About NAAG
John Suthers (R)
Colorado Attorney General
Elected: 2005, 2006
1525 Sherman St. Denver, Colorado 80203
303-866-4500
http://www.ago.state.co.us/index.cfm
On January 4, 2005, John W. Suthers was appointed as Colorado’s 37th Attorney General. In November of the next year, the voters of Colorado elected Attorney General Suthers by a large margin to serve a full, four-year term. As Attorney General, Suthers is charged with representing and defending the interests of the People of the State of Colorado, and serves as chief legal counsel and advisor to state government and its many state agencies, boards, and commissions.
Attorney General Suthers graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in government in 1974, and from the University of Colorado Law School in 1977. From 1977 to 1981, he served as a deputy and chief deputy district attorney in Colorado Springs. From September of 1979 to January of 1981, he headed the Economic Crime Division of the DA’s office and co-authored a nationally published book on consumer fraud and white-collar crime.
In January of 1981, Mr. Suthers entered private practice as a litigation partner in Colorado Springs firm of Sparks Dix, P.C. He remained with the firm until November of 1988, when he defeated an incumbent candidate to be elected district attorney of the 4th Judicial District. He was elected to a second term as district attorney in November of 1992. At the conclusion of his second term in 1997, he returned to Sparks Dix, P.C. as Senior Counsel in charge of the firm’s litigation section.
Mr. Suthers was appointed executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections by Governor Bill Owens in 1999. As head of the state’s correctional system, he oversaw an organization with almost 6,000 employees and an annual operating budget of approximately $500 million. On July 30, 2001, Mr. Suthers was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and represented the United States in all criminal and civil matters within the District.
Mr. Suthers has served on the board of numerous civic organizations. He served as president of the El Paso County Bar Association in 1990-91, president of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council in 1994-95, and senior vice president of the Colorado Bar Association in 1996-97. In 1992, Suthers was appointed by the Colorado legislature to serve as a delegate to the National Conference on Uniform State Laws, serving as such until January of 1997. In the summer of 2000, Mr. Suthers received a Gates Foundation Fellowship to attend the Government Executives Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
In his tenure as Attorney General, Mr. Suthers has initiated successful programs to protect children from Internet predators and to fight mortgage and foreclosure fraud. He serves as co-chair of the National Association of Attorneys General Criminal Law Committee and as a member of the U.S. Attorney General’s Executive Working Group.
John and his wife, Janet, have been happily married for more than 30 years and have two daughters, Alison, a recent graduate of Georgetown University Law School, and Kate, a junior Lieutenant in the United States Navy.
