White-Collar Crime

Trump And The White-Collar Bar

Defense attorneys are going to get a lot of press right now, but the work may be about to dry up.

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White House (by Cezary p via Wikimedia)

White House (by Cezary p via Wikimedia)

These are supposed to be good times for the white-collar bar. There’s a new special counsel in town, which has folks excited about who will be representing those who are approached by the FBI as a part of the Trump/Russia investigation.

The New York Times has noticed this. In “Lawyers Are the Big Winners in the Inquiry into the Election” on Dealbook, Peter Henning writes that “[a]s is often the case, the primary winners in an intensive investigation are the lawyers.”

But I think the rewards for having a piece of this investigation will not be financial. At least not immediately.

High-profile investigations can be career making. Lots of lawyers will want Trump/Russia work in order to make — or further — a name for themselves.

Trump staffers may fear crushing legal bills. As the Times notes,

A top-level white-collar practitioner can charge upward of $2,000 an hour, and the case often involves a cadre of lawyers reviewing records, attending meetings and preparing a witness. Add to the mix the potential for congressional hearings on Russian involvement in the election, and the costs can quickly reach six figures before much has even taken place.

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But fees of that magnitude are avoidable. I’ve heard rumors of large firms trying to make it known to White House staffers that they’d be willing to represent them at dramatically reduced rates in order to burnish the white-collar credentials of lawyers who work in other areas.

I’d be suspicious of hiring a municipal bond lawyer who only knows how to spell FBI because he saw it in a movie for this kind of case, even if he’s only charging $150 an hour. If staffers are looking for value, there are a host of lawyers at small law firms with lower rate structures who have a lot of experience with FBI investigations (Sara Kropf, or Brian Stolarz, or any of the partners at my firm come to mind without much thought, but there are many more). But some folks are always going to want to shop at Nordstrom Rack.

And let’s not forget the younger lawyers who will be hired by Robert Mueller as he runs the investigation. Perhaps the greatest downside of Obama’s presidency for the white-collar bar is that without a series of special counsel investigations, there were fewer opportunities for lawyers to work on history-making cases. The Clintons have their faults, but their special counsel investigations made the careers of much of DC’s white-collar bar.

The money that will be made in legal fees off of the Trump investigations, I think, will ultimately not be huge. This is a massive industry; the Trump investigation is likely to be a drop in the bucket. But it will be the kind of work people talk about for years.

The real financial future of white-collar practice, I think, can be found in President Trump’s budget and the Attorney General’s prosecutorial priorities.

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The folks at Law360 have done a quick analysis of what Trump’s budget means for government enforcement work. In a nutshell, it’s what you’d expect — Trump is going after street crime.

The U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the country would get 300 new lawyers. Of those, 230 will prosecute violent crime, 70 will work immigration cases, and none of them will investigate white-collar crime.

Obviously, Trump’s budget will require Congressional approval and much will change. But a lot of the focus of DOJ is driven by the Attorney General. We can reasonably expect a shift away from white-collar work and toward immigration.

While the Attorney General has said he’ll keep a focus on white-collar crime, he also wants to go after immigration, guns, and drugs. For the Attorney General, it’s likely that white-collar crime is like salad at the end of the buffet table: his plate is going to be full of what he loves before he gets there.

The bottom line is that while white-collar defense lawyers are now much more useful in social situations, and it’s nice to see your friends quoted in the news, I fear that winter is coming.

If you’re a young lawyer thinking of a career in white-collar criminal defense, try to get a job working for the special counsel. Failing that, now might be a good time to learn a little more about ERISA.

Matt Kaiser is a white-collar defense attorney at KaiserDillon. He’s represented stockbrokers, tax preparers, doctors, drug dealers, and political appointees in federal investigations and indicted cases. His twitter handle is @mattkaiser. His email is mkaiser@kaiserdillon.com He’d love to hear from you if you’re inclined to say something nice.

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