Big Business Lawyer and Supporter of Mass Transit, Environmental Awareness

Clay C. Long's best year in his professional life happened at his first law job, 52 years ago. He clerked for Justice Hugo Black the year Black wrote the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says states must provide lawyers for poor people charged with crimes.

Long claims no credit for Gideon v. Wainwright.

Still, “I did help,” he says.

Pondering constitutional law at the nation's highest court, working alongside the “very, very smart” and “always courteous and gentlemanly” justice from Alabama is about as good as it gets, he says. But the rest of Long's career has hardly been shabby.