I. Lewis Libby in Philly and Beyond

Any standard biography of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby you find will say that after graduating from law school he worked in Philadelphia before being asked to go to Washington by Paul Wolfowitz. (another example here)

Roughly two hours of searching around in newspapers and the Internet did not turn up the name of the firm where he worked. The names of the firms he worked at in DC are relatively easy to find, but that Philly firm...

In the name of curiosity and cats everywhere I decided to make it a mission to track it down. A week and a half and some time with Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearings, and I have it.

Are you ready?....

He was an associate at Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, a respected firm celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.

Interested in more trivia?

Mr. Libby's wife, Harriet Grant, is also a lawyer. In fact, according to an article in the 2001 New York Times ("Cheney Aide Will Eat Horse Guts Before He'll Spill Beans," by Eric Schmitt, April 30, 2001):

Mr. Libby is married to Harriet Grant, one of the senior Democratic lawyers to interview Anita Hill during the Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas.

Sen. Joe Biden was chairman of the Judiciary Committee during the Thomas hearings. Want more trivia? Earlier in the same article we learn his first name and how he got his nickname:

(It takes a phone call to Mr. Libby's older brother, Hank, to learn that the "I" stands for Irv. His nickname derives from the day Mr. Libby's father watched him crawling in his crib and joked, "He's a Scooter!")

I congratulate the NYT for having taken the time to find that information. On Friday I hope to read more of Libby's nomination hearings and will let you know if there is anything else interesting in there.

One last tidbit -- Mr. Libby does have an artistic side. In between governmental stints he wrote a novel, the Apprentice, that was well reviewed. A multi-faceted guy.