Employment of Kyle D. Sampson reflects poorly on Hunton & Williams, LLP

Updated March 10, 2009 to reflect Mr. Sampson’s leave of absence from Hunton & Williams.

Updated on July 29, 2008, with a July 28, 2008,  update to my post on Kyle D. Sampson.

I have not previously sent my copies of my posts directly to their targets. At time of posting, I had no e-mail address for Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers or Kyle D. Sampson and I didn’t send send a copy to Senator Lisa Murkowski through her webmail system. When I was writing my post about his unethical conduct in the Don Siegelman matter, though, I found Judge Mark Everett Fuller’s e-mail address in his Alabama State Bar profile.

While I was thinking about sending Judge Fuller a copy of my post, I read about the recent engagement of Grievance Project-eligible Monica Goodling at Above the Law. Scrolling down the page, I came across this reference to D. Kyle Sampson, another alumnus of the Alberto Gonzales-era Department of Justice.

As TPMMuckraker’s Paul Kiel explained at the time:

So what’s next for Alberto Gonzales’ former chief of staff Kyle Sampson? Where does a senior Justice Department official with an expertise in politicization, who has experience orchestrating a purge of prosecutors, engaging in a clumsy cover-up, and getting drubbed when testifying before Congress, go next?

The answer: working for drug companies. The Salt Lake Tribune reports [Dead link. Article available in Salt Lake Tribune's archives. Reg. req'd.] that Sampson has landed a gig with the mega-firm Hunton & Williams, in their food and drug practice. There, Sampson will help companies navigate the wilds of Food and Drug Administration regulation, among other duties.

And Mr. Sampson didn’t just land a ‘job’, he made partner at Hunton & Williams, a firm that prides itself on ‘excellence and hard work’, whose diversity programs and commitment to providing pro bono legal services (although they consider representing Super Bowl XLV for free to be pro bono work) make it possible for Hunton to ‘offer you the opportunity to work alongside creative and gifted people on interesting and real projects that matter‘.

If a firm such as this accepts Mr. Sampson as one of its own, maybe I’m wrong about him. Maybe his conduct at the Department of Justice was completely ethical and demonstrated excellence and hard work. So I asked Andrea Bear Field, Hunton & Williams DC Office Managing Partner, if either Mr. Sampson of Hunton wanted to respond to the criticisms that Mr. Sampson’s conduct while employed at the Department of Justice violated the D.C. Rules of Procedure.

My e-mail to Ms. Field:

Andrea Bear Field
DC Office Managing Partner

cc: D. Kyle Sampson, Partner

Dear Ms. Field,

It has now been several months since your colleague, Mr. D. Kyle Sampson, joined Hunton & Williams, as a partner no less. Since that time, I have been researching the conduct of various attorneys in the service of the government of the United States, whether that conduct is a violation of the rules of professional conduct with which each such attorney must comply and authoring factual allegations of conduct that establish violations of the applicable rules of professional responsibility. Mr. Sampson is the second attorney about whose conduct I have written. (Alberto Gonzales was the first.) In my opinion, Mr. Sampson committed numerous violations of the rules of professional conduct of both Utah and Washington D.C that raise a substantial question as to his honesty, trustworthiness and fitness as a lawyer. (For what it’s worth, I am an attorney licensed to practice in at least one of the 50 states.)

Hunton & Williams is a firm that prides itself on ‘excellence and hard work’ and whose diversity programs and commitment to providing pro bono legal services (Do you really consider representing Super Bowl XLV for free to be pro bono work?) make it possible for Hunton to ‘offer you the opportunity to work alongside creative and gifted people on interesting and real projects that matter ‘. The corporate culture your firm describes, however, seems incongruous with the ethical judgment Mr. Sampson demonstrated in his recent past. I’m interested in both the firm’s and Mr. Sampson’s response to the criticisms that Mr. Sampson’s conduct while employed at the Department of Justice violated the D.C. Rules of Procedure.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

E.M.

(Whatever it does mean, the fact that I have not publicly identified myself changes neither the facts nor the severity of my allegations.)

Tags: Alberto Gonzales, Andrea Bear Field, Bar Association, Department of Justice, Ethical Violation, Grievance, Harriet Miers, Hunton & Williams, Kyle Sampson, Lisa Murkowski, Mark Everett Fuller, Monica Goodling, Professional Misconduct, TPMMuckraker, Washington, D.C.