Kathleen Clark

Paying the Price for Heightened Ethics Scrutiny: Legal Defense Funds and Other Ways That Government Officials Pay Their Lawyers

This articles takes a comprehensive look at a problem of growing significance for government officials: how to pay the legal fees they incur when they or their colleagues are investigated for wrongdoing. Since Watergate, an increasing number of government officials have had to hire attorneys when called before grand juries and legislative committees or subjected to internal administrative investigations. Their legal fees often outstrip their government salaries or even their net worth. This article examines three mechanisms for government reimbursement of legal fees -- Justice Department regulations, the Independent Counsel statute, and private legislation -- and identifies the shortcomings of each. It then explores the legal status of legal defense funds, which top officials have used to raise millions of dollars to pay their legal fees. The article identifies several reforms that would treat government officials much more fairly and protect against corrupting influences. In addition, the article includes several charts containing otherwise difficult to find information, such as the amounts spent by all the Independent Counsels, amounts awarded in attorneys fees under the Independent Counsel statute, and the amounts raised by members of Congress for their legal defense funds.

The Ethics of Representing Elected Representatives

This essay is an attempt to sketch out in a preliminary way the work of several different types of legislative lawyers. It suggests that the role of lawyers who work for individual legislators may actually be quite similar to that of certain lawyers in the Executive Branch. The essay also examines the moral choices faced by legislative lawyers, and the degree to which their professional roles may insulate them from moral responsibility for the consequences wrought by the legislation on which they work. It is based primarily on my own experiences and observations as a lawyer on Capitol Hill as well as my conversations with other congressional lawyers.