Legal Career
After being honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1959, Lee returned to Louisiana to manage his father's restaurant, The House of Lee. Lee was elected president of the New Orleans Chapter of the Louisiana Restaurant Association in 1964. His leadership was instrumental in the peaceful racial integration of New Orleans restaurants, in compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
At this time, he also attended Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, where he was elected president of the student chapter of the Bar Association. Lee graduated in 1967 and started a small law practice in Gretna with Loyola classmate Marion Edwards (not to be confused with the brother of future Governor Edwin Washington Edwards - whom Lee was a very avid supporter of - who shares the same name).
Lee was appointed as a magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 1971. He was elected President of the National Council of United States Magistrates in 1973. He was invited to join the congressional delegation to the People's Republic of China in 1972, which was led by House Majority Leader Hale Boggs from Louisiana, and House Minority Leader and future U.S. President Gerald Ford. He resigned as a Federal Magistrate in 1975 and was appointed Parish Attorney for Jefferson Parish.
Read more about this topic: Harry Lee (sheriff)
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