The height of order

Her 5-foot frame is deceiving: Amy St. Eve, the judge who'll preside over the fraud case of Conrad Black, runs a tight courtroom

Don't underestimate Judge Amy St. Eve because she's 5 feet tall and looks just out of college, warned a former adversary.

"The dumbest thing you can do is underestimate someone based on appearance," said George Collins, a Chicago lawyer who appeared against St. Eve in the Whitewater prosecution of former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. "She's an absolutely brilliant lawyer, one of the best there is."

St. Eve, 41, will preside next week over the fraud case of former press baron Conrad Black, who is charged along with three others with stealing about $84 million from the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times.

Colleagues of the federal judge describe her as efficient, hardworking, highly intelligent, well-prepared and not likely to be bowled over by high-powered attorneys or defendants.

"I don't think she'll be overly impressed by the fact that he's a lord," Collins said, referring to Black. "But I don't think any American judge would be." Collins said Black and his co-defendants should expect a "meticulous trial, and a fair one."

St. Eve, who declined to be interviewed so close to the trial, was born in Downstate Belleville, the daughter of a dentist. She left southern Illinois for the rarified air of Cornell University, where she earned a bachelor's degree with honors in history. St. Eve then graduated from Cornell Law School, where she was editor of the Law Review.

St. Eve was just a few years in private practice in New York City when she was picked by Kenneth Starr for the prosecution of Tucker, and Jim and Sue McDougal. The McDougals were two partners in a failed real estate venture called Whitewater Development, whose partners also included Bill and Hillary Clinton.

St. Eve, then just 30, worked with attorney Ray Jahn to win convictions.

"She was responsible for the counts the government won," recalled Collins, who represented Tucker. "She managed to bootstrap it into a guilty. The pain she inflicted was intense. She was competent and capable and perceptive, and an extraordinarily good examiner of witnesses. If it didn't hurt too bad to lose, I'd say it would be a joy to be against her."

After Whitewater, St. Eve came to Chicago as an assistant U.S. attorney, co-prosecuting a number of the "Operation Safe Road" cases involving the payment of bribes for licenses at the secretary of state's office. She also handled health and bank fraud cases.

St. Eve's boss, then U.S. Attorney Scott Lassar, said St. Eve was an office star.

"She was extremely prolific in the amount of high quality work she turned out," Lassar said.

U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall, who worked with St. Eve as a federal prosecutor, called her "the most efficient attorney, probably individual, I've ever met."

St. Eve needs to be efficient -- she has three children under the age of 10. Kendall says St. Eve balances work and family "in an amazing manner."

St. Eve left the U.S. attorney's office in 2001 to become a lawyer for Abbott Laboratories. Former Illinois Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican, recommended St. Eve to the federal bench, and she was confirmed in 2002.

St. Eve is just coming off a closely watched trial in her 12th floor courtroom, the case of Muhammad Salah, who was acquitted of terrorism-related charges but convicted on lesser counts. Salah's lawyer Michael Deutsch said that while he disagreed with some of St. Eve's rulings, she treated all parties with great respect.

"She doesn't rule in a dictatorial fashion, rather in a democratic way," Deutsch said. "She's a very pleasant person to work with."

Lawyers say St. Eve runs a tight courtroom, which became a problem for reporters during the Salah trial. Citing security and keeping the jury focused, St. Eve mandated that no one could enter the room when court was in session. Entry was allowed only during breaks.

This made it so tough to cover the trial that reporters met with St. Eve about halfway through. St. Eve wouldn't budge on the restrictions, but did reopen an overflow room with a television feed.

During the Black trial, there will also be an overflow courtroom, and everyone must be seated in St. Eve's courtroom at 9:30 a.m. sharp. There's no restriction on coming in between breaks -- but attendance is expected to be high, so observers might be afraid to give up their seats.

Though the Black trial is expected to be complex and last three to four months, Deutsch said defendants shouldn't expect any unnecessary delays. "She very competent in terms of getting her work done."

Contributing: Natasha Korecki

mwisniewski@suntimes.com

Age: 41. Born in Downstate Belleville.

Education: Cornell University, B.A., 1987; Cornell Law School, J.D. 1990.  

Professional career: Private practice, New York City, 1990-1994; associate independent counsel, Whitewater Independent Counsel's Office, Little Rock, Ark., 1994-1996; assistant U.S. attorney , Northern District of Illinois, 1996-2001; senior counsel, Abbott Laboratories, 2001-2002.

Recommended by then-U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald and nominated by President Bush on March 21, 2002, to the federal bench; confirmed Aug. 1, 2002.

Personal: Married to Howard Chrisman, a physician. Three children.

Mary Wisniewski