Andrew Zajac

Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the nearest the feds come to a celebrity prosecutor, gets the profile treatment in the alumni magazine of his alma mater, Amherst College.

As with nearly all such efforts to draw a portrait of Fitzgerald, most of the information comes from carefully spooned out anecdotes from Fitzgerald himself or from a handful of friends, so there's not a lot new in the piece.

Slightly more revealing is Fitzgerald's speech last May at Amherst's commencement, where he was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree.

(U.S. Att'y Patrick Fitzgerald. Chicago Tribune photo by Candice C. Cusic)

In his 20-minute talk, Fitzgerald, class of '82, invited students to follow their passions, even if they weren't tied to investment banking, lawyering for white shoe firms or other pursuits with six-figure starting salaries.

Fitzgerald said he himself felt compelled to work for a high-paying law firm following his graduation from Harvard Law School, in part to maintain the upward economic trajectory expected in a family headed by working class Irish immigrants.

But he found prosecuting much more rewarding and, yes, fun, so much so that he doesn't view his now 25-year career in it as a sacrifice, Fitzgerald said in his address titled, "What I Did Not Know About Public Service When I Graduated."

Fitzgerald was honored a week and a half before the June 5 sentencing of perhaps his most famous quarry, Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, who was convicted of perjury in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case.

Listen to the speech by clicking here.

(Note the Gallic twist Amherst president Anthony Marx gives Plame's surname, which rhymes with "flame". Somehow, the thousands of recitations of her name on cable TV news evaded his ear and in the intro to Fitzgerald's talk at least, she is Valerie Plah-may.)