords on labor and the environment were among the successful achievements, as was working with Congress to approve NAFTA implementation legislation. He was the principal negotiator for the 117-nation Uruguay Round, which resulted in the world's largest trade agreement, and he hosted three successful APEC summits of leaders from Asia's fastest-growing economies. He also worked with the European Commission to establish the trans-Atlantic business dialogue as part of the Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994, which resulted in the formation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Kantor collaborated with President Clinton on more than 200 trade accords, including an auto and auto parts deal with Japan, as well as bilateral agreements in sectors ranging from textiles to intellectual property protection. On April 12, 1996, Kantor was sworn in as the 31st Secretary of Commerce of the United States. President Clinton's commitment to offering economic opportunity for American workers and companies was carried out by Kantor as Secretary of Commerce. Kantor worked to create new jobs at the Department of Commerce by increasing exports and expanding foreign markets, building a strong civilian technology infrastructure to promote sustainable development, encouraging entrepreneurship, stimulating the economic development of distressed communities across the country, and reporting vital statistical data on a regular basis. Kantor gave the Elihu Root Lecture on "U.S. Trade Negotiations: Lessons Learned; Lessons Applied" at the Council on Foreign Relations in November 1997. Kantor spent 17 years as an attorney with the Los Angeles firm of Manatt, Phelps, Phillips & Kantor. He also worked as a legal services attorney for numerous years. Kantor was a member of the Transitional Board of Directors and the national head of the Clinton/Gore '92 campaign. He has a lengthy history of public service, including serving on the Christopher Commission after the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles. He was on the board of the Legal Services Corporation during the Carter administration. Kantor was a founding member of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps and a board member of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Center for Law in the Public Interest, and the California Commission on Campaign Financing. Mr. Kantor has also served on the American Bar Association's Special Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, the White House Conference on Children, and the National Legal Aid Defender Association as a consultant. The William O. Douglas Award, the Thomas Jefferson Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Center for the Study of the Presidency, the Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award from the Hugh O'Brien Youth Foundation, the Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. Award for Equal Justice, the Frederick A.P. Barnard Award from Barnard College, and the Maynard Toll Award from Barnard College are among the many honors bestowed upon Kantor. Kantor was born on August 7, 1939, in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's degree in 1961. After four years as a naval officer, he went on to Georgetown University Law Center to study law and got his degree in 1968.

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