7/11/2007

5 Responses to “New L.A. Times Hit Piece on Fred in the Pipeline?”

1. I’m sure it will meet the high standards we’ve come to expect from the LA Times.

   JayC (80e6ca) — 7/11/2007 @ 6:14 pm

   
   

2. The irony of your collective support for Fred “Hollyweird” Thompson is simply delicious.

   Please keep it up!

   The Liberal Avenger (b8c7e2) — 7/11/2007 @ 6:39 pm

   
   

3. Jim Geraghty’s quotation from his Thompson campaign source may not have made much sense to Jim, as a non-lawyer, as it might to you or me, Patterico, and it may make even more sense to me as a private-sector lawyer than it would to a lawyer employed by government.

   In a number of respects, partners are, as a general matter, vastly more “responsible” for a law firm’s business and affairs than associates and “of counsel” lawyers at that same firm.

   From both legal and ethical standpoints, there are significant differences between what can be imputed to a partner (who by definition is a co-principal and co-owner) versus what can be imputed to an associate or “of counsel” lawyer (who by definition is an employee and mere agent, not a principal). Partners may share “constructive knowledge” that associates and “of counsel” lawyers, as mere employees, do not. Partners’ fiduciary obligations to one another are certainly broader, and by definition they are all co-managers of their law firm’s business (although in practical reality, either by custom or under the terms of their express written partnership agreements, they’ve typically delegated most or all of that authority away to a particular managing partner and/or a management committee).

   Partners also presumptively share in profits of a law firm, whereas associates and “of counsel” lawyers are paid salaries. A better moral and political case can be made, then, that any partner is stained by “blood money” from a particular tainted client, even though he personally didn’t work actively on that client’s behalf, than can be made with respect to an associate or an “of counsel” lawyer.

   Arent Fox is a very big firm that, like Akin Gump and Wilmer Cutler, has been home to many politically powerful lawyers and lobbyists, far from all of whose clients have been odor-free. It is nevertheless a very reputable firm whose endurance suggests that it’s managed to steer clear of many temptations. I don’t doubt that Thompson opponents and press investigators can find things in the firm’s history that can be spun against him. I will be surprised if any of them have much merit or sticking power.

   Beldar (dc42c4) — 7/11/2007 @ 9:39 pm

   
   

4. Do you think they’ll suggest he’s gay like Andrew Sullivan did today?

   People must be seriously worried about Fred to invent some of the smears they’ve already attempted. It will be interesting to see what’s next.

   daleyrocks (906622) — 7/11/2007 @ 10:19 pm

   
   

5. Now, is it really bad for the Times to attack Thompson? Or is it just street cred?

   Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 7/11/2007 @ 10:37 pm