Patrick Shea (Utah lawyer)

He has taught courses at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, Kansas State University, and Westminster College. Since his return to Utah in 2001, Shea has been a member of the University of Utah political science department's faculty. Shea was an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University from 2001 to 2009. Shea was a fellowship adviser to honors program at Westminster College, Salt Lake City in collaboration with 'The Living Arts Experience: A Seminar in Liberal Ideals'.

In 1997 and 1998, Shea served as the director of the Bureau of Land Management. He served as the director of the Bureau of Land Management and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management under President Clinton.

Shea served as a commissioner on the Gore Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which investigated the TWA Flight 800, in 1996 and 1997.

Shea became chair of Utah Democratic Party in 1983 and chaired state presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and Bill Clinton. He was a candidate for governor of Utah in 1992, placing second in the Democratic primary. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1994 United States Senate election in Utah.

Shea earned a Bachelor of Arts degree degree from Stanford University. He then was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he studied human sciences and was part of the first graduating cohort of the degree. He earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1975.

Shea served as the assistant to the staff director of the Church Committee in 1975 and 1976. Shea was counsel to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the drafting process of the Taiwan Relations Act.

Shea was born at the Salt Lake Regional Medical Center in Salt Lake City. He lived with his parents in Montana for six years before returning to Utah. He graduated from Highland High School in 1966.

Patrick A. Shea (born February 28, 1948) is an American lawyer, author, politician, government official, and legal scholar known for his work on freedom of the press cases. He also served as director of the Bureau of Land Management in 1997 and 1998.