About Timothy Harper
Timothy Harper is an award-winning journalist, author and lawyer. He has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Atlantic Monthly, among others. He’s also a collaborator, ghostwriter, and book doctor with a dozen books of his own, including License to Steal: The Secret World of Wall Street and the Systematic Plundering of the American Investor; and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the U.S. Constitution. He received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin and has taught in the journalism graduate schools at CUNY, Columbia and NYU.
Articles written by Timothy Harper
The First First Amendment Lawyer
Floyd Abrams on the Pentagon Papers, Judith Miller and why clerkships are great (it’s not why you think)It’s not trendy to say you like the media, but Floyd Abrams doesn’t care. “Journalists do have awfully thin skins for people who can dish it out,” Abrams says. “But they’re smart, fun, exciting.” That’s one reason why the 71-year-old partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism rather than, say, any law school he desires. “I like law students,” he says. “I hire law students. But if I had to pick a social class to …
The Angel
Thanks to Cindy Robinson, victims of child sex abuse find the strength to step forwardKevin Zile becomes emotional when he talks about Cindy Robinson. “The first time I met her was at her office,” he begins, calmly. He describes the centuryold brick building across the street from the Fairfield County Courthouse in Bridgeport that is the home of Tremont & Sheldon. Robinson has a corner office on the ground floor, all windows and wood, with a glass door leading to a vest-pocket garden. “It was four years ago,” Zile continues. “She was pregnant. And I …
Don't Mess with Mongo
Robert Mongeluzzi comes from a long line of people injured on the job, which is why he fights so hard against workplace negligenceRobert Mongeluzzi is just back from Augusta, Ga., where he was trying to work out a settlement for a client who had multiple amputations—both legs, right arm, genitals, pelvis, hips, buttocks—as a result of a construction accident. Mongeluzzi, head of the 21-lawyer Philadelphia firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky, talks about how his client, Emmanuel Martinez, now has to use a custom-made plastic “bucket” to sit up in a wheelchair. It’s so painful he can only manage four to …
Inside Man
Robert Barnett is a giant in publishing, an expert at presidential debate prep, and just an all-around nice guyWhen Robert Barnett’s daughter Meredith was little, the kids in her class were asked what their fathers do for a living. “My daddy helps people,” she said. That’s still Barnett’s favorite description—and certainly the most succinct—of his widely varied and much-envied practice as a senior partner at Williams & Connolly in Washington. Quietly representing big corporations is the heart of his practice, but he’s become famous as the dealmaker for top officials returning to …
Government Problems? Call Ted Wells
Lewis Libby, in big trouble, knew where to turnIt is shortly after 8 a.m. on a gray Saturday on the 26th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper. The offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are dark and quiet. Except for one corner office. Light leaks from beneath the closed door. Inside, someone talks on the phone in a low, rumbling voice. Suddenly the door flies open. “Hey, come on in here. Sorry to keep you waiting. I had to finish that conference call,” says a smiling Ted V. Wells Jr. That call was a strategy session about …
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