Inside the Lawyer-Political Complex

Lawyer Kickers pro bono reminds American voters of broad conflicts of interest, unique concentrations of power, and potential excesses of authority brandished by lawyers empowered by election to representative offices.

The latest testimony from a lawyer-lobbyist insider underscores our observations of the powerful, yet invisible, Lawyer Political Complex:

"Money is the basis of almost all relationships in D.C.,” he writes. “And, in a nutshell, this is why our political campaign system and DC’s mushrooming Permanent Class — who alternate between government jobs and lawyering, influence-peddling and finance — mean Wall Street always wins.”

Democrats, he argues, aren’t much different than Republicans when it comes to selling out. Connaughton describes the Washington taxonomy of the lobbyists, consultants and lawyers he calls “Professional Democrats.”

“If the Marine Corps’s hierarchy of allegiance is unit, corps, country, God, then the hierarchy for a Professional Democrat is current firm, former-elected-official boss, the congressional Democratic leadership, and the president (if he or she is a Democrat),” Connaughton writes. - Jeff Connaughton, a lawyer and Biden Senate staffer turned lobbyist,  author of “The Payoff,” Sept 2012; http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82897.html

And, here is Lawyer-Kickers pro bono's related retrospective:

May 26, 2005

Well-connected local people probably don't get prosecuted as much. That's just endemic in government, including lawyers and judges. People don't like to prosecute their friends. - Professor John Corkery of the James Madison Law School in Chicago

 July 22, 2006

Almost all leakers are lawyers. That's the bottom line. - Howell Raines, ex-New York Times executive editor, during discussion, Apsen Institute, Aspen Times, July 2,1 2006

 September 16, 2008

You’ve said that there are too many lawyers in the U.S. Why do you think that? Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court replied, I don’t mean to criticize lawyers, just the need for so many lawyers. Lawyers don’t dig ditches or build buildings. When a society requires such a large number of its best minds to conduct the unproductive enterprise of the law, something is wrong with the legal system. Scalia replied, I don’t mean to criticize lawyers, just the need for so many lawyers. Lawyers don’t dig ditches or build buildings. When a society requires such a large number of its best minds to conduct the unproductive enterprise of the law, something is wrong with the legal system. - in Parade Magazine’s Intelligence Report, 9-14-2008

Is there a role for politics in our judicial system? Scalia replied, None whatever. The absolute worst violation of the judge’s oath is to decide a case based on a partisan political or philosophical basis, rather than what the law requires. [ibid]

December 09, 2008

 Law Schools Do Not Seem to Compete for the Public's Benefit

November 16, 2009

 In the Public's Benefit - Installment 2009-4 update