“Just because you're not a Beltway lawyer doesn't mean you don't know what you're doing.”

That's what Andrew Ekonomou told Reuters, which broke the news on Tuesday that the Atlanta-based lawyer with the Lambros Firm has been elevated to a more prominent role in President Trump's legal team in the wake of John Dowd's departure.

I agree—sort of. You don't need subject matter expertise or years of experience to be an effective advocate.

O'Melveny & Myers partner Daniel Petrocelli, for example, has never tried an antitrust case, and he's doing just fine leading AT&T's team in the biggest merger case in decades.

Or take Jones Day partner Stephanie Parker, who never handled an IP matter before she won a record-breaking $2.54 billion patent infringement verdict in late 2016.

Except Petrocelli and Parker are first and foremost courtroom litigators—they know how to try cases. Those core skills translate across practice areas. Plus they're backed by a deep bench of lawyers who know the ins and outs of the practice areas.

Which is why looking at Ekonomou's biography and cases where he's appeared as counsel of record, it's hard to see how he's prepared to play a major role in the president's defense. Especially not when he's facing off against Robert Mueller III and his team of white-collar veterans.

Ekonomou is listed as an attorney in 118 cases in Pacer. All but 13 were filed in Georgia, split between district court and bankruptcy court.

In the handful of cases outside Georgia, he's often been co-counsel with Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, who heads the American Center for Law and Justice.

Those cases include a dispute over payments with a company that provided direct mail services to Sekulow's group, a contract fight with an affiliate, a FOIA suit and a suit by Tea Party groups against the IRS.

In 2016, according to Lit Daily sibling publication The Daily Report. Ekonomou and Sekulow also worked together as special assistant prosecutors for Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson in a Georgia Supreme Court case, beating back a First Amendment challenge to a state law banning sexually explicit online contact with minors.

Ekonomou has also been tapped regularly as a court-appointed receiver and has been a special assistant attorney general for the State of Georgia. From 1978 to 1983, he was an AUSA and chief of the criminal division in the Northern District of Georgia.

It's a perfectly respectable legal career. But there's little indication he's done anything even remotely similar to what will be asked of him now: prepare the president to be questioned by Mueller, and show there was no collusion with Russia.

Suffice to say he's no Dan Webb or Ted Olson. Heck, he's not even Joe diGenova or Victoria Toensing.

On the other hand, at least Ekonomou is available. Is this what Trump meant when he tweeted, “Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case … don't believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on.”

 

Introducing The Posner Center of Justice for Pro Se's

Shortly after Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner retired from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in September, he launched a pro bono legal services organization dedicated to helping pro se litigants.

It's now been re-named The Posner Center of Justice for Pro Se's, and it has a bold vision: to provide pro bono representation, but also to focus on assisting pro se litigants behind the scenes to help them to successfully represent themselves.

“Representing oneself in court is often the best way for a pro se to obtain justice,” Posner said in news release. “Unlike judges, juries tend to be impressed by a lone litigant standing up against a gaggle of lawyers.”

The center already has about 80 lawyers and non-lawyer advisors spread across 27 states, and expects eventually to have representatives in all 50 states as well as U.S. territories.

All staff are currently unpaid—though the center says that could change. “But not for Judge Posner, who has announced 'This work is a labor of love and I will not accept even a single penny for my work on behalf of pro se's,'” according to the news release.

Legal stars in academia who have joined the center include law professors Lawrence Lessig (Harvard), Abbe Gluck (Yale), Rebecca Stone (UCLA), Daniel Klerman (USC), James Geiser (University of Michigan), Shon Hopwood (Georgetown), Sandra Aistars (George Mason University), Christopher Ogolla (Savannah Law School), as well as Eric Posner, Alison Siegler, Thomas Miles, Joshua Avratin, David Zarfes, and William Landes (all from the University of Chicago).

“We are just touching the surface, for there are reliably believed to be at least a million pro se's in the United States,” Posner said. “Many of those pro se's, however, don't realize they can obtain legal assistance. Therefore, I will continue to work to get the message out that our organization exists, and then try to assist as many deserving pro se's as possible.”

 

Pardon me?

Of all the reactions to the scoop by The New York Times that former Trump lawyer John Dowd discussed pardons with two ex-top aides last year, this tweet by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz's George Conway III (a.k.a. Mr. Kellyanne Conway) is my favorite.

 

 

Conway—who recently transitioned from partner to of counsel at Wachtell—has been on an anti-Trump Twitter tear of late.

He's been especially harsh in what he's opted to retweet. For example, this week he passed on to his 10,900 followers, “WSJ editorial board on the president and the porn star is worth reading … His willful self-indulgence catches up to President Trump'”

Or this: “Dem lawmaker taunts Trump over spending bill: You got rolled.”

Or this: “It really is quite remarkable. Law firms that go to great lengths to get clients like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, firms that represent people charged with murder, are refusing to represent the President of the United States.”

 

What I'm Reading

John Dowd Calls Mueller 'Terrific' After Passing Trump Baton

Wait, what? “We had a terrific relationship with Mueller—the best that I can recall in my 50 years of practice,” Dowd said. “It was terrific, completely open, people trusted each other, and we had no misunderstandings.”

Judge Frees Up Whistleblower Award in Client-Poaching Spat

The $78 million bounty was held up due to a fight between whistleblower attorney Reuben Guttman and his former law firm, Grant & Eisenhofer.

Ex-Kirkland Partner Robert Khuzami Banked $11M Partnership Share

Dude.

Maryland, DC AGs Clear Initial Hurdle in Trump Emoluments Lawsuit

The judge said both D.C. and Maryland could show their alleged injuries are “fairly traceable” to Trump's actions with respect to his hotel in Washington, D.C.

Ex-Skadden Associate Charged in Mueller's Russia Probe Seeks Nonjail Sentence

Alex van der Zwaan says his career is ruined and he lives alone in a hotel in a city where he has no close friends.

Juror Faints After Watching Video in San Antonio Lawyer's Sex Assault Trial

Former San Antonio criminal defense lawyer Mark Benavides allegedly forced his clients to have sex with him to pay for legal services.

Court Rejects Ex-Drinker Associate's Libel Claims Against Partners

“They just said that, in their opinions, her work was not good enough. Maybe they were wrong. But their statements do not support a cause of action for defamation.”