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Ex-Southern Illinois U.S. Attorney Headed Back To Private Sector

By Andrew Ramonas

The former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois returned to private practice, The Southern reported Monday.

A. Courtney Cox (Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard P.C)

A. Courtney Cox, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney Friday, joined Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard P.C., where he will handle business and employment law as a shareholder in its Carbondale, Ill., office. He previously worked as a private practice attorney in Benton, Ill., before becoming a court-appointed U.S. Attorney in November 2007. Stephen Wigginton was sworn in as a presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney on Friday.

“I practiced law 25 years before I became U.S. Attorney and I always enjoyed representing clients,” Cox told the newspaper. “I’m looking forward to getting back to it.”

Cox said he learned a lot as U.S. Attorney, especially the drug and child exploitation problems facing his district. He said child exploitation is “an epidemic.”

“When I became U.S. Attorney, I was naive about child exploitation,” Cox told The Southern. “I very quickly learned of the magnitude of the problem of child pornography and exploitation. It has changed the way I look at the Internet and how I view people in general.”

The former U.S. Attorney said he was initially skeptical about becoming U.S. Attorney because of the more than 90-minute commute from his home in Benton to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Fairview Heights, Ill. But Cox said he knew the job was important.

“I talked to my wife, who said, ?Your brother, Jon, is going to Afghanistan to serve the country. I think you can drive to Fairview Heights,’” he told the newspaper. “So I accepted.”

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 30, 2010 (boomark / email).