« Detroit Mercy Hitches Its Wagon to the Biglaw Star |
Main
| Some Shocking Discoveries About Electronic Data Discovery »
Presidential Roundup
As we've noted before, with lawyer-candidates running for president (and with many of their spouses lawyers as well), this year's campaign holds special interest for lawyers. And so here's the latest roundup of law-related presidential election news and opinion:
Why John Edwards won't get Norm Pattis' vote. Norm Pattis writes that he finds it difficult to stomach trial lawyer John Edwards' candidacy. While Pattis respects Edwards' success as an attorney and would consider hiring him, he won't vote for him. The reason? He believes that at heart, Edwards is "a salesman, selling other people's troubles." Pattis continues:
When I listen to Edwards all I hear is a talented lawyer who grew wealthy preaching to jurors about pain, suffering and privation. But rather than live among the people he preached to, he squirreled away a fortune. He tells he us he comes from humble roots, yet everything in his legal career reflects a man desperate to escape from want and need and to become invulnerably wealthy. What makes John Edwards any different than the corporations he says he was attacking? Corporations have shareholders; we all invest in them. Edwards has invested only in himself.
As a lawyer, when you're considering which candidate to choose, does your choice coincide with the person whom you'd be most likely to hire, or like Pattis, are there other considerations that matter more?
Candidates Politicize a Judge's Decision. In today's editorial, the Washington Post comes down hard on Republican lawyer-candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani for spinning a recent tragic murder into election fodder. As the editorial describes, a Massachusetts judge appointed by Romney when he was governor released Daniel Tavares on his own recognizance after he completed a 16-year prison term for killing his mother. Tavares subsequently murdered a newlywed couple and fled the state. Giuliani used the incident to criticize Romney's poor record on crime-fighting. And rather than defend his appointment and her decision (apparently, the judge was a veteran prosecutor who followed the law in releasing Tavares, Romney turned around and called for the judge's resignation. What's your pleasure -- a lawyer who exaggerates an incident (Giuliani) or a lawyer who tries to shift the blame for his decision to someone else (Romney)?
Biglaw Supports Obama. While Barack Obama portrays himself as an outsider who will change business as usual in government, the LA Times reports that like most of his colleagues, he too has accepted money from political action committees and Washington insiders. As the LA Times notes, "there was even money from currently-evil law firms that have major lobbying practices in Washington including Brownstein Hyatt and DLA Piper."
Michelle Obama, striking the work-life balance. These days, most lawyers are forever in search of that elusive work-life balance. This feature on Michelle Obama, Barack's lawyer-spouse, describes how she's juggling her career, kids and life on the campaign trail. No magic answers here; Obama has taken a leave of absence from her career to help her husband on the campaign trail.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on November 28, 2007 at 03:15 PM | Permalink
| Comments (1)