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Clinton's Marlboro MenKen Starr isn't the only lawyer in Washington with a tobacco connection.

By Michael IsikoffPosted Saturday, Jan. 4, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET

Clinton's Marlboro Men
Ken Starr isn't the only lawyer in Washington with a tobacco connection.

By Michael Isikoff
(1,183 words; posted Friday, Jan. 3; to be composted Friday, Jan. 10)

When James Carville was recently asked by Nightline host Ted Koppel to identify his top objection to Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, the veteran Democratic campaign consultant singled out Starr's decision to represent tobacco companies. Starr, he charged, had taken "hundreds of thousands in legal fees" from companies who were "some of the most bitter enemies of the president."
"I'm not saying it's not legal to do that," Carville said. "I'm saying it is horrible."
Carville is at least right on the facts: Starr, a senior partner in the Chicago-based firm of Kirkland & Ellis, argued the case for Brown and Williamson and the other major tobacco companies last year in a federal appeals-court case growing out of a class-action lawsuit in New Orleans. But the Whitewater prosecutor is far from alone in renting his services to Big Tobacco--so have many of the country's biggest and most prestigious law firms, and in far more extensive ways than has Starr. Among them are quite a few with unusually close ties to Clinton, his many legal problems and, ironically, even the Whitewater case itself.
Here's a partial list.


Washington powerhouse law firm represents Bill and Hillary Clinton in Starr's Whitewater probe. Most recent figures show the firm has billed the Clintons more than $2.8 million for its Whitewater work--with more than $2.2 million of that still unpaid. Ex-partner Robert Litt now runs criminal division in Clinton Justice Department, directing probe of Democratic National Committee fund-raising from questionable foreign sources.		Joe Camel's law firm of choice in nation's capital. Firm partner Richard Cooper, a former Food and Drug Administration chief counsel, heads up Williams & Connolly's tobacco squad, spearheading cigarette giant RJR Nabisco's legal assault on new FDA regulations that would ban tobacco marketing and sales aimed at children.


Venerable Little Rock firm where Bill Clinton hung his shingle after losing the governorship in 1980 and where Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey (son of one of the firm's founding partners) toiled for years while double-timing as collector of Clinton campaign funds. Firm is now one of three helping to represent Clinton in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case. Firm partner C. Douglas Buford is also a lawyer for enterprises associated with the Lippo Group, the vast conglomerate run by the president's favorite Indonesian friends, the Riadys.		Wright, Lindsey represents U.S. Tobacco, the Greenwich, Conn.-based firm that is the country's largest producer of smokeless tobacco, otherwise known as oral "snuff"; UST has been repeatedly accused of marketing products such as "Skoal" and "Skoal Bandit" to teen-agers. Federal records show Lippo lawyer Buford is a registered lobbyist for UST, and that he received $60,000 during the first six months of 1996 to press company's case against FDA regs to White House officials and members of Congress.


Blue-chip Washington firm has supplied a high-powered crew of Clintonites, including White House counsel Jack Quinn, ex-Justice aide Irv Nathan, and top commodities regulator Brooksley Born. After Carville launched his anti-Starr campaign, Quinn joined in to publicly question Whitewater prosecutors' impartiality but studiously avoided mentioning tobacco issue.		Marlboro man heavy hitter in D.C. A&P tobacco lawyers direct hard-line strategy of industry leader Philip Morris against FDA. Firm also paid $240,000 to lobby Congress on behalf of tobacco giant during first six months of 1996.


Washington's biggest lobbying firm, once dubbed "an icon of Washington's mercenary culture." Recent partners include late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and newly appointed White House special counsel Lanny Davis, the aide in charge of Whitewater and Lippogate damage control. Firm chief Tommy Boggs featured in 1992 National Journal cover profile under the headline "Ready to Cash in Under Clinton."		Patton, Boggs was paid $220,000 in the first six months of 1996 by the Smokeless Tobacco Council, trade arm of the snuff industry, to lobby Congress and Clinton administration against anti-tobacco proposals. Name partner Tommy Boggs, who also represents trial lawyers and vending-machine makers, was reported last month to be seeking to negotiate "global settlement" of tobacco issues with Clinton administration officials; anti-smoking advocates fear Boggs' proposed deal is ploy to stave off federal regulation at a time when cigarette smoking among high-school students is rising sharply.


New York-based firm of former White House counsel and perpetual Whitewater target Bernard Nussbaum. A battery of Wachtell, Lipton lawyers now represents Nussbaum in his dealings with Starr's staff, including in new probe into whether Nussbaum lied about whether Hillary Clinton was responsible for hiring ex-bar bouncer Craig Livingstone as White House security chief.		The firm represents Philip Morris in so many lawsuits across the country that the country's No. 1 tobacco company is now believed to be one of Wachtell, Lipton's largest single clients. Name partner Herbert Wachtell headed up company's legal attack in 1995 on ABC's Day One program for broadcasting report on alleged nicotine manipulation by tobacco industry. Wachtell negotiated ABC apology with network lawyer (and renowned First Amendment expert) Floyd Abrams, who later filed brief on behalf of the Tobacco Institute that claimed FDA regs (based in part on evidence cited in the Day One report) were unconstitutional.


Big Miami law firm includes name partner Marvin Rosen, the Democratic National Committee finance chairman who oversaw activities of rogue fund-raiser John Huang, central figure in Lippogate scandal. Washington office also features Victoria Reggie Kennedy, wife of Sen. Edward Kennedy.		Outside lawyer to Lorillard, the cigarette maker that anti-smoking advocates charge targets inner-city communities; Lorillard's best-selling brand, Newport, is highest-selling cigarette among African-Americans. Greenberg, Traurig senior partner Arthur England Jr., a former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, represents Lorillard in two class-action lawsuits and headed up industry attack on a 1994 Florida law aimed at stripping industry of many of its legal defenses in tobacco litigation. Suffered setback last month when state judge ruled tobacco companies could be sued under federal racketeering law on the grounds that "no cocaine cartel, gambling empire, or white collar scheme has even approached the damage allegedly done to the state" by the defendants.


New York law firm of Robert Fiske. Fiske was first Whitewater special counsel selected by Attorney General Janet Reno with approval of then-chief counsel Nussbaum. Carville and other Starr critics say Fiske was doing a good job and should never have been replaced.		Davis, Polk is now chief outside counsel to Philip Morris on Justice Department criminal investigations into allegations that tobacco executives perjured themselves before Congress about addictive qualities of nicotine and concealed from investors material information about health dangers of their product. Davis, Polk lawyer heading up the Philip Morris defense: Robert Fiske.

Links

For a transcript of James Carville's sermonizing about Kenneth Starr's tobacco ties, see the Nightline site. NewsHour covers the debate over Starr's perceived conflicts of interest in a report titled "Falling Starr?" Tobacco companies are finding an increasing need for (Clinton's) lawyers' services. The State Tobacco Information Center details the cases of the 18 attorneys general who have brought cases against the industry thus far. Despite the Big Tobacco ties of the various law firms defending the president, the Clinton administration has been battling the tobacco companies. The Tobacco Control Resource Center and Tobacco Products Liability Project's site covers the FDA's fight to regulate the industry. Philip Morris makes its own case in its database of press releases. See the tobacco giant's attack on FDA proposals and its optimistic reports of quarterly growth. To keep track of who is doing what on which side of the tobacco clash, see the Tobacco Roll Call, a list of tobacco-tied notables. You may not find regulation funny, but you are invited to participate in an online "Tobacco Law Suit Mad Lib." Just fill in the details: the name of a disease, for example, and you've created your own version of "Tobacco Co. Wins at Trial."

Michael Isikoff is a reporter in Newsweek's Washington bureau.