Some of you think that we list a bit too much to the right around here — that we rave about prominent legal conservatives, while mocking the liberals. We’ve heard your complaints.

For the record, we regularly poke fun at conservatives, while raving about liberals. In terms of garnering raves, as long as you’re a Supreme Court clerk, you’re generally golden.

But in a deliberate effort to be even more balanced, we’ll now provide you with an alternative viewpoint on Professor Viet Dinh, of Georgetown Law. Dinh is a leading legal conservative, a former Bush Administration official and Federalist Society celebrity, who has been previously praised in these pages (for his genius, connections, wealth, and svelteness, among other things).

Here is what one reader, who once interviewed for a job with Professor Dinh, had to say about him:

Upon meeting [Viet Dinh] and spending a few minutes with him, I graciously declined to have anything to do with the man. Please, please, don’t pump this guy up anymore.

I have been a card carrying member of the Federalist Society since my first year of law school. [Dinh] may be brilliant, but he is so consumed with his own greatness that he is abhorrent to be around. He name drops, interrupts, questions everything you say, and condescends to you. Also, he stutters profusely.

Sounds pretty bad, eh? But it gets worse:

For a man who hails from Vietnam and California, he should know that is offensive to wear cowboy boots, a Rolex, and a French-cuffed shirt, while wearing jeans.

The horror, the horror! As far as we’re concerned, that disastrous fashion combination should preclude Dinh from being Senate-confirmed to any post. Ever.

Viet D. Dinh bio [Georgetown Law School]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Viet Dinh (scroll down)

Remember Professor Viet Dinh? If not, here’s what we previously wrote about him:

Dinh represents venture capitalist god Thomas Perkins, in Perkins’s (rather tense) dealings with HP’s board and lawyers [concerning the HP spying controversy].

Dinh, for those of you visiting from other planets, is one of the highest-flying legal eagles in the country. He’s a former high-ranking official at the Justice Department, current professor at Georgetown Law, and former Supreme Court clerk (to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor).

The American Lawyer recently published an interesting article about the HP controversy and the troubles it has caused for Larry Sonsini, one of Silicon Valley’s top lawyers. We haven’t had the chance to read it closely; but one of you highlighted this little tidbit:

Over a Washington, D.C., lunch in which Dinh quickly downed three glasses of wine, three orders of oysters and a seafood gumbo, the former government lawyer recalled he was startled when [Thomas] Perkins first told him about the leaks investigation.

Well! It seems that the super-cuddly professor has quite an appetite.

Perhaps Professor Dinh is still haunted by his childhood as a refugee from war-torn Vietnam? Relax, Viet — everything is all right. You are a millionaire, and you don’t need to worry about where your next meal is coming from. (And if you run out of food late one night, you can always eat the prestige of that SCOTUS clerkship.)

Our question to Professor Dinh: Given your voracious appetite, how do you stay so slim?

Where Will the Troubles End for Sonsini and HP? [The American Lawyer]
Hewlett-Packard Lawyer Dinh Gives Washington the ‘Viet-Spin’ [New York Observer]

Earlier: Viet Dinh: Still As Cuddly As Ever

* Our first annual ERISA Hotties Contest is over, and America’s hottest pension and employee benefit lawyers have been crowned. Some other great candidates were passed over; but hey, not everyone can win.

* The new season of Survivor: an exotic Cook Islands setting, interracial conflict — and hot Asian lawyers.

* Practice pointer: When preparing a witness for a deposition, advise him not to drop the F-bomb.

* Wachtell Lipton just doled out midyear bonuses to its lucky (and hard-working) associates.

* Summer associates: still as wild and crazy as ever. And occasionally moronic, too.

* Law firm nicknames: Is your firm on the list?

* Sorry, right-wing gunners: Justice Scalia is done hiring his clerks for October Term 2007.

* Viet Dinh, the Georgetown law prof and former OLP kingpin advising VC god Thomas Perkins in L’Affaire HP, really loves hugs — and nice real estate.

* Outstanding discovery requests: Fashion Victims, Internal Memos, Legal Celebrity Sightings, Skaddenfreude.

The recent HP leak investigation scandal has drawn into the spotlight a legal celebrity of the first rank: Viet Dinh. Dinh represents venture capitalist god Thomas Perkins, in Perkins’s (rather tense) dealings with HP’s board and lawyers.

Dinh, for those of you visiting from other planets, is one of the highest-flying legal eagles in the country. He’s a former high-ranking official at the Justice Department, current professor at Georgetown Law, and former Supreme Court clerk (to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor).

Despite his platinum-plated résumé, Dinh is a grabby l’il guy. Here’s the lede of Anna Schneider-Mayerson’s very interesting profile of Dinh, in the New York Observer:

On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Viet Dinh, one of the lead architects of the controversial Patriot Act, was standing in his Washington, D.C., office, waxing poetic about Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

“Justice O’Connor, I love her so much,” the 38-year-old law professor said. “I love her so much. She’s the best.”

As if to return the compliment, her image, in the form of a photo portrait signed to her former clerk “with respect and affection,” smiled back at him.

Hugs all around!

The effusive Dinh is, according to Schneider-Mayerson, “an avid and nonpartisan hugger.” As he readily admits, “I always hug [conservative lawyer] Ted Olson and [ACLU executive director] Anthony Romero,” he said.

Does this surprise us? Not in the least. Learn why, after the jump.