ABA Journal's Lions of the Bar

by law shucks on February 26, 2009

ABA Pic

ABA has named 7 lawyers over 70 the “Lions of the Bar.” All are legendary (to put it in context, I’ve heard of all of them and I’ve done nothing but transactional work for 10 years), but not all are in BigLaw.

Bernie Nussbaum tells an anecdote about a young lawyer who told him her boyfriend was graduating from Yale Law and heading back to Arkansas to start a career in politics.

“That’s crazy,” Nussbaum responded. “He should get a good job with a New York law firm.”

“Well, he’s thinking about running for governor,” she continued, “because one day he’s going to be president of the United States.”

Nussbaum immediately stopped the car.

“I started yelling at her, and I mean literally screaming, ‘That is stupid. That is absolutely crazy. That is not going to happen.’ ”

It was Hill talking about Bill, obviously. Sometimes Bernie’s snap judgments don’t turn out so good.

Morrison & Foerster senior partner James Brosnahan is the other Lion practicing in BigLaw.

Joe Jamail has never practiced in a big firm, but he’s certainly stood shoulder to shoulder with them, or face to face against them. He has achieved some monumental jury verdicts, including a $10.5 billion judgment for Pennzoil, which was the largest upheld verdict in history. And that was in 1985 dollars.

Others on the list are James Neal, Fred Bartlit (of the eponymous firm), Bobby Lee Cook (widely believed to be the inspiration for TV’s Matlock), and Richard “Racehorse” Haynes.