James M. Beck

James Montgomery Beck ( born July 9, 1861 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † April 12, 1936 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician, lawyer and United States Solicitor General.

Biography

After visiting the Moravian College in Bethlehem in 1880, he received in 1884 admitted as a lawyer in the state of Pennsylvania and was subsequently 1885-1898 Partner in the law firm Harrity & Beck. Beck was first a member of the Democratic Party. He was appointed in 1888 to Assistant District Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and held this office until 1892. Between 1896 and 1900 he was even then Federal Attorney for this District (Eastern District of Pennsylvania).

After joining the Republican Party in 1900, he was an employee in the Ministry of Justice of the United States and was there until 1903 Assistant to the Attorney General. After his retirement from government service he became a lawyer in the law firm Shearman & Sterlin one, a big law firm today with more than 1,000 lawyers and is based in New York City.

In June 1921 James M. Beck was appointed by U.S. President Warren G. Harding to the Solicitor General. He held the third-highest official in the U.S. Justice Department until June 1925. During this time, his portrait appeared as the cover story of Time magazine on May 5, 1923. Moreover, he published in 1924 a book on the Constitution of the United States, entitled The Constitution of the in United States.

In 1927 he was elected as representative of the Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives and represented there from 8 November 1927 until his resignation on September 30, 1934 the first or last the second electoral district of the state of Pennsylvania.