The Boys of Whitewater

No one knows exactly how consequential the current scandal at the White House may prove to be, but that hasn't prevented top lawyers from finding plenty of Whitewater-related work. Will one of these men be the next Brendan Sullivan?

-- LAWYER: Richard I. Beattie, co-counsel

-- FIRM: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

-- CLIENT: Roger Altman, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury

-- NATURE OF PRACTICE: corporate; focus on mergers and acquisitions

-- OTHER CLIENT: Paramount

-- FAVORITE JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL: no comment

-- LAWYER: Robert S. Bennett

-- FIRM: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

-- CLIENT: Harold Ickes, White House deputy chief of staff

-- NATURE OF PRACTICE: white-collar criminal defense

-- OTHER CLIENTS: Caspar Weinberger, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, Marge Schott

-- FAVORITE JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL: doesn't read Grisham but recently enjoyed Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis by Howell Raines

-- LAWYER: Stanley M. Brand

-- FIRM: Brand & Lowell

-- CLIENT: George Stephanopoulos, senior adviser to the President

-- NATURE OF PRACTICE: white-collar criminal defense; ethics

-- OTHER CLIENTS: Reps. William Gray, Dan Daniel Austin Murphy and James Weaver

-- FAVORITE JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL: prefers reading books about baseball

-- LAWYER: Edward Dennis Jr.

-- FIRM: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

-- CLIENT: Margaret Williams, First Lady's chief of staff

-- NATURE OF PRACTICE: white-collar criminal defense

-- OTHER CLIENT: Department of Justice (prepared report on Waco)

-- FAVORITE JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL: The Firm

-- LAWYER: Lawrence Pedowitz

-- FIRM: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

-- CLIENT: Bernard Nussbaum, ex-White House counsel (and former Wachtell, Lipton partner)

-- NATURE OF PRACTICE: white-collar criminal defense; regulatory

-- OTHER CLIENTS: Goldman Sachs, United Technologies, Unisys, Lazard Freres

-- FAVORITE JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL: A Time to Kill

-- LAWYER: William W. Taylor III

-- FIRM: Zuckerman, Spaeder, Goldstein, Taylor & Kolker

-- CLIENTS: Thomas ("Mack") McLarty, White House chief of staff; Lisa Caputo, First Lady's press secretary

-- NATURE OF PRACTICE: white-collar criminal defense

-- OTHER CLIENT: former Sen. Alan Cranston

-- FAVORITE JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL: no comment; recently read a life of Clarence Darrow