Trial Lawyers Fuel Edwards' Efforts

Seeking to raise the millions of dollars needed to run a credible presidential bid, Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has relied almost entirely on his trial lawyer friends to underwrite his ambitions.

Edwards, a former trial lawyer, has raised $1.39 million for the federal and nonfederal accounts of his New American Optimists PAC since the first check arrived in early November.

Of that total, $1.19 million - 86 percent - came from lawyers, their employees or their family members, according to a Roll Call analysis. No other Congressional leader or potential presidential contender has such a heavy reliance on a single industry for their leadership PAC.

Edwards' supporters do not deny that attorneys, predominantly fellow trial lawyers, have played a key role in financing his early forays into the national political scene. But his camp wears the backing of the trial lawyer community as a badge of honor, a sign of support from friends.

"It's a positive thing to say about someone that the people who know him the best support him. People who know John Edwards like him," said an Edwards spokesman.

But the North Carolina Democrat has run into opposition from some trial lawyers, those in Mississippi that supported the appellate court confirmation bid of U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pickering. Led by prominent anti-tobacco lawyer Dickie Scruggs, money from the Mississippi legal community has dried up for Edwards in recent months.

Edwards aides acknowledge that he will have to branch out into other groups for financial support to mount a national campaign. With the presidential primary schedule getting more and more compressed, Democratic presidential candidates will need to have raised virtually all of their money - upwards of $30 million or more - before the first caucus in Iowa in January 2004.

Edwards believes that his increasingly-frequent trips to political hot spots around the nation will raise his profile and bring new backing, including financial supporters.

"As more people get to know him, the base of his support will get broader," the Edwards aide said.

On Saturday, Edwards was in Lexington, Ky., helping raise money for the local Democratic Party. Afterward, however, he was back to the legal community, raising money for his 2004 re-election campaign committee at a fundraiser hosted by the former president of Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Peter Perlman.

Edwards frequently touts his support for campaign finance reform and makes a point of stressing that he won't take money from PACs or registered lobbyists

As a member of the Judiciary Committee, with its oversight of legal issues, however, some critics argue that those stances are undercut by his reliance on trial lawyer funds and argue that he is no "purer" than a candidate who accepts PACmoney or lobbyist contributions.

And GOP aides grumble that the biggest issue Edwards has tackled in his three-plus years in office was the patients' bill of rights, a debate in which he led the fight for Senate Democrats. Republicans contend that, if signed into law, the bill would amount to a giveaway to trial lawyers, who would gain new avenues to take legal action against managed-care companies.

On the hard money side of his leadership PAC, Edwards raised $919,300 from November through March 31, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission.

That's more than former Vice President Al Gore raised, $910,994, for his Leadership '02 PAC over the same period.

Unlike Gore, however, Edwards' take in hard dollars came overwhelmingly from lawyers or their families, about $770,000.

The soft-money account of New American Optimists PAC has been equally reliant on the legal community. In the first quarter of the year, Edwards raised $471,000 for the soft-money account of his leadership PAC, with $423,000 coming from law firms, attorneys or their family members.

Unlike other potential contenders for the White House, Edwards is placing no limits on contributions to his soft-money account, as he is allowed to do under current election law. [After the November elections, lawmakers like Edwards, Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) and others that operate soft-money funds in their PACs will have to close down those accounts.]

Edwards took in four huge checks, all from the legal community:$100,000 from Houston attorney John Williams, $100,000 from North Carolina attorney Wade Byrd, $50,000 from Florida attorney Wayne Hogan and $50,000 from the New York law firm of Weitz & Luxenburg.

In addition, Edwards accepted $25,000 from Houston lawyer Robert Taylor and a combined $25,000 from Dallas lawyer Russell Budd and his wife.

Edwards, however, has apparently hit a dead end in terms of contributions from Mississippi trial lawyers.

In the last months of 2001, when Edwards was raising only hard dollars for New American Optimists, Mississippi lawyers, their employees and their families accounted for $177,000 in contributions to the PAC, more than 20 percent of his total haul.

During the past three months, Mississippi's legal community gave just $5,000 to Edwards - less than one-tenth of one percent of the hard and soft dollars the Senator raised during that time.

The last check from Mississippi arrived Feb. 5, two days before Pickering's hearing, during which Edwards delivered a blistering cross-examination of the judge that many Judiciary Democrats cited as critical in their decision to oppose the nomination.

Scruggs, a native of Pascagoula, Miss., who has known Pickering for more than 20 years, said he tried in vain to get Edwards to hear his arguments in support of the judge. But Edwards didn't return his calls, and Scruggs, who has never contributed to the Senator's campaigns, vowed to rally opposition to the North Carolinian's presidential ambitions.

"He's probably seen his last nickel out of here,"Scruggs said Wednesday. While there have been no formal votes among Mississippi bar members, Scruggs said he has raised the issue and has found a generally positive response to his anti-Edwards crusade.

Some Edwards supporters privately suggested that there isn't that much money to be gained from Mississippi anyway, and that Edwards can portray his vote against Pickering as a principled stand that showed his willingness to oppose deep-pocketed trial lawyers.

Scruggs, however, insisted there is more money to be had in Mississippi, funds that are now waiting for one of the other Democratic contenders.

"Had [Edwards] been more responsive, he could have gotten a lot more of it," he said of the campaign cash, vowing to find a way to exact more revenge in the future.

Speaking of sleezy trial lawyers, I ran accross this story about another trial lawyer turned politican, Geoffrey Fieger, today at http://overlawyered.com/

April 23-24 -- Fieger's ivied walls. Controversial attorney Geoffrey Fieger is in the news again after losing a murder case for a client in Sarasota, Fla.: "Chief Circuit Judge Thomas Gallen said Fieger should be punished for calling two men who served on the jury 'Nazis' and 'creeps.' Fieger fired back, saying he has a First Amendment right to say bad things about jurors and that he may sue the judge for saying otherwise. Gallen said the Michigan lawyer's 'outrageous' behavior violated a Florida Bar rule that says an attorney 'shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of' court officials and jurors." Fieger client Ralf Panitz, 42, "was convicted March 26 of killing his ex-wife, Nancy Campbell, on July 24, 2000, the same day he, Campbell and his new wife appeared on an episode of the 'Jerry Springer Show.'" (Jennifer Sullivan, "Attorney, judge in war of words", Manatee (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, Apr. 2).

Civility disputes involving Fieger are of course a staple item on this site. Last year, for example (see May 3, 2001), he faced a probe before the state attorney grievance commission following reports that he used his radio show to unleash "an obscenity-laced tirade" against three state appeals judges. For more examples of the Southfield, Mich.-based attorney's style, see Sept. 14, 1999 and May 31, 2001. So it came as a bit of a shock to learn that the litigator's name is now going to be adorning a prominent Michigan institution of legal education. According to Michigan State University's law school, "Fieger has made a gift of $4 million to initiate and sustain the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute," billed as "the first trial practice institute at a law school designed specifically to train law students as successful trial lawyers."

Rising to the dignity of the occasion in a press release, MSU-DCL dean and professor Terence Blackburn endorsed the school's new benefactor in language well suited for a client recruitment brochure. "Mr. Fieger is arguably the most preeminent [sic] trial lawyer in the country, and he is an inspiration to our students," Blackburn said. "It is Mr. Fieger's dedication to his clients, his thorough preparation for each case and his skill in the courtroom that serve as a model for this institute." ("Fieger's $4 Million Gift To Law College at MSU Establishes Nation's First Trial Practice Institute for Law Students", MSU news release, Nov. 27; "$4 million gift to MSU-DCL funds trial practice institute", MSU News, Dec. 6; "Fieger's gift", Lansing State Journal, Nov. 29 (defense of grant); letter from concerned alum, Detroit Free Press, Nov. 28). Last year the Detroit Free Press found Fieger unapologetic about charges by his opponents that he bullies and badgers witnesses on the stand. (Dawson Bell, "Fieger's wins lose luster in appeals", Detroit Free Press, May 29). "'Trials are battles,' Fieger said. Intimidating witnesses 'is what trial attorneys do,' he said." Can we assume that it will therefore be a skill taught at the new institute?

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