Their Own Defense

"Bob's thinking of me and referring that matter to me, in particular -- it's hard to describe just how grateful I am," said Levy, who later represented a slew of witnesses in the Fannie Mae accounting probe based on a referral from a law school classmate.

Sharing legal fees is rare in the criminal defense practice. Rather, the reward for the person doing the referring is a deep reservoir of goodwill and the unspoken expectation that the business tip will be reciprocated.

"Obviously it is both human nature and a good thing for people to help those who help them," said Washington lawyer Abbe D. Lowell, who defended former HealthSouth chief Richard M. Scrushy. "It's a rule of good human resources."

Putting in a good word for a colleague is all the more important in a city with a rising supply of former SEC and Justice Department lawyers becoming defense attorneys, each marketing himself or herself as an expert in regulatory investigations.

"I don't think there's enough business for everybody who practices white-collar," said Jamie Gorelick, a former top Justice Department official. "You can get the A team. Why go with the B team?"

Gorelick said that early in her career as a defense lawyer, she sometimes relied on colleagues who sent her cases involving female employees. But once Gorelick began forging her own relationships with executives and in-house lawyers at major corporations, she gained the clout to make referrals herself. "I became a lot more popular," she said dryly.

In Washington, where the U.S. attorney's office handles more violent crimes than corporate investigations, there are still relatively few lawyers with connections to industry and Wall Street. Sullivan and Feffer, both of Williams & Connolly, Bennett and a few others have attracted enough corporate business to become legal brand names. For others, it can take years of scraping together assignments and defending low-level executives before a Fannie Mae or a General Motors calls.

Weingarten, who has built an unusually high-profile practice mostly by defending individual executives, including real estate developer Douglas Jemal and former Tyco lawyer Mark Belnick, said former Justice Department colleagues and younger lawyers are increasingly hitting him up for business.

"If you're 56 and your practice has dried up and you have three kids in private school and a big mortgage, you're in panic," Weingarten said. "It happens with ex-prosecutors. The Enron days were elusive, and they're gone."

Deciding whether to send a case to a needy friend, a highly competent up-and-comer or a distant acquaintance with a stellar reputation can be a dilemma, Weingarten said. Each has to be able to handle the legal heavy lifting, but how much weight to give friendship is a delicate balancing act.

"It's the grease," he said. "It's how the business works."

Steven Salky, who has defended the finance chiefs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, remembers that he agreed to have a hot dog and share some legal advice with an out-of-town attorney years ago. Later, the lawyer called him and offered him a role in what was then the biggest case in Salky's career.