William French Smith served as U.S. attorney general from 1981 to 1985 under President Ronald Reagan. Smith's tenure was marked by a sharp break with previous administrations' enforcement of civil rights laws. Moreover, Smith lobbied for tougher federal criminal laws and for restrictions on the release of federal defendants before trial.

Smith was born on August 26, 1917 in Wilton, New Hampshire. After graduating from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1939, Smith attended Harvard Law School. Following his 1942 graduation he entered the Naval Reserve and served for the remainder of World War II. In 1946 Smith joined one of most powerful corporate law firms in Los Angeles and carved out a specialty in labor law. In this role he negotiated labor contracts on behalf of many large U.S. corporations. He enjoyed a reputation as a tough but flexible negotiator.

Smith became more political during the 1960s. A conservative and...