Why Is Lisa Blatt Endorsing Brett Kavanaugh?

[steve2470]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/why-is-lisa-blatt-endorsing-brett-kavanaugh.html

On Tuesday, Lisa Blatt—a self-described “liberal feminist lawyer”—will endorse the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Blatt is a SCOTUS superstar who has argued 35 cases before the court, more than any other woman. She has won 32 of them, an astonishing record for any advocate. Blatt clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and frequently supports progressive litigation pro bono; in March, she filed an influential (though ultimately unsuccessful) amicus brief in opposition to Donald Trump’s travel ban. Yet she is now backing the nomination of Kavanaugh, who will surely rule against her in virtually every liberal case she brings to the court. Why?

The answer is simple: Blatt works at Arnold and Porter, an elite law firm that often represents wealthy corporations. To its credit, the firm funds pro bono ventures that permit its luminaries, like Blatt, to pursue progressive causes. But it will always, always value capital over justice. The needs of its paying clients will take priority over the interests of its pro bono practice every single time. That is the cardinal rule of Big Law, and it should come as no surprise that Blatt is playing this nomination by the books.

I do not mean to suggest that firms like Arnold and Porter are cynical or unscrupulous because they represent large corporations while simultaneously defending the rights of the powerless. It is entirely noble for the firm to devote a substantial portion of its immense funds to social justice groups and indigent defendants. Credit where it’s due: A&P attorneys have represented death row inmates and victims of discrimination in employment, education, and housing. Blatt herself argued a landmark case that persuaded a federal appeals court to prohibit peremptory challenges to gay jurors on the basis of their sexual orientation. The firm encourages its lawyers to devote 15 percent of their time to pro bono work, and the country is a better place for it.

But these cases aren’t the bread and butter of A&P’s practice. The firm makes its money by representing corporations like BP (which A&P defended following the Deepwater Horizon spill), Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, Novartis, Pfizer, and Philip Morris. (Blatt’s own attorney profile boasts that she helped to overturned the “reinstatement of $10 billion verdict against client Philip Morris in a ‘lights’ cigarette case.”) A&P also represents businesses rather than workers in labor disputes and specializes in breaking up class actions.


FWIW. She is testifying for Kavanaugh right now.