aaaaacccck! Why am I not surprized aaaaacccck! Why am I not surprized Akin Gump's corporate and securities practice is among the firm's largest, numbering over 150 lawyers firmwide. The group handles a variety of sophisticated corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, international transactions, corporate finance and securities, venture capital and corporate restructuring, and also represents clients on general corporate matters. The firm's public law and policy practice is one of the largest and most diverse in the country. Clients include small businesses, non-profit corporations and Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and abroad. In 1997, the firm's energy and corporate practices played a central role in restructuring The Caspian Pipeline Consortium in order to finance a $2.2 billion project to build a pipeline from Russia to the Black Sea—the largest privately funded infrastructure project in Russia's history.
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1945, and has considerably expanded geographically since that time. With over 280 lawyers, the Washington office is the largest of the firm's eleven offices. All the offices have been strategically integrated over the past several years to create the tenth largest firm in the nation. Akin Gump's D.C. lawyers are well-connected in both major political parties, and many have distinguished themselves in governmental service. Not surprisingly the firm does significant work in the public law and politics area. The firm's big name partners include founder Robert Strauss, former chair of the Democratic National Committee and Ambassador to Russia; Vernon Jordan, close personal confidante of President Clinton and former President of the National Urban League; Don Alexander, former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service; Bill Paxon, former U.S. Representative from New York; and Don Livingston, former General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Vernon Jordan? That impeccable man of superior character? That charitable, lend-a-hand whenever there's an intern in trouble Vernon Jordan? Vernon Jordan the high-profile black attorney in Washington who was a close personal friend of Bill Clinton? I don't believe it. Racism.