Legal News

Attorney General John Edwards? Justice John Edwards?

By Peter Lattman

As the Law Blog’s Nathan Koppel detailed yesterday, John Edwards’s exit from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday leaves rival campaigns scrambling for the backing of his donors, many of whom are big wig plaintiffs lawyers. According to CQ Moneyline, Edwards’s largest contributors by group came from lawyers, for a total of about $2.5 million through 2007.

The Clinton and Obama campaigns are aggressively courting this well-heeled constituency. “I’ve gotten phone calls this morning and emails over the past few days,” says Marc Stanley, a Dallas plaintiff’s lawyer and big Edwards backer. “We’re being called from people close to both candidates,” says Patrick Coughlin of IP specialists Coughlin Stoia, a large contributor to the Edwards campaign. Those two are undecided, but L.A. plaintiffs lawyer Thomas Girardi said he’s throwing his weight behind Clinton. The Clintons “have taken an important role in the protection of people, and Hillary has a proven track record,” Girardi says.

While it’s interesting to watch whom the plaintiffs’ bar will now throw their weight behind, we’re also interested in the fate of John Edwards. In the WaPo, Girardi mused at the notion of Edwards as attorney general. We’ve also heard bandied about the idea of a Democratic president filling an opening on the Supreme Court with Justice John Edwards.

Law Blog Questions of the Day: Is the plaintiffs bar better off backing Obama or Hillary? And do you see John Edwards as either attorney general or a Supreme Court justice?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).