William Mitchell served as U.S. attorney general from 1929 to 1933 under President Herbert Hoover. A distinguished private attorney, Mitchell also served as U.S. solicitor general. Unlike many other attorneys general, Mitchell never ran for political office nor was he of the same political party as Hoover.

Mitchell was born on September 9, 1874 in Winona, Minnesota. He attended Yale University for two years before transferring to the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated in 1895. The following year he earned his bachelor of laws degree from the university and then was admitted to the Minnesota bar. Mitchell then joined a St. Paul, Minnesota law firm.

In 1898 Mitchell enlisted in the Army, serving as a military lawyer during the Spanish-American War. Upon his return to Minnesota, Mitchell started a small law firm with his father, a distinguished judge who had just lost his seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court in...