THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

             PATRICK M. RYAN TO BE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
                 FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

President Clinton today nominated Patrick M. Ryan, 49, to be the United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. Ryan, an Oklahoma native, will succeed Vicki Miles-LaGrange who left the position in November 1994 to become a federal district judge in Oklahoma City. Rozia McKinney-Foster, previously Executive Assistant United States Attorney, has been interim United States Attorney. Mr. Ryan will serve as interim United States Attorney pending his Senate confirmation.

In 1982, Ryan established the law firm of Ryan, Geister & Whaley in Oklahoma City where he served as president/director. Over the past 25 years, his practice has been exclusively as a courtroom litigator. Previous to that, he was with the law firm of Crowe & Dunlevy, where he became a partner in 1978 and a member of their executive committee in 1980.

From 1969 through 1974, Ryan served in the United States Air Force as a judge advocate prosecutor, including two years in Southeast Asia where he was Chief of Military Justice for Clark Air Base and 13th Air Force.

Ryan received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1967 and his juris doctorate degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Law in 1969. He was a member of the Order of the Coif, associate editor of the Oklahoma Law Review and president of Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity.

He has been active in the Oklahoma Bar serving on the Board of Governors of the Oklahoma Bar Association and as President of the Oklahoma County Bar Association.

Along with his activity in the legal community, Ryan chaired the Oklahoma County Bar United Way campaign and currently serves as a trustee for World Neighbors, an Oklahoma City-based charity.

He has been married for 28 years to Barbara Heinen Ryan. They have three children, Michael, 23, Jason, 21, and Megan, 8.

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