In 2018, Randy Evans’ career was at its highest point. He was a partner in the largest law firm in the world, litigating cases in courtrooms as far away as Australia. And he had just played a significant role as a floor leader at the Republican National Convention.
So when President Donald Trump invited Evans to join his new administration, he politely declined. He’d been to Washington as counsel to two House speakers, including his longtime friend and fellow Georgian Newt Gingrich, and Evans didn’t relish a second go-round in the trenches of government.
But when Evans was offered a different job, he accepted. And he did so with the gusto and energy the Dublin, Georgia, native has had since he was the first person in his immediate family to go to college.
“I wasn’t content to just be ‘an’ ambassador. I wanted to be the best ambassador, not just in Europe but in the world,” says Evans. Luxembourg, a constitutional monarchy that’s the size of Cobb County, may be small, but as a founding member of both NATO and the European Union, it’s an important U.S. ally. It also has a reputation, at least among the diplomatic corps, of being more about cocktail parties than conflict.
Evans’ approach was different. He visited every town in the country. Met with every mayor. Built strong relationships with government ministers and got things done.
I wasn’t content to just be ‘an’ ambassador. I wanted to be the best ambassador, not just in Europe but in the world.”
Evans says he’s most proud of three accomplishments. First, he led the effort to create a partnership between the U.S. and the Luxembourg Space Agency.
“Etienne Schneider, the deputy prime minister, and I sketched out the memorandum of understanding on the back of a napkin,” Evans says.
Second, he ensured 75th anniversary ceremonies commemorating the Battle of the Bulge were held at the Luxembourg American Cemetery. And third, and he ensured that the government of Luxembourg made restitution to the families of Jews who had been murdered during the Holocaust. Prior to Evans’ effort, Luxembourg had been the only Western European nation not to have made restitution to the Jewish community.
Not even the pandemic slowed him down. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he co-wrote a book (with University of West Georgia professor Michael Hester), Winning Political Debates: Proven Techniques for Success, that featured a foreword by Gingrich.
When a new administration was elected in 2020, Evans knew his time in Luxembourg was over.
“I felt like I had done my job. I love my country, but I was ready to come home,” he says.
He re-entered the Atlanta law community and is now a litigation partner at the Midtown Atlanta firm of Squire Patton Boggs.
This story will appear in the Fall 2022 issue of Georgia Magazine.
