Wickersham, George Woodward (1858–1936)

US lawyer and cabinet member. A successful New York corporate lawyer, as President William Taft's attorney general (1909–13) he aggressively pursued antitrust indictments and had a major role in shaping the Taft administration's policies. Returning to corporate law, he served as legal adviser to the League of Nations (1924–29). As head of the so-called Wickersham Committee (1929–31), he proposed numerous reforms of the federal judicial system. He also concluded that the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages, should be retained even though it had led to a breakdown in law enforcement; this was so controversial that nothing came of his other suggestions. Wickersham was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.