William Landers; Held Many Federal Legal Posts
William Joseph Landers, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Appellate Division of the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, a former chief of the Criminal Complaints section of the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles and onetime associate White House counsel, died Monday in Washington.
He was 40 and a family spokesman and former colleague said he died of the complications of AIDS.
Landers was an honors graduate of Loyola Law School, where he later taught, and editor of the Loyola Law Review before he entered private practice with the local law firm of Parker, Milliken, Clark O’Hara & Samuelian. Later he was deputy city attorney for Los Angeles. He also had worked in Washington as special counsel to the deputy associate attorney general and from 1989 to 1991 was chief of the public corruption division of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington.
Survivors include his parents, Charles and Nelda Landers, two sisters and a brother.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 Tuesday at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa.
Contributions are asked to a scholarship fund in his name at Loyola Law School, 1441 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles 90015.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
