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May 10, 2006

Comments

Will

Boeing is a big company, and Luttig will be a big player there, but when it comes down to it his ego won't be stroked nearly as much as when he was a sitting judge.

If not for the money, why head to securities law, sarbanes-oxley, "did we file out 10K on time" of the corporate world? My bet is that he hates it.

Talked to one hired-but-not-yet-started Luttig clerk this morning (May 11th). Seems that the Judge has yet to call them about it.

Goldie

The article on the frontpage of the WSJ this morning is a *Must-Read*

TLSFederalist

I agree that he probably took this opportunity because he realized no promotion was coming. On the other hand, this may be a brilliant way to be nominated to the Supreme Court. During the time nominations were being mulled, we heard a fair bit about lack of diversity of experience in the Supreme Court candidate pool; perhaps a corporate General Counsel is just the type of diverse experience that would make it easier to nominate him in the future.

default

"That's Democratic thinking."

Yeah because everyone knows that almost no Dems work in the private sector and the ones that do hate themselves. Please.

Anon

Don't think this is about the money. Money has never been what gets Luttig out of bed in the morning. Besides that, Luttig's family has plenty of money; while he might want to write the check personally, his kids would be provided for even if he became a sadhu, complete with the ash smeared face and the wild matted hair.

I think it's about the challenge. He's never much practiced private law, and certainly not at this level. He gets to move from the rarified atmosphere of working with a cozy team reading briefs that address crisply defined questions presented, and move to a situation where he has manage a large staff that has to anticipate legal challenges involving facts that no one wants to talk about and involving law that may not have gelled. He's had fifteen years experience (really, much more, counting his own background as a clerk and Supreme Court employee) to master the job of federal judge; he's got about five minutes to master the job of general counsel, without the benefit of having ever been the principal outside advisor to a corporation or a member of an inhouse legal team. It's going to be an exhilarating ride.

As a Republican, I doubt that he is going to lie awake at night fretting that he has moved into the productive sector and dropped off the public teat. That's Democratic thinking. He understands that those who work for a living in the private sector help make this country great, and that there is in fact no negative correlation between how much you make and how much you contribute (hard as that is for journalists, academics and government bureacrats to understand).

If he does well, the sky is the limit for him in the private sector. If he steers Boeing through its pending legal challenges, why should not he not be considered for the CEO job at a company trying to recover from scandal? Or, just maybe, he could run for elected, not appointed, office.

Seems like their best bet would be to go what looks to be a Luttig mini-me: Brett Kavanugh, assuming he is confirmed.

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