Law Firms Lose Clients

The Revolving Door at the Department of Justice

Reported in a front-page article earlier this month, after being denied a promotion to the top position in the United States Attorney’s office in Boston, Loucks decided a year and a half ago to join the private sector and work to defend the very pharmaceutical and medical device companies he had so zealously prosecuted during his 23 year stint. Having lived for years on a government salary, Loucks, like so many of his predecessors, is cashing in.

As a recent Wall Street Journal article points out, many law firms around the country have been raising top partners’ salaries as they look to attract rain-makers and other “top producers.” At Skadden Arps—Loucks’s new home—the average partner earns over 2 million dollars, with the highest-compensated partners now earning five times their lesser-paid peers’ remuneration. Why would a firm like Skadden pay a man like Loucks millions a year? Simple. Loucks used to be the government’s top prosecutor of many of Skadden’s clients. Now, the man who only two years ago extracted 2.3 billion dollars from Pfizer on behalf of the government, will become Pfizer’s very own advocate. It’s the classic case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” or, in this case, “if they keep beating you, pay ‘em.”

And pay they do. Loucks is hardly alone in leaving the government for the greener pastures of white-shoe law firms.  Kirk Ogrosky, a top Justice Department health care fraud prosecutor, left his government job to become a partner in the health-care practice division of Arnold and Porter, LLP.  Brian R. Michael, a former Assistant United States Attorney specializing in financial fraud, recently joined Wilmer Hale in the Litigation/Controversy and Securities Departments. Mark Mendelsohn, formerly a top bribery prosecutor, last year joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, earning an estimated starting salary there of $2.75 million. And, in what is perhaps the most high-profile example, Andrew Weissman, the fed credited with bringing down the late and lamented accounting firm Arthur Andersen, now works for Jennifer & Block LLP , fighting vigorously on the side of corporations ensnared in federal investigations and prosecutions. (It did not matter that the Supreme Court, as I relate in my book

Neither Loucks nor any of those who preceded or will doubtless follow him have done anything illegal or even, under current professional codes, unethical in joining their respective white shoe firms. From an outside perspective, Loucks’s move seems like a zero-consequence decision: corporations now have lawyers who understand the federal prosecutorial machinery and, importantly, maintain their relationships with former colleagues remaining in government service. And, of course, the federal government will easily enough be able to find replacements among the many eager law school graduates seeking these plum positions. Everybody wins, right?