[3][6][7] Attending Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Rodham was known as what one writer later termed a "fun-loving jock" and was not as academically oriented as his sister had been.

[8] Like his father, Rodham attended Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Health and Human Development.

[9] While frequently paired together in commentary, the brothers have distinct personalities; Hugh has been compared by friends and acquaintances to the Norm Peterson character from the television series Cheers.

[13] Rodham married Maria Victoria Arias, a Cuban immigrant lawyer whom he met while she was interning at the public defender's office, in 1986.

[9] In 1989 the groundbreaking, much imitated Miami Drug Court was co-founded by State Attorney Janet Reno,[8][9] Chief Judge Gerald Wetherington, and Public Defender Bennett Brummer.

"[15] In 1993, Hugh Rodham and his brother Tony ignited a small controversy when they tried to solicit corporate donations for Clinton's inaugural parties; they dropped the effort after a public outcry.

[16] Once the Clintons entered the White House, Rodham became a sometime golfing buddy of the President[17] and he and Maria often joined family get-togethers at Camp David.

[13] In the contest for the Democratic Party nomination, Rodham competed in a four-person primary field and finished first with 34 percent, which meant there would be a runoff election.

[20] After the first primary, the third-place finisher, Miami lawyer Ellis Rubin, joined forces with Rodham as a "senior executive consultant" and hatchet man.

[21] The second-place finisher and other entrant in the runoff was Mike Wiley, a talk radio personality and advocate of UFO conspiracy theories.

[22] In one case late in the race, Bill Clinton flew to Miami to speak at a rally for Rodham but only 200 people were in the audience due to poor advance work by the campaign.

[23] He subsequently tried to unseat the Dade County Democratic Party Chairman; after badly losing that race, he disappeared from the Florida political scene.

[8][12] The massive case eventually failed to gain Congressional approval,[17] but by one report a 2002 settlement involved in it made Rodham financially secure.

[17] The U.S. State Department and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger became upset, however, when the Rodhams' local business connection in Batumi turned out to be Aslan Abashidze, a major political opponent of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, then a key U.S. ally in the region.

[19] Episodes such as these led Hillary Clinton's White House staff to refer to Hugh and Tony as "the Brothers Rodham",[26] extending the American tradition of troublesome presidential siblings to the brother-in-law category;[19] one senior White House official would be quoted as saying, "You never wanted to hear their name come up in any context other than playing golf.

"[26] As the Clinton administration came to a close in early 2001, it was discovered that Hugh Rodham received around $400,000 for legal services regarding gaining the Presidential pardon of businessman Glenn Braswell who had been convicted of fraud, and the sentence commutation of drug trafficker Carlos Vignali.

[14] Moreover, coming while the Bill Clinton pardons controversy was already in full force, this was a further embarrassment for the former administration and even got the attention of the Congressional House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.