James E. Rogan

Rogan was expelled from high school in the tenth grade. Although he never completed high school formally, Rogan attended Chabot Community College — now Las Positas Community College — in Livermore. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, and later his Juris Doctor degree from UCLA Law School, where he was a member of the UCLA Law Review. Rogan helped pay his way through law school by working as a bartender and bouncer at several Hollywood night clubs.

Rogan did a short stint (1983–1985) as a civil litigation attorney in one of Los Angeles' oldest law firms (Lillick McHose & Charles). He resigned from his firm and signed on as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, where he later was recruited to the "Hardcore Gang Murder Unit". He prosecuted some of Los Angeles' most notorious street gangs.[1] In a 1990 statewide poll of prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges, California Lawyer Magazine named Rogan as one of the state's most effective prosecutors.[2]

Later that year Governor George Deukmejian appointed the 33-year-old prosecutor to be a judge of the Glendale Municipal Court. Rogan was California's youngest sitting state court judge at the time of his elevation to the bench. During his service on the municipal court (1990–1994) Rogan presided over thousands of civil and criminal cases. In 1993 his colleagues elected him presiding judge of their local court. He began teaching as an adjunct professor of law in 1987; over the next two decades he taught at various law schools in Southern California, and continues teaching to date. He has been an adjunct professor of criminal law, criminal procedure, trial practice and trial advocacy. He has lectured in many other areas of law, including evidence and intellectual property.

United States Congress

Rogan served in the United States House of Representatives representing California's 27th district from 1997 to 2001.

In 1996, Rogan won the first of two terms to the United States House of Representatives. Elected with just 50.1%, Rogan became one of only two House members to serve on both the House Commerce Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. On the House Judiciary Committee, Rogan and his colleagues were responsible for reviewing all proposed legislation dealing with a variety of complex issues, including all intellectual property issues (copyrights, patents and trademarks); protection of trade and commerce against unlawful restraint of trade and monopolies; the judiciary and all judicial proceedings (civil and criminal); administrative proceedings; immigration issues; bankruptcy law, and all proposed constitutional amendments.

As a member of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Rogan was a leader in helping to increase the number of H1-B immigration visas that are critical to America's high-tech community. As a member of the House Commerce Committee, Rogan served on the oldest and most powerful Committee in the House. Further, as a member of the two most critical subcommittees (the Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection subcommittee, and the Energy and Power subcommittee) Rogan shared responsibility for helping to craft legislation on all matters of interstate and foreign commerce and trade; interstate and foreign telecommunications, regulation of commercial practices (including the Federal Trade Commission); consumer affairs and consumer protection; product liability issues; motor vehicle safety; and all laws relating to national energy policy, including utility issues, and regulation of nuclear facilities.

During his congressional service, Rogan was Assistant Majority Whip for the House Republican Conference, helping mobilize House votes on key legislative objectives, provided legislative information to Members and the House leadership, and helped to coordinate legislative and political strategies within the Congress. He also was a member of both Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Dick Armey's "Kitchen Cabinet" advisory groups. He met regularly with the Speaker and the Majority Leader to discuss political and legislative strategies and tactics during the congressional session. Speaker Gingrich named Rogan as co-chairman of the Speaker's High Tech Task Force, and named Rogan Speaker Pro Tempore on numerous occasions.

Rogan planned on marrying his longtime girlfriend, Terri Lemke, but the relationship did not survive his move to Los Angeles to attend law school.[11] He married Christine Apffel in 1988; they have twin daughters.

Rogan has authored four non-fiction books, and one work of historical fiction:

• Rough Edges: My Unlikely Road from Welfare to Washington, Harper Collins, 2004. Rogan's rollicking early memoir tells the story of how he was born the illegitimate son of a cocktail waitress single mother who was later convicted of a felony. He grew up amid a circle of tough friends; after years of borderline delinquency, he was expelled from high school, and he worked at many colorful jobs—from porn theater bouncer to bartender at a Sunset Strip female mud-wrestling bar and at a Hell's Angels bar. Despite these many handicaps, he went on to become a lawyer, a gang murder prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, a municipal and superior court judge, state legislator, majority leader of the California State Assembly, and a U.S. congressman. memoir;[12] In 2004, Reader's Digest named "Rough Edges" among their top four nonfiction books for 2004-05 and published the condensed version in its distinguished hardback series.
• Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment, WND Books, 2011. Rogan's behind the scenes memoir of the President Bill Clinton impeachment saga of the 1990s. Rogan had ascertained that, should the scandal lead to impeachment proceedings, future accounts would suffer from faulty memories or faulty motives. To combat the threat of factual or historical error, Rogan, from his first day on the House Judiciary Committee, kept copious notes during every significant meeting relating to impeachment, to create a complete and accurate historical chronicle of what truly occurred behind the scenes in the unfolding drama.
• And Then I Met...Stories of Growing Up, Meeting Famous People, and Annoying the Hell Out of Them, WND Books, 2014. This book treats readers to a vast collection of stories from Rogan's boyhood in San Francisco when he met storied and famous individuals-—from presidents, presidential candidates, sports and movie stars, and a parade of other notables. These charming and fun stories stretch from his meeting the last surviving witness of the massacre of General Custer to the stars of Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.
• On to Chicago: Rediscovering Robert F. Kennedy and the Lost Campaign of 1968, WND Books, 2018. Released on the 50th anniversary of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's assassination—June 6, 2018—this gripping historical fiction answers for history based on facts, and not on idealized or romantic notions, what likely would have happened if RFK had lived to go on finish his campaign for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination to Chicago, the city that hosted that year's tumultuous Democratic National Convention. On to Chicago is a heavily researched and sourced work that twists the arc of history with facts that will appeal both to fiction lovers as well as pure history aficionados, because so much of it is true. With nearly one thousand endnotes online that confirm how much of this story mirrors reality, many revelations will surprise even the most dedicated history buffs.
• Shaking Hands with History: My Encounters with the Famous, the Infamous, and the Once-Famous But Now-Forgotten,"" Shenandoah Books, 2020 In his fifth book, Rogan reminiscences about the greats, the near-greats, and the once great but now forgotten people he has known. He again throws open the covers of his private journals and photo albums to share with you more of his stories of private celebrity encounters. Each page pulls names from the headlines and the history books: boxing legend Muhammad Ali, President Ronald Reagan, first man on the Moon Neil Armstrong, Senator Ted Kennedy, astronaut John Glenn, baseball icon Hank Aaron, and many more. You'll experience everything from the firsthand accounts of people Rogan knew that rode with John F. Kennedy in his fatal 1963 Dallas motorcade to recollections from the heroes and villains of America's greatest political scandal-Watergate.

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN