The legacy of the just-retired Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals - corruption and more corruption (just when I so wanted to be wrong!)

Just yesterday I wrote a blog about the so-called "legacy" of Jonathan Lippman, the just-retired Chief Judge of New York State Court of Appeals.

I wrote that Lippman created new rules of attorney discipline that served him in his position as a private lawyer on retirement, and that he fought to obtain pay raises for judges, during his tenure and on the eve of his retirement, to drum up his own pension and to appease the judiciary in front of whom he and his future employers will appear in court. 

While writing that, I thought - please, whoever may be up above, let me be wrong on this one, please, let Lippman show some class and just retire, and not get employed by some legal elite firm that he benefited with the new "criminal cartel" rules of attorney discipline.

I was quickly shown by up above that I was wrong.  

The very next day after my blog, not even a full week into his retirement, Lippman already joined Latham and Watkins, and I want to be wrong, but it is unlikely that negotiations of such an employment did not happen overnight, or after New Year and were held when Lippman was still on the bench.

"Coincidentally", Latham and Watkins is the world's biggest-grossing and highest-paying law firm.

"Coincidentally", the firm employs the husband of Dick Cheneys' daughter, former Solicitors General and the likes.

While the New York Times parades the law firm's ALLEGED pro bono hours, information that is (1) unverifiable and (2) self-serving and used in advertisement, the following information about the law firm's pro bono services is available:

out of it's claimed 2.5 mln pro bono hours since 2000 (about 75 hours per attorney per year), the firm "donated $3.2 million in legal services to Jay Bybee, a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, during an investigation into allegations of professional misconduct resulting from Bybee's work for the U.S. Justice Department under President George W. Bush".

Allegations of professional misconduct are actually that Jay Bybee, while being employed by the Bush administration, authored the infamous "Torture Memos".

Of course, instead of being disbarred, the dishonorable Jay Bybee was elevated to be the "Honorable" judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Of course, Latham and Watkins, as a global firm, must practice in Judge Bybee's court.

Of course, "donation" of legal services to Judge Bybee is part of "doing business", and for some scrupulous observers, may smack of corruption, the same kind of corruption as negotiating employment of the Chief Judge of New York State Court of Appeals on retirement while practicing in his court.

So, Lippman joined a law firm who provided pro bono services to the author of "Torture Memos" and heralds it as part of its "pro bono service" to the public.

And the mainstream media swallows this crap, regurgitates it and feeds it to the public.

Good journalism, New York Times.

Good job, Mr. Lippman.

Good job, Latham and Watkins.

Very obviously, judge Jay Bybee who earns over $203,000 a year, was far from poor, is himself an attorney and did not need pro bono services, and provision of such services was simply a pledge of loyalty to the judiciary in order to drum up more business.

You think, a law firm employing former Chief Judge of the highest State Court will be ever disciplined, no matter what it does?

Lippman's employment only highlights the meaning of attorney regulation in New York and across this great country - regulation of the legal elite to secure, enhance and protect the business of the legal elite -at all costs.