Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law). Serving as associate editor of the Indiana Law Review, Coats completed his Juris Doctor in 1972. Career He served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers from 1966 to 1968. He also served as assistant vice president of a Fort Wayne life insurance company. U.S. House of Representatives From 1976 to 1980, Coats worked for then-Congressman Dan Quayle, a Republican from Indiana's 4th congressional district, as Quayle's district representative. When Quayle decided to challenge three-term Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh in the 1980 U.S. Senate election, Coats ran for and won Quayle's seat in the U.S. House. He was reelected four times from this Fort Wayne-based district, usually without serious difficulty. U.S. Senate When Quayle resigned from the Senate after being elected Vice President of the United States in 1988, Coats, who had just been elected to a fifth term in the House, was appointed to Quayle's former seat. He subsequently won a special election in 1990 for the balance of Quayle's second term, and was elected to a full term in 1992. Coats declined to run for a second full term in 1998. He served in the Senate until January 1999, at which time he was succeeded by Evan Bayh. Coats announced on February 3, 2010, he would run for his old Senate seat; and on February 16, 2010, Bayh announced his intention to retire. Coats went on to win the seat. In March 2015, he announced that he would not run for reelection in 2016. He served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Between U.S. Senate tenures Coats worked as special counsel member in the firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001. In 2001, Coats was reportedly one of George W. Bush's top choices to be secretary of defense, a job eventually given to Donald Rumsfeld who had previously held the post under President Gerald Ford. From August 15, 2001, to February 28, 2005, Coats was United States ambassador to Germany. As ambassador during the lead-up to the Iraq War, he unsuccessfully pressured the Government of Germany led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder not to oppose the war, threatening worsened U.S. relations with Germany. As Ambassador he also played a critical role in establishing robust relations with then opposition leader Angela Merkel, who approved the Iraq war, and in the construction of a new