Richard Cordray - Early Life, Education, and Early Law Career

Early Life, Education, and Early Law Career

Cordray was raised in Grove City, Ohio, where he attended public schools. While attending Grove City High School, Cordray became a champion on the high school quiz show In The Know and worked for minimum wage at McDonald's. He graduated from high school in 1977 as co-valedictorian of his class. His first job in politics was as an intern for United States Senator John Glenn as a junior at Michigan State University's James Madison College. Cordray earned Phi Beta Kappa honors and graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Legal & Political Theory in 1981. As a Marshall Scholar, he earned an MA with first class honours in Economics from the University of Oxford and earned a Varsity Blue in basketball in 1983. At the University of Chicago Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor with honors in 1986, he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review. After starting work as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, he came back to his high school to deliver the commencement speech for the graduating class in 1988.

Cordray began his career clerking for Judge Robert Bork and Supreme Court associate justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. After clerking for White in 1987–1988, he was hired by the international law firm Jones Day to work in its Cleveland office.