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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now heads a conservative anti-tax group called Citizens for a Sound Economy, issued a statement last week in which he said Edwards represents a "well-connected swarm of trial lawyers who twist our legal system to pillage the productive sector for personal gain." But when asked whether CSE had evidence that Edwards had actually engaged in wrongdoing as a lawyer -- whether he had brought frivolous lawsuits, engaged in inappropriate forum shopping or committed any of the other abuses of which some lawyers stand accused -- CSE spokesman Chris Kinnan said no. "I haven't fully looked into that," he said. "Our focus has been on policy, and we wouldn't get involved in his personal history."
Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who wrote "The Rule of Lawyers" and blogs at Overlawyered.com, said he has questions about the scientific underpinnings for some of Edwards' victories, particularly those in the cerebral palsy cases. Stuart Taylor raised some of those questions in a National Journal commentary on "Four Trials" in February, and Olson hopes that the media will take a "closer look" at them now.
Unless that happens -- unless, that is, someone comes up with evidence that Edwards went beyond the realm of zealous advocacy in representing his clients -- the Republican attacks on Edwards as trial lawyer will manifest themselves in two ways: Edwards got rich from representing his clients and therefore can't really be a populist, and Edwards has received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from other trial lawyers and therefore can't be trusted to carry out anything but their own economy-killing agenda.
It's true that Edwards got rich, and fellow trial lawyers have been generous; what can be made of these facts is a different question.
According to a Washington Post analysis based on data from Dayton's paper, Edwards obtained for his clients $175 million in settlements and verdicts over the course of just 15 years. While Edwards, like most attorneys, won't discuss his fee arrangements with his clients, plaintiffs' lawyers generally take cases on a contingency-fee basis. If the client loses, the lawyer charges nothing and covers the costs associated with the case. But if the client recovers money, either through a verdict or a settlement, the lawyer typically keeps approximately one-third, plus reimbursement for the costs he has fronted.
The Bush-Cheney team, with the help of a compliant media, has already made much of Kerry's wealth, and Edwards' fortune -- while less than Cheney's and probably on par with Bush's -- adds fuel to that fire. And while the GOP apparently has no issue with the fact that Cheney made millions in his revolving-door stint at Halliburton and that Bush made much of his money through a sweetheart deal involving his share of baseball's Texas Rangers, Republicans seem to see something unseemly about Edwards making money as a lawyer.
In its list of Edwards' shortcomings, the Republican National Committee notes that "Edwards garnered more than $175 million" for his clients and became rich as a result.
And there's Tucker Carlson again, this time on a "Crossfire" episode last week: "My question is a very, very simple one. And I just want your honest answer. If [Edwards] is out to protect the weak, say, a little girl who was injured, terribly injured, in this Jacuzzi accident, why is it compassionate for him to take tens of millions of dollars of her settlement? Why doesn't he give that money back if he cares for the little girl?"
Of course, Edwards didn't take "tens of millions of dollars" of Valerie Lakey's settlement. After Edwards showed that the pool-drain company knew that people had been injured before by its product, that the product could have been made safe by the use of two inexpensive screws, and that the company had thought about including a written warning with the product but didn't do so -- and after the company's insurers rejected an offer to settle for $4.1 million -- a jury ordered the company to pay Valerie Lakey $25 million, and the parties settled on that amount. Edwards' law firm received about a third -- or roughly $8 million -- plus a million or so more as its share of settlements with other defendants in the case. A total of $10 million, maybe, but certainly not "tens of millions" as Carlson alleged.
Moreover, while Edwards' firm may not have "given back" its one-third to Lakey, Edwards and his former firm have contributed generously -- and continue to do so -- to causes that help children, among them the foundation Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, formed after their 16-year-old son, Wade, was killed in a car accident.
