Los Angeles County
Biographies
JAMES MacDERMOTT SHERIDAN
A trial lawyer of national repute and formerly special assistant to the attorney general of the United States, James MacDermott Sheridan is one of the outstanding members of the California bar and since 1925 has practiced continuously in Los Angeles. His legal studies were pursued in George Washington University at Washington, D.C., where he was graduated in 1908 with the LL.B. degree. His legal acumen won public recognition in 1909, when he was appointed trial attorney in charge of the famous Alaskan coal cases, the chief issue at that time between the “conservationists” (Roosevelt, Garfield and Pinchot) and the Taft administration. After a trial lasting about six months, Mr. Sheridan won these cases and all Alaskan coal lands involved were restored to the public domain. Due to this achievement, in 1910 he was appointed chief of the field service, general land office, department of the interior, and directed all public land investigations and litigation throughout the United States and Alaska made by the general land office from headquarters at Washington, D.C. In 1912, at the suggestion of President Taft, Mr. Sheridan was appointed special assistant to the attorney general of the United States, and was assigned to the trial of numerous cases involving oil, mineral, water, timber, etc., in the states of Arizona, California and Utah, with headquarters at Los Angeles. Here he has maintained his home ever since, save during the World war, when he was in Washington, D.C. Tendering his resignation as special assistant to the attorney general in 1915, he opened a law office in Los Angeles and engaged in general practice in this city until December, 1917, when he returned to Washington, where he was retained by the Roxana Petroleum Corporation (a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch-Shell Group) as their Washington attorney. In that capacity he acted until 1921, when he entered upon the general practice of law in Washington, and so continued for four years, resuming his professional activities at Los Angeles in 1925. While practicing in Washington he gave his attention to Latin-American litigation, in which he still specializes, giving to his clients expert legal advice, and maintains offices in the Chamber of Commerce building. He is licensed to practice in all the courts of California, the supreme court of the United States, and the supreme court of the District of Columbia. His professional affiliations are with the California Bar Association, the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and the American Bar Association.
Mr. Sheridan’s notable foreign service had its inception in 1910, when he went to Europe on a special assignment for the government. At the request of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, he was appointed honorary consul of Venezuela, June 26, 1916; honorary consul of Panama, June 2, 1916; honorary vice consul of Argentina, October 19, 1916, and honorary vice consul of Colombia, November 27, 1917, all of which posts he resigned on his return to Washington in 1917. Since February 26, 1927, he has been honorary vice consul of Brazil for California, having been appointed at the request of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. An accomplished linguist, he speaks and writes Spanish with the fluency and ease of a native, and is president of the Spanish-American Cultural Association of Los Angeles. In 1931 the University of Southern California conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Foreign Service in recognition of his achievements in that field.
There is also an important military chapter in the life record of Mr. Sheridan. At Denver in May, 1898, he enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war, joining the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers. He was on duty in Manila during the siege, also aided in quelling the Philippine insurrection, and was honorably discharged in July, 1899. Remaining in the Philippines when his regiment returned home, he served with Major John J. Pershing in a civil capacity at Mindanao, and was transferred to Washington by Hon. William H. Taft when he was appointed secretary of war in President Roosevelt’s cabinet in 1904. Mr. Sheridan sought enlistment in the World war but was refused. He is prominent in the affairs of the United Spanish War Veterans as judge advocate of the department of California.
In 1911 Mr. Sheridan was united in marriage to Miss Edna Thomas, the eldest daughter of Joseph Burns Thomas, of Washington, D.C., and their hospitable home in Los Angeles is a center of the social life of the city.
Transcribed 3-8-12
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. II, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
153-155, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPIES