Legal News

When it Comes to the Senate, to Aspire is to Esquire

By Ashby Jones

Democrats gain power, Democrats lose power. Republicans gain power, Republicans lose power. But in regard to the makeup of the U.S. Senate, one thing seems fairly certain: There Will be Lawyers. There Will Always Be Lots and Lots of Lawyers.

We were reminded of this Wednesday upon reading story after story about folks preparing to throw their hats into 2010 Senate races. Of the three who’ve either announced their intentions or are rumored to be thinking about running, all three have law degrees. And two of the three are practicing attorneys. Two of the three would be vying for seats currently held by folks with law degrees.

The brief rundown: No sooner had Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Ct.) (Providence, University of Louisville Law) announced he was stepping down when the Nutmeg State’s attorney general, Richard Blumenthal (Harvard, Yale Law) (pictured), announced he was likely to run for the seat.

Just down I-95 a bit, news broke that former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford was mulling a possible challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) (Dartmouth UCLA Law). Gillibrand worked at Davis Polk and Boies Schiller before going politico. Ford (Penn, Michigan Law), moved to New York three years ago and currently works at Merrill Lynch. He has never practiced law.

But wait, that’s not all. The BLT blog reported Wednesday that Howrey partner and former clerk for Justice Alito, Michael Lee (BYU, BYU Law), will give a primary challenge to Republican incumbent Bob Bennett (not a lawyer).

By our last count, lawyers held some 55 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Part of us thinks this makes sense: One of the main roles of lawmakers is to, well, make laws.

But is it a good thing that over half the Senate has law degrees? Where are the doctors and executives, farmers and teachers? Justice Scalia recently remarked that the current Supreme Court was comprised of too many judges. Are similar sorts of lack-of-diversity issues a problem in Congress?

LBers, do you think there are too many lawyers among the lawmakers?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 06, 2010 (boomark / email).