In Obama's America, Road to Power No Longer Runs Through Law Firms

There's a massive silver lining to the Obama and McCain campaigns' escalating war to rid each other of staffers and advisors with ties to lobbyists and corporate America: suddenly, slaving away at a big law firm no longer seems like a path to power, but an express off-ramp.

When men as well connected as former Obama VP search committee head Jim Johnson and former McCain advisor (and lobbyist for Burma's military junta) Doug Goodyear can be ousted for their lobbying work on behalf of sketchy companies, it sends a powerful message to current law students (and recent college graduates): the revolving door between the corridors of power and the corridors of greed is rapidly closing.

Now, lawyers will have to choose: spend your career serving your country, or spend it serving your corporation.

This choice will have enormous benefits for the public. Right now, it's common for lawyers (and others) to spend years fattening their bank accounts at big firms and then to soothe their guilty consciences by entering public service with a high powered job in the administration or in Congress.

Unfortunately, you can take the lawyer out of the firm, but you can't take the firm out of the lawyer. Even the most well-intentioned attorneys absorb the culture and values of law firm life: a focus on, above all else, figuring out ways to help corporations maximize their profits while staying within (or at least evading) the law.

After years in this cushy cocoon, most firm lawyers lack the contacts and experience with other interests that government must also represent: the working and middle classes. Of course, many attorneys have quite another goal in mind when they enter government service. They want to pad their resumes with a prestigious office so they can then command a higher salary, maybe even a partnership at a big firm, by peddling the contacts and experience they gained from their years in government.

This type of lawyer runs wild in the Bush administration, with disastrous consequences. People like former Interior Secretary Gale Norton (now of Shell Oil), current Forest Service boss Mark Rey (formerly of the American Forest & Paper Association), and former Chief of Staff Andy Card (now a Union Pacific board member) were less concerned with the public interest than with the interests of their once and future masters in the private sector, who they hoped would reward them once they left office with a job or sweetheart contracts. As a result, they've been willing to let these companies plunder the public's resources and the public's trust.

But in this new era, the Mark Reys of the world are beginning to seem like anachronisms.

Of course, as we shut the revolving door, we have to make sure that those who embrace public service can make a decent living. Because not everyone chooses a career at a law firm out of pure greed. As chronicled in Daniel Brook's brilliant must-read book The Trap, "In the 1980's, people sold out to enjoy a life of luxury; now, they sell out to stay afloat."

As the rich got richer while real wages at the middle and lower end of the spectrum have stagnated or fallen, it can be hard to make ends meet even as a fairly senior government staffer. It's not uncommon for middle class people to pay 50 percent or more of their income on rent or mortgage payments; meanwhile, students loans as well as skyrocketing food and gasoline prices are making the subsidized law firm cafeteria (and the $150,000 plus starting salary) seem worth a little soul-selling.

If we're going to make government servants something more than the current mix of what Brook describes as "moral giants, mental midgets, and trust fund babies," we're going to have to address these more basic cost-of-living issues that cut across the entire society. Not only will that deliver broader prosperity, it will also deliver more honest government.

So lawyers, law students, and aspiring Washington players, I've got a message for you: either get hip to Washington's new power map and get out of the firm -- or get used to being on the outside looking in.

Glenn Hurowitz is the author of the acclaimed book Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party.

Comments

[lvdragonlady]

And when considering the wage increases for these individuals, we can NOT forget everyone else.
We are all paying more for gas, food, school, taxes and housing and need to be included in the equation.
Bottom line is going to have to be a little less profit and more consideration for the little people who keep a business going.

[Sumocat]

I don't know why this has to be about law firms. The wars have funneled a ton of money into Cheney's former firm Halliburton, which is still paying his "deferred salary". Doesn't matter if you work directly for a big corporation or through a law firm.

[95flhtcu]

the revolving door between the corridors of power and the corridors of greed is rapidly closing. Not. This is a one time election issue. I know that Obama supporters believe that he walks on water and is going to change everything and everybody. He's not. You sound as if Obama didn't leave havard and go to work for a law firm chosen specifically to get him into politics. I suppose once he gets into the whitehouse that the entire DC machine is going to come to a grinding halt. That's not going to happen either. I'm getting tired of hearing how One person is going to change the country, if not the world, single handedly. It's not going to happen. I don't doubt that things will get better, but the miricles that everyone expects from Obama aren't going to materialize. Hopefully, when people realize this they won't just jump ship and start bashing him.

[Markvli]

This is a very cursory treatment of the subject.

I'm not sure where the author got the idea that the rules have changed - because Obama is a lawyer who didn't work at a large law firm? I'm also not sure what you mean by "power"? What kind of power are we talking about? The power to influence? Lobbyist still have power in that arena, and few community organizers have that kind of power absent a coalition of people along with them.

Large law firm lawyers make a lot of money - and money is still power.

Is the argument that the path to political success no longer runs through large law firms? That may or may not be true. I think the notion of the "establishment" is under threat, yes. And social networking of all kinds -- online and offline - has demonstrated capacity to create power. This is the kind of discussion I think this topic warrants - not a cursory dictum that power no longer lies in large law firms.

Michelle Obama worked in a large law firm, by the way.

[iamamerican2]

Amen susangg1 that's exactly right, there's good lawyers and good lobbyist. The pigeonholing of these groups as a whole should be reserved for the primary season not the general.

[S1m0n]

They'll adapt.

[susangg1]

Wait a minute. THere are all kinds of "law firms." You are talking about only ONE kind: The corporate defense/corporate lobby firm. But what about law firms who specialize in representing the victims of corporate greed (like John Edwards' firm)? What about law firms (like the one I was with for 10 years) that specialize in plaintiffs' civil rights and whistleblower litigation? These law firms are responsible for a lot of the social progress that has been made in the USA in the last 50 years. We made it possible for women and people of color to fight employment discrimination, took on the HMO's and nursing home chains that abuse patients, and fought the good fight against overwhelming odds. How about a little respect, please. There are all kinds of lawyers, just like there are all kinds of clients.

[Krikkit]

Other law firms aren't considered conduits to government jobs. Although that isn't stated in the piece, it is implied.

There has always been a link between a law degree and government service. Most Senators have a law degree as a matter of course, and many of the highest paying jobs in government require either a law degree or a masters/graduate degree or both. None require any actual work at a law firm. But a career in corporate law is the path to high-paying LOBBYIST jobs.

[Chis1283]

I have to agree with you here...this article drastically oversimplifies the legal landscape. Mr Hurowitz you seem well intentioned but you're painting with too broad of a brush. Most attorneys probably never get involved in Washington politics in any major way. Corporations are not the only clients of law firms. Most work that law firms do for corporations probably isn't of the illegitimate law-evading type. Not all lawyers go into Government work to pad their resumes; of course, they're human so things like that will factor into their decisions. You seem to either be conflating the relatively small number of attorneys that move between major firms and big government positions with all firm lawyers, or simply responding to the caricature of a lawyer that exists in your mind. Lawyers fulfill a valuable societal function, you should take more care to recognize that fact. There are unscrupulous lawyers, probably many of them, but even still, your analysis is simplistic, naive, and unbalanced.

[Countdown09]

Check out this video - sure to brighten up your day if you support Sen. Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6VfZ4h0uZ4

[jupitor]

That was fantastic countdowno9! Best I've seen, thank ya! A new day is riseing and I see obama useing the best of the young and old of both campagnes, and getting a united group to go forward with. Keep in mind we do need corperate lawyers! we just need them to keep their nose clean, and do their sworen duty with out getting in the mud with the criminal in the corperate world! not every corperate bussiness is that way of course, but there is enough of them to go around, and they are bringing down our country. there is good and bad in every area of bussiness. You just have to work hard to keep headed in the correct direction. Obama just want to weed out the bad and keep the good, and change the rules to keep thing legal in our courperate field an gov.

[MizFlagPin]

Perhaps they will no longer refer to we the people as consumers. Perhaps, we the people will be called what we are, citizens.

[kellygrrrl]

We the Peeps - ReThugs ATM machine

[KMKY]

I want to be very clear about two things: (1) everyone has the right to legal representation, from the biggest, greediest, fattest corporate CEO to the homeless man or woman on the street corner. This article is frightening in its lack of understanding about that and the legal profession at large. (2) One of the most important constitutional rights is the right to petition the government. That is what lobbyists do, from Planned Parenthood to the Natural Resources Defense Council to the NRA on behalf of their members.

The complaint should reside with those POLITICIANS who abuse their power by engaging in unethical or illegal activity for personal gain. Most of us regularly avoid criminal temptation and engaging in unethical behavior. We should expect the same from our leaders without making apologies for them by blaming others. Corruption is enabled by deflection.

[Krikkit]

Hmmm. Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

This piece isn't about NOT representing corporations -- it's about CHOOSING either to represent corporations or CHOOSING to pursue a career as a government servant.

The lines are being drawn, and We the People are just beginning to flex our muscle AGAINST rule by the Corporations for the Corporations under Corporate Greed. Enough already.

Exxon is a perfect example of what is wrong with any major Corporation having any influence in government. They get tax breaks and loopholes that ensure they pay virtually no taxes, and those they do acquire get passed along to consumers anyway. They are experiencing record-breaking profits and moving to maximize their take even more by divesting their filling station ownerships. Meanwhile, our entire economy is groaning under the costs of fuel that has increased in price by more han 30% in a year, adding to the cost of everything consumers buy, from food to car parts, because EVERYTHING is shipped by truck. Government has been hamstrung in doing anything about those costs because the Oil lobby blocks every move.

Governments exist to protect and serve their citizens, but they can't do that when those duties come into conflict with Corporate interests, ie, the bottom line.

[KMKY]

Lawyers are not required to choose between representing a corporation or pursuing a civil service career any more than anyone else is. This article is just a tortured attack on lawyers and misses the point. The politicians are the ones who are responsible for not giving in to corporate seduction.

[CarolinaSkeptic]

Which section of the Constitution awards free speech rights to corporations? I can't find it in my copy.

[KMKY]

In my point (2) I said the right to petition the government was a constitutional right. I said nothing about corporations. When I mentioned corporations that was in point (1) regarding their right to legal representation.

[apoyo]

Obama is a perfect example of what your write. He turned his back on a high powered law firm career and went to work on behalf of the people.

[Gdebs]

I have sort of accepted the idea that it is too late to save democracy in this country. Perhaps I should say revive democracy. I hope Obama supports the many difficult changes that must be made.

[castlerider]

It's about damn time... I sure hope Obama wins. Changes will come in droves, no matter what the naysayers may say. There will be no stopping it.

[Krikkit]

I am so loving watching the power shift so abruptly out of the hands of the greedy Corporations and into the hands of the people connected into the new "system" of information sharing. Alvin Toffler had it right when he wrote about it in 1990 in his book, "Power Shift." What a visionary!

He couldn't say what form the new power structure would take, but he did successfully predict that the new "currency" of power would be information. It's no wonder the old dinosaurs are still trying to stifle the internet.

Remember that, folks, Net Neutrality is the only way to preserve our power base. NEVER let them take it away from us.

[MSB]

I REALLY hope this movement becomes as powerful as you suggest. It would represent an essential and refreshing change.

[overclocker1980]

and yet Clintons kid works for a hedge fund...

The solution is not greater pay, it's greater pain. Remove all those connected to power, banish the power dealers to utter humiliation... why did we stop tar-and-feathering people? It's rather humane compared to what they do.

[Krikkit]

Tarring and feathering is a brutal terrorist act. What are you thinking?

[justobserve]

Chelsea is one of the privileged girls.