Monday, February 12, 2007

My Old Firm In The News

Donald Rumsfeld has been spotted in the offices of Williams & Connelly, a top-caliber DC law firm.

Your host worked in the library at WC in the summer and winter of 2005, an experience I liken to interning at Wolfram & Hart. Very nice people, you understand--but very much in the service of evil. WC does a lot of things (some of them quite innocuous, like agent work), but it tends to be called into service by people who are a) very rich and b) very much in trouble. Reading the press clippings around the office, the phrase that popped up most often was "scorched earth tactics."

But hey, maybe he was there to get a book agent.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very evil? Are you essentially equating people who are rich and successful with being evil? That seems very shortsighted, or perhaps you're just resentful of people who have actually succeeded in life. Maybe you can go hold hands with all the wacky, lazy liberals in Northfield. With your average--at best--intelligence, you'll be lucky to get into a 2nd tier law school.

David Schraub said...

Aside from the obvious tongue-in-cheek tone of the post, it does remain true that WC tends to be brought in when people who are very rich do things which are very wrong. Otherwise, they wouldn't need WC's services in the first place.

I always reflexively blame myself when people misread my posts, but how one could read this as a condemnation of rich people generally, rather than rich people who have done evil things, is beyond me (and my average intelligence).

Anonymous said...

this is a bit off-putting. WC does not only do work for rich people in trouble. also, in the criminal context being "in trouble" actually means that you are presumed innocent (not yet found gulity). In the civil context it is unlikely to have any moral dimension at all (you may have a contract dispute and are being sued by another party, which has nothing to do with being "evil").

what do you say about the lawyers defending guantanamo detanees? are they "in the service of evil"? Probably not the most accurate, fairest thing to say about them (as Stimson discovered). All in all, representing the criminally indicted is something our society wants to encourage. WC charges a lot because they are among the best. They are running a business after all.

None of this is to say that firms don't do bad things, or defend immoral people; they do. But you're not doing our school any favors by posting like this.

Anonymous said...

this is a bit off-putting. WC does not only do work for rich people in trouble. also, in the criminal context being "in trouble" actually means that you are presumed innocent (not yet found gulity). In the civil context it is unlikely to have any moral dimension at all (you may have a contract dispute and are being sued by another party, which has nothing to do with being "evil").

what do you say about the lawyers defending guantanamo detanees? are they "in the service of evil"? Probably not the most accurate, fairest thing to say about them (as Stimson discovered). All in all, representing the criminally indicted is something our society wants to encourage. WC charges a lot because they are among the best. They are running a business after all.

None of this is to say that firms don't do bad things, or defend immoral people; they do. But you're not doing our school any favors by posting like this.