The 'go-to' lawyer

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Chances are that when the obituary writers get around to Robert S. Bennett (hopefully not for years to come) the first graph will cite him as the lawyer who nursed Bill Clinton through the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and helped save him from being booted from office.

Such is a pity, for the Clinton mess was only a minor part of a distinguished legal career during which Mr. Bennett became known as the "go-to" lawyer for a wide range of persons in trouble with the law. His memoir, "In The Ring: The Trials of a Washington Lawyer," is the best legal read I've encountered in decades.

Mr. Bennett's reputation rests, in large part, on the realization by opposing lawyers (usually prosecutors) that he is quite willing to go to trial if he and his client cannot negotiate what they want. He learned to try cases in the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of the U.S. Attorney's office here in DC, and he is a good man with a jury. He now earns a many-digit income with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, an international megafirm whose per-lawyer earnings are tops in the country.

Mr. Bennett worked hard to reach the pinnacle of his profession. A Brooklyn native, he grew up in a dysfunctional household dominated by a hectoring grandmother who essentially drove his father out of the house. His mother remarried, to a drunk. He found refuge in boxing (hence his title), debate and the Brooklyn Dodgers, plus caring relatives and neighbors.

Thus he writes with affection about what surely were tough years for a young man. Mr. Bennet does not come across as a fellow who sits around feeling sorry for himself. He earned law degrees both from Georgetown University and Harvard.

What is at hand is a case-by-case look at the events that made Mr. Bennett a major figure in the Washington legal community. Mr. Bennett seldom permits himself even a faint ding of doubt that his clients were innocent. And the cold rage he occasionally feels towards prosecutors roils the surface.

This is particularly true in his examination of the perjury indictment brought against Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger during the Iran-Contra arms scandal.

Weinberger opposed the sales from the beginning, and so argued in memos to President Ronald Reagan. Weinberger initially cooperated with special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, only to be threatened with indictment if he did not give testimony against the president. "I will not lie to get out of this," Weinberger told Mr. Bennett. "Tell them to go to hell."

Whereupon Mr. Walsh had a grand jury indict him, and then turned the prosecution over to a prominent San Francisco liberal Democrat, James Brosnahan, who refused even to discuss the case. President George H. W. Bush, to his lasting credit, pardoned Weinberger and other officials who had been caught up in the scandal.

"Walsh's prosecution of Weinberger was one of the greatest abuses of prosecutorial power I have ever encountered," Mr. Bennett writes. He detests the special prosecutor system. Better to appoint a career (and nonpolitical) special counsel when the need arises. "With an independent counsel, you are stuck with one all-powerful person who has only one case and unlimited resources with which to pursue it . . . . Beware the lawyer with only one case."