William H. Lash III

William Henry Lash III was a Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law and a former assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Commerce. 


 * Advisory Board, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow

Profiles
"William H. Lash III, 45, was an assistant secretary of commerce from 2001 until last year [2005], then returned to teach at George Mason University Law School in Arlington, [VA] where he had begun as a professor in 1994," Tom Jackman and Stephanie McCrummen reported in the Washington Post.

"Lash's résumé was long and quintessential of the Washington elite -- an Ivy League pedigree, high-powered law firms, a presidential appointment, think tanks, boards of directors, guest spots on television news programs, and prestigious university positions, Jackman and McCrummen wrote.

"He had an undergraduate degree from Yale University, a law degree from Harvard University. He clerked for a New Jersey Supreme Court justice. He served as counsel to the chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission during the Reagan years, worked for the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and served on the boards of directors of private and publicly traded corporations. In 1994, he found a place in academia on the GMU law faculty.

"He specialized in the arcana of business law there and earned a reputation as a generous and jovial cigar-smoking colleague, an approachable professor and a sharp-minded and willing debater of ideology," Jackman and McCrummen wrote.

"Lash took a leave from the law school in 2001, when President [George W.] Bush appointed him assistant secretary of commerce for market access and compliance. Among his duties at the Commerce Department, Lash headed a task force on the reconstruction of Iraq, in which he dealt with businesses seeking contracts," Jackman and McCrummen wrote.

Controversy
Early on Friday, July 14, 2006, Lash "killed his 12-year-old son," William H. Lash IV, whom neighbors said was autistic, "after an apparent domestic dispute, the police said."