This month the American Bar Assoication’s (ABA) magazine makes some legal picks for an Obama Administration.  We’re taking a look at the black lawyers featured therein and making a few predictions of our own.  Full list here.

Ronald Noble. Courtesy of Interpol

Ronald K. Noble – Director of the FBI
University of New Hampshire
Stanford University Law School
New York University School of Law (Tenured Professor)
Currently – Secretary General, Interpol

I’ll be honest. I prefer strong, silent types, so seeing this guy cry on 60 Minutes unnerved me.

Never the less, the ABA believes he can fill J. Edgar Hoover’s pumps:

Noble, 51, is a career prosecutor and law enforcement officer whose reputation for integrity and forward thinking has vaulted him to one of the top jobs in international law enforcement. After a stint in the Justice Department, he was tapped as assistant Treasury secretary by Bill Clinton in 1993…

. . . He was elected in 2000 to run Interpol, becoming the first American to head the international police organization headquartered in Lyon, France.

We here at OBABL know inquiring minds are curious about Noble’s ethnicity.  His is a story familiar to military kids the world over. His father was a black US soldier stationed overseas. His mother is German. And for those who ponder, is he black enough, take note of what Noble had to say about his dad’s janitorial side hustle in The New York Times:

“I remember how some people look down at you when you’re the person who cleans the toilets,” Mr. Noble said. ”It’s very different than the way they look at you when you’re the person in power. I’ve remembered that look my entire life. You ask any of the people in this building, the janitors and the staff people, they’ll tell you I treat them just like the bosses.”

And even when you try to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you can run into problems:

Mr. Noble graduated cum laude from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in business, and was the articles editor of the Stanford Law Review. But he found that despite his excellent grades, he could not get a job. So his father took it upon himself to pay a visit to a Federal judge, A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., a noted black legal scholar, at his home.

”He goes to Philadelphia after work and knocks on this person’s door — it’s now after midnight — and says, ‘I have a son who’s willing to work for you for free, who’s going to make your career,’ ” Mr. Noble said. ”He’s a judge who’s on the Third Circuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals, his career has been made. I said: ‘Dad, how could you? You just ruined my life.’ ”

Noble went on to receive the highest evaluation ever given by the legendary judge.  In addition to the language we all throw around, Noble speaks French, German and Spanish. Tears or not, he lives up to his name.

3 Responses to “Obama Posse List (Ronald Noble)”

1. Jimmy Rozorf on January 17th, 2009 4:46 am

   Thanks for the info, works great!

2. Belloza on February 3rd, 2009 7:22 pm

   Love the advice. Thank you.

3. Janice on October 21st, 2009 3:27 pm

   I worked with this man when he was a prosecutor, and also in his position with INTERPOL. There is no one more dedicated, nor has done more for policing internationally than this man. Running the FBI would be a slam dunk for him, especially after running all the law enforcement functions under President Clinton and conducting the controversial WACO investigation with objectivity and accountability.

   And I’m a Republican.

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