THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                 PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES JOHN O'LEARY 
              AS U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE

The President today announced his intent to nominate John O'Leary to be U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Chile.

Mr. John O'Leary, of Portland, Maine, is a partner at the law firm of Pierce Atwood. Throughout his twenty-four years of legal experience, Mr. O'Leary's areas of concentration have included environmental, trade practice, public utility and corporate litigation. Mr. O'Leary currently serves on the governing councils of the American Bar Association's Section of Litigation and Section on Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law. In 1996, he was appointed by the American Bar Association's president to serve as chair of the Standing Committee on Environmental Law. Mr. O'Leary's professional experience with respect to Inter-American issues has included working with the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission on a Venezuelan matter, serving on a three member United States team that assisted the President and the Government of Bolivia in sustainable development matters, and leading the natural resources and environmental protection committee of the Inter-American Bar Association, including Inter-American Bar Association activities in Chile and elsewhere in the Americas. In March 1997, he organized and chaired a major conference in Argentina on "Development, the Environment, and Dispute Resolution in the Americas," the first such American Bar Association conference ever convened in South America.

Born January 16, 1947, Mr. O'Leary is a lifelong resident of Portland, Maine. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale College in 1969, was a Mellon Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge University, from 1969 to 1971. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1974.

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