A reader sends this post along, by San Francisco attorney Stephen Kaus. According to a March 16, 2007 article by The American Lawyer ("Heyday of paydays may be over," subscription only) noted by Kaus, former US attorney in Los Angeles Debra Wong Yang, who says she departed the US attorney job of her own volition, and who until recently headed the office in charge of the investigation of former House appropriations committee chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Ca), reportedly got a $1.5 million offer to join the firm representing Lewis. Reports the American Lawyer:

Debra Wong Yang, 47, the Los Angeles U.S. attorney and a member of the president's corporate fraud task force, got north of $1.5 million to join Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher a few weeks later, according to two recruiters.

According to this report, Yang now "co-chair[s] Gibson Dunn’s National Crisis Management Practice Group along with Washington, D.C. partner Theodore B. Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general, and New York partner Randy Mastro, who served as New York’s deputy mayor of operations under Rudy Giuliani. She is also expected to play a central role in the Business Crimes and Investigations Practice Group, the firm said." Olson of course was the Bush administration's solicitor general. Yang's colleague at the LA US attorney's office, assistant US attorney Douglas Fuchs, has also reportedly joined her at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Of course, Yang and Fuchs would have to recuse themselves from working on Lewis' defense. But interesting all the same that the very investigators in charge of what had to be a most uncomfortable investigation for the party in office got poached by the firm defending him.

Posted by Laura at March 17, 2007 02:37 PM