Eldridge to serve as Arkadelphia Rotary guest speaker at annual banquet, June 27

The Arkadelphia Rotary Club has announced that U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge will serve as guest speaker at its annual banquet to be held Friday, June 27, 2014, at Western Sizzlin, 106 WP Malone Drive. Rotarians and guests are invited to attend. For more information on the guest speaker, please read his biography below.

CONNER ELDRIDGE serves as United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Conner was appointed by President Barack Obama on September 29, 2010 and confirmed by the United States Senate on December 10, 2010. He was recommended for the U.S. Attorney position by United States Senator Blanche Lincoln and United States Senator Mark Pryor. Conner is currently the youngest United States Attorney in the country. As U.S. Attorney, Conner serves as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Western District of Arkansas. He is responsible for the prosecution of all federal crimes in the District and the litigation of civil matters in which the United States government has an interest. The Western District includes 34 Arkansas counties separated into six divisions: Texarkana, El Dorado, Hot Springs, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, and Harrison. The U.S. Attorney's office is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas and has a satellite office in Texarkana, Arkansas that it shares with the Eastern District of Texas. Under Conner's leadership, the United States Attorney's office has made significant strides in prosecuting a wide variety of federal crimes in all areas of the district, including child pornography offenses, violent crime, large-scale drug trafficking crimes, white collar crime, and many other offenses.

Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Conner served as a Special Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the 9th (East) Judicial District of Arkansas in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. In this capacity, he prosecuted state offenses ranging from attempted murder to misdemeanor offenses. He also served as a federal law clerk to the Honorable G. Thomas Eisele, a Federal District Judge in the Eastern District of Arkansas. Following the clerkship, Conner held several positions at Summit Bank and Summit Bancorp in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. During his last two years at Summit Bank, Conner served as Chief Executive Officer. Earlier in his career, Conner worked as a legislative aide to United States Senator Blanche Lincoln and United States Congressman Marion Berry, both of Arkansas.

Conner is a native of Lonoke and Augusta, Arkansas, where he grew up working on his family's rice, soybean, and wheat farm and in his family's farm equipment dealership. He graduated from Lonoke High School, Davidson College (B.A.) and the University of Arkansas School of Law (J.D.). During law school, Conner was a note and comment editor with the Arkansas Law Review and worked for the Washington County, Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney's office. Conner and his wife Mary Elizabeth have three children, Will, Henry, and Tull.