Stephen H. Sachs is a former Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

 politician and former Attorney General of Maryland

Attorney General of Maryland

The Attorney General of Maryland is the chief legal officer of the State of Maryland in the United States and is elected by the people every four years with no term limits...

.

Background

Sachs was born in Baltimore City, the son of Shirley (née

Married and maiden names

A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Blum) and Leon Sachs. He is Jewish. Sachs was educated at Haverford College

Haverford College

Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...

 (B.A.) and Yale Law School

Yale Law School

Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

 (LL.B.). He was admitted to the bar in 1960.

Career

Sachs served as Assistant US Attorney (Maryland) from 1961 to 1964.
He was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Maryland in 1967, serving until 1970.
He prosecuted the Catonsville Nine

Catonsville Nine

The Catonsville Nine were nine Catholic activists who burned draft files to protest the Vietnam War. On May 17, 1968 they went to the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, took 378 draft files, brought them to the parking lot in wire baskets, dumped them out, poured homemade napalm over them, and...

 in 1968.

Sachs returned to private practice in 1970.
During Watergate Sachs represented former Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray

L. Patrick Gray

Louis Patrick Gray III was acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from May 2, 1972 to April 27, 1973. During this time, the FBI was in charge of the initial investigation into the burglaries that sparked the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President...

.

Sachs was elected the 40th Attorney General of Maryland

Attorney General of Maryland

The Attorney General of Maryland is the chief legal officer of the State of Maryland in the United States and is elected by the people every four years with no term limits...

 in 1978
and was reelected in 1982.
He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 1986 Maryland Democratic

Maryland Democratic Party

The Maryland Democratic Party is the state affiliate of the United States Democratic Party in the U.S. State of Maryland, headquartered in Annapolis. The current state party chair is Yvette Lewis.-History:...

 gubernatorial primary
with Parren Mitchell

Parren Mitchell

Parren James Mitchell , a Democrat, was a U.S. Congressman who represented the 7th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1971 to January 3, 1987. He was the first African-American elected to Congress from Maryland....

 as his running mate,
losing to eventual general election winner William Donald Schaefer

William Donald Schaefer

William Donald Schaefer was an American politician who served in public office for 50 years at both the state and local level in Maryland. A Democrat, he was mayor of Baltimore from 1971 to 1987, the 58th Governor of Maryland from January 21, 1987 to January 18, 1995, and the Comptroller of...

.

Sachs was a partner in the firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, which also goes by the shorter market name WilmerHale, is an American law firm with twelve offices across the USA, Europe and Asia. It was created in 2004 through the merger of the Boston-based firm Hale and Dorr and the Washington-based firm Wilmer Cutler...

 (aka WilmerHale) from 1987 until his retirement in 1999.
In 1989 and 1990 Sachs represented Dr. Elizabeth Morgan in a well-publicized international child custody case.

In 1999 Sachs was an attorney representing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt

Bruce Babbitt

Bruce Edward Babbitt , a Democrat, served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as the 16th governor of Arizona, from 1978 to 1987.-Biography:...

 in the investigation of allegations that Babbitt lied to Congress

Wampumgate

Wampumgate is the name for the controversy around the July 14, 1995 rejection of an Indian gambling project by three impoverished Chippewa Indian tribes who hoped to establish a casino in Hudson, Wisconsin, located just outside the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul...

.

In 2008, Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed Sachs to head an independent review of Maryland State Police

Maryland State Police

The Maryland State Police is the official state police force of the state of Maryland. The Maryland State Police is headquartered at 1201 Reisterstown Road in the Pikesville CDP in unincorporated Baltimore County.-Organizational structure:...

infiltration of activist groups that were acting lawfully.