Washingtonian magazine has a fun little piece on lawyers profiting from congressmen going after one another.

If you're interested in the intersection of law and politics, and we know many of you are, you'll enjoy this story. Here's how it starts:

Of all the angles played by Washington law firms, few can bring as much joy as having clients who aren’t playing with their own money.

Take the battle between two congressmen, John Boehner of Ohio and Jim McDermott of Washington: In a near-decadelong fight over McDermott’s leak of the contents of privileged and illegally taped conversations involving Boehner, the two ran up legal bills of about $1.6 million.

So who ended up covering that seven-figure legal bill? Find out, after the jump.

Here are some details about the case. A Florida couple recorded a 1996 call between Republican leaders using a radio scanner. Wow -- impressive sleuthing there. They gave the taped conversation about an ethics case against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich to McDermott, who leaked it to two newspapers.

Judge Thomas Hogan ruled in Boehner's favor, awarding him a $60,000 judgment. and sticking McDermott with the $1.6 million in legal fees.

Washingtonian's Kim Eisler scoffs a bit at McDermott's saying that it was "a small price to pay to fight for freedom of speech." He points out that McDermott is not personally footing the bill:

The law allows congressmen to use campaign contributions and legal-defense funds to pay lawyer bills; one of McDermott’s better-known fund donors was Barbra Streisand. Both men collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, yet they rarely face significant opposition.

So the big winner is not Boehner but Michael Carvin, his lead attorney from the Washington office of Ohio-based Jones Day. Nor was there any crying at the offices of the losing firm, Kirkland & Ellis, which collected $600,000 for its efforts.

Also profiting from the case was Ted Boutrous, a First Amendment specialist at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who represented five news organizations defending McDermott’s right to leak.

Maybe that could be a new recruiting slogan: "Go into Biglaw, 'cause playing with other people's money is fun!"

Pol Loses! Lawyers Win! [Washingtonian]