Gurulé, Jimmy: 1951—: Prosecutor, Law Professor

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Jimmy Gurulé: 1951—: Prosecutor, law professor

In the field of criminal law there is no one more renowned than Jimmy Gurulé. During his more than 20 years as a law professional, Gurulé has earned a reputation as a crusader for justice—a man who goes full-tilt in his efforts to use the law as a means to help those victimized by society. Gurulé first gained prominence in the late 1980s as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles when he successfully brought down a Mexican drug ring. A solid, driven prosecutor, Gurulé was called up to Washington, D.C., in 1990 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush to serve as assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, the first Hispanic to hold that post. Gurulé went on to become the Department of the Treasury's undersecretary for enforcement in 2001. In this capacity, he was the highest-ranking Hispanic law-enforcement official in the country. After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Gurulé went to work untangling the web of terrorist finances and has helped freeze more than $125 million in assets. He has since returned to Notre Dame to teach criminal law and pass his knowledge on to others. Now, Gurulé serves as an expert, a teacher, and a role model to other Hispanic Americans.

Michael Olivas, a University of Houston Law Center professor and friend of Gurulé's, told U.S. News & World Report that Gurulé has always worked hard to bolster the image of the Hispanic-American and believes in always being the best no matter what he is doing. "He was always the first. That meant always realizing he was a role model and had to be better than everyone else around him. And he usually is."

Heavily Influenced by Maternal Role Models

Gurulé (pronounced gur-ooh-LAY) was born June 14, 1951, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Rita (Cabrera) and George Gurulé. His father was from New Mexico, where the Gurulé bloodline could be traced back 300 years. The Gurulés were one of the original families to settle the areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gurulé's parents divorced when he was young, and he grew up splitting his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, where his father lived, and Salt Lake City, Utah, where his mother's family lived. To make ends meet, Gurulé's mother worked two jobs. Though she spent her days at a telephone company and her nights working as a waitress, she dedicated her free time to her son and became a driving influence in Gurulé's life. Neither of Gurulé's parents graduated from high school, but they recognized the merits of an education and believed that hard work would take you places. "My mother was a strong force in my life," Gurulé said in an interview with Contemporary Hispanic Biography (CHB). "She always stressed to me that you could accomplish great things if you worked hard."

At a Glance . . .

Born Jimmy Gurulé on June 14, 1951, in Salt Lake City, UT; married in November 1980; three children. Education: University of Utah, BA, 1974; University of Utah College of Law, JD, 1980.

Career: Salt Lake County, UT, prosecutor's office, deputy attorney, 1983-85; U.S. Attorney's Office, Los Angeles, major narcotics division, federal prosecutor and deputy chief, 1985-89; Notre Dame Law School, professor, 1989-90, 1992-01, 2003–; Department of Justice, assistant attorney general, 1990-92; Department of the Treasury, undersecretary for enforcement, 2001-03.

Memberships: Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy editorial advisory board, 1996–; Notre Dame Latino Studies Program advisory board, 1987–; LEXIS-NEXIS Advisory Board for Criminal Justice Publications, 1998–; National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition advisory board, 1990–.

Awards: Drug Enforcement Administration's Administrator's Award; Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award; Edmund J. Randolph Award for service to the U.S. Department of Justice, 1991; Hispanic National Bar Association President's Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Hispanic American Community and Legal Profession, 1993; Treasury Medal, Department of the Treasury.

Address: Office— 212 Law School, PO Box R, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

In 1969 Gurulé graduated from Murray High School in Murray, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, and entered the University of Utah, earning a bachelor's degree in 1974. Next, he enrolled in law school. Gurulé recalled that he wanted to study law because he had an idealistic notion—which he still possesses today—that lawyers are the instruments of justice in our society. Back then, Gurulé saw lawyers as the "crusaders" who would help those victimized by crime, society, the government, or large corporations. He told CHB, "I believed then that a training in the law and an understanding of the law would provide me with the training and tools needed to advocate and defend the rights of the disadvantaged—the victims of society."

But before he could advocate for others, Gurulé had to learn to advocate for himself. As one of only two Hispanics in his class at the University of Utah College of Law, Gurulé felt like an outsider. Whenever he was down, his grandmother, Frances "Pancha" Yanez-Gonzalez, pulled him back up. Growing up, Gurulé spent a great deal of time under Pancha's care. She spoke to him in Spanish and instilled in him an appreciation for his culture as a Latino. Pancha spent her life as a migrant worker, picking sugar beets in fields across Utah and Idaho. In the Hispanic district in Salt Lake City where she lived, her home served as the social center of the neighborhood. Gurulé remembered that his grandmother's kitchen was always filled with neighbors sitting around, seeking advice and help. From his grandmother, Gurulé learned the virtues of helping others.

As Gurulé told Notre Dame Magazine, "She was a saint, one of the wisest people I ever met, wiser certainly than the vast majority of judges I've appeared before. …she's the most upbeat person I've ever known, someone who had very little material wealth but who was determined to always, always leave you feeling upbeat and positive whenever you went for a visit." Whenever Gurulé expressed doubt or frustration, Pancha invited him over and after a session of coffee and counseling, he would leave feeling better, "like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders."

Developed an Interest in Criminal Law

Following his second year of law school, Gurulé worked a summer internship at the Salt Lake County prosecutor's office and developed a passion for criminal law. While working in the prosecutor's office, Gurulé got to see firsthand how crime victims struggled to overcome their wounds. The victims came to be interviewed by prosecutors who were trying to figure out what charges could be filed. One day, Gurulé spoke with a woman who had been battered by her live-in boyfriend. As he listened to the painful retelling of her story, Gurulé noted her broken nose and arm and felt a tug in his own heart toward helping victims of crime. "I was very touched that here was a criminal justice system available to her irrespective of her economic status—a justice system that would address the wrongs that had been done to her," he told CHB. At that moment, Gurulé came to realize that criminal law would allow him to impact people's lives in a positive way daily.

After earning his law degree in 1980, Gurulé became a member of the Utah bar and headed to Washington, D.C., to work for the Department of Justice as part of an honors program. The prestigious program was the only way attorneys could join the justice department right out of law school. Gurulé was one of about 1,000 applicants for the 12 slots awarded in the program. Along the way he married, in November of 1980, and in 1982 returned to Salt Lake City where he joined the narcotics division of the Salt Lake County prosecutor's office.

In 1985 Gurulé moved to California to work as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, which, at the time, was the second-largest U.S. Attorney's Office in the United States. Again, Gurulé worked in the narcotics division, and his high-octane drive propelled him upward. Soon, Gurulé was promoted to deputy chief of the major narcotics division. In the late 1980s Gurulé gained prominence during a complex and sensitive three-year investigation of a Mexican drug ring suspected of torturing and killing Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. After months of daily battle in the courtroom, lead prosecutor Gurulé secured convictions of three men involved in the murder. For his service, Gurulé earned the DEA Administrator's Award, the highest award conferred by the DEA, as well as the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award. Soon after, Gurulé, looking for a change of pace, accepted an offer to teach at Notre Dame. He joined the faculty in 1989.

Worked High-Profile Jobs in Washington

In 1990 Gurulé was nominated to become assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice by then-President George Herbert Walker Bush. Gurulé became the first Hispanic to serve in that position, and his grandmother was so proud that she flew to Washington, D.C., for his swearing-in ceremony. Not only was Pancha proud that her grandson had become the first Hispanic to serve in that capacity, she was aware of the broader consequences his success had for the Hispanic community as a whole.

Gurulé stayed in Washington for two years, returning to Notre Dame in 1992 when President Bill Clinton took over and made his own appointments. In 2000 Gurulé joined a criminal advisory committee for then-presidential candidate George W. Bush. Gurulé helped the Bush campaign by developing position papers and giving Bush advice on criminal justice issues. Later, after Bush won the presidency, he nominated Gurulé to become undersecretary for enforcement in the Department of the Treasury. Gurulé was sworn in on August 7, 2001, and became the highest-ranking Hispanic in U.S. law enforcement. As undersecretary for enforcement, Gurulé oversaw about 30,000 employees within the Secret Service, the U.S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and worked with a budget of around $5 billion.

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Gurulé was called in to help fight the war on terrorism. His job was to figure out where the terrorists got their money and use the information to develop a strategy to cut off terrorist financing to deter future attacks. Gurulé worked tirelessly to get U.S. allies to freeze accounts in foreign banks worldwide. In the 12 months following 9/11, Gurulé visited 15 countries, some multiple times. After 18 months on the job, Gurulé resigned as undersecretary and returned to Notre Dame in 2003. Part of the reason he left was because Congress created the new Department of Homeland Security, which took away some of his responsibilities and gave them to department director Tom Ridge. When he left, Gurulé was awarded the Treasury Medal, one of the department's highest honors, for his role in helping the government implement new policies to choke off terrorist funding.

At Notre Dame, Gurulé serves as the faculty advisor to the Hispanic Law Students Association. He urges Hispanics to set for themselves the objective of accomplishing something great in their lifetimes. He told CHB that he urges his students to do as he has, "Set high expectations for yourself—If you set high expectations for yourself and come up short, you will still come up with something significant, rather than settling for the middle of the road."

Selected works

Articles

"The Ancient Roots of Modern Forfeiture Law," Notre Dame Journal of Legislation, 1995.

"The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986: Creating a New Federal Offense or Merely Affording Federal Prosecutors an Alternative Means of Punishing Specified Unlawful Activity?" American Criminal Law Review, 1995.

"Terrorism, Territorial Sovereignty, and the Forcible Apprehension of International Criminals Abroad," Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, 1994.

Books

(with S. Guerra) The Law of Asset Forfeiture, Lexis Law Publishing, 1998.

(with M. C. Bassiouni, J. Paust, M. Scharf, S. A. Williams, and B. Zagaris) International Criminal Law: Cases and Materials, Carolina Academic, 1996.

Complex Criminal Litigation: Prosecuting Drug Enterprises and Organized Crime, Michie, 1996.

(with R. J. Goodwin) Criminal and Scientific Evidence: Cases, Materials and Problems, Michie, 1997.