Thomas B. Griffith: Another Fine Nominee

By way of Discourse.net, we find the tragic tale of Thomas B. Griffith, a George W. Bush nominee to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals

Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush's nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years, according to Utah state officials.

Griffith, the general counsel for Brigham Young University since August 2000, had previously failed to renew his law license in Washington for three years while he was a lawyer based in the District. It was a mistake he attributed to an oversight by his law firm's staff. But that lapse in his D.C. license, reported earlier this month by The Washington Post, subsequently prevented Griffith from receiving a law license in Utah when he moved there.

Under Utah law, Griffith's only option for obtaining the state license was to take and pass the state bar exam, an arduous test that lawyers try to take only once. He applied to sit for the exam, but never took it, Utah bar officials confirm.

[...]

"The Utah State Bar advised him that to the extent that his duties as general counsel involved giving legal advice, he ought to closely associate himself with a Utah bar member," Justice spokesman John Nowacki said. "It has been Mr. Griffith's practice to closely associate himself with a Utah bar member when giving legal advice."

Nowacki declined to comment on whether the state bar advised Griffith to take the bar exam. According to sources familiar with a letter the state bar wrote to Griffith last year, bar officials recommended that Griffith take the exam, and work closely with a Utah bar member while his license application was pending.

Griffith discovered in November 2001, a year after he joined Brigham Young, that his District law license had lapsed several years earlier, in 1998, for failure to pay his dues. He immediately paid his dues and renewed his D.C. license, Nowacki said. But for the first year in Utah, he was advising Brigham Young, a Mormon university in Provo, without a current law license from any state.

[...]

Griffith, 55, is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and was the lead counsel for the Senate during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Married and the father of six, he is a former partner at the D.C. firm of Wiley Rein & Fielding, whose partners served in prominent positions in past Republican administrations.

Here are a few particularly striking things about this story:

1) Griffith didn't know for three years that his DC bar membership had lapsed. Three years? Three years? And then he blamed it on a staff oversight? I guess the Republicans really are the party of "personal responsibility" ... for the peons. But the thing is, as an attorney, it is his personal responsibility to ensure that he is licensed to practice. It's not anyone else's responsibility. Griffith blew it, and then he made it worse by ignoring his responsibility to the people of Utah to ensure that he was licensed to practice there. The obligation runs from an attorney to the people of the state where he or she practices. That's the point of having a bar exam and continuing legal education -- to protect the public. But I guess those rules are just for the little people.

2) The DC Circuit Court The DC Court of Appeals handles, among other things, patent infringement cases, administrative law cases, and (ironically) disciplinary proceedings for the District of Columbia Bar. These kinds of cases are complex. They require close parsing of densely written regulations and briefs, and attention to detail. And this is the court to which George W. Bush wants to appoint Griffith, who can't be bothered to even notice the expiration date on his bar membership card?

3) If you look at the timeline, you'll note that Griffith's DC bar membership expired in 1998, and that he served as chief counsel to the Senate in the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. That second fact suggests to me that his nomination is a payoff for that service, but even more interesting (and morbidly amusing) is the fact that the impeachment trial took place in January and February of 1999. So he was advising the Senate on the most serious of constitutional matters without a license to practice law.

I remind the reader again: lifetime appointment.

Comments

[Andy]

I think patent infringement is more the Federal Circuit's bag ... otherwise, I couldn't agree more with your post.

[paperwight]

My bad. Patent infringement is of course the Federal Circuit's bag. Correction forthcoming.

[anon]

The DC Court of Appeals does handle DC lawyer discipline cases. However, the court Tom Griffith has been nominated to is the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

More to the point, however, I have known Tom Griffith for years and can tell you that he is an enormously decent man who would make a fine judge. This whole mess is, I am sure, embarrassing for Tom, but should not be deemed disqualifying.

[paperwight]

Well, it's clear from my sloppiness that I would apparently not make a fine judge. And while it is your opinion that he is a decent man and I have no evidence otherwise, the fact remains that he couldn't be bothered to keep his bar membership up, after he was told that it would be required to practice law in Utah.

[Josh]

I know this is a little late to be posting this, but I jsut found thid commentary. While I am not condoning what happened at all, as a personal friend of Mr. Griffith, I just have to step into his defense. I have known Mr. Griffith since I was 12 years old (I'm 28 now) and he has practically been family to me. After knowing him as well as I do, I know him as the kind of person who would never put himself above anyone else. He has always been someone who comes to the defense of the little people. I know you do not know him personally, but I know that he would be a valuable asset to the Circuit Court. And while I may be biased as being a close friend, I also know that my political stance is very different than Mr. Griffith's. And even having those differences I can see what an asset he would be.