A Legend Passes
I learned yesterday of the passing of Jacob A. Stein, the undisputed dean of the Washington, D.C. Bar and the most universally respected and beloved attorney in the history of the City.
Many are respected; few are truly loved.
I first got to know Jake as opposing counsel when I was a bar prosecutor in the 1980s. For some reason, he seemed to take a liking to me.
I came under his wing when I left for Georgetown Law. As the ultimate “lawyers lawyer,” every attorney in trouble came to Jake for advice and counsel. I became his ethics guy.
I served as an expert witness for his firm, provided ethics advice to his clients on a regular basis, served as a co-expert witness in litigation, co-authored an article for the Washington Lawyer magazine that advocated in favor of consent discipline, co-presented innumerable ethics talks (called the Jake and Mike Show) and had this unique and wonderful man as a mentor for the past twenty years.
Jake for many years wrote the back page of the monthly Bar magazine. Generations of lawyers knew him through these monthly gems. Anyone who can find the published collection Legal Spectator & More is in for a most enjoyable read as Jake’s insightful vignettes are priceless.
His office was unique, no windows, wall-to-wall books. If those walls could talk they would cover 60 years at the center of the Washington arena – Watergate to Whitewater to Lewinsky and much more.
Jake describes his office here.
Did you know that Jake came out of the Watergate trial as a winner having secured an acquittal for defendant Ken Parkinson?
I have known a number of prominent people who on a personal level did not live up to their public image.
Fortunately I have also known several who were as humane and decent in private as in public. Father Robert Drinan and Sam Dash immediately come to mind.
Jake Stein was as humble as he was great.
If you were fortunate enough to get a call to go out to lunch, a stroll on Connecticut Avenue from his office to the lunch venue next to Jake was the best treat. Everyone knew Jake! A one-block walk would average a half dozen handshakes and stops to chat.
He had a sparkling sense of humor. When he was appointed as Independent Counsel in the Ed Meese investigation, he was quoted as saying that he was gratified that, at an age where his other faculties were declining, he had acquired subpoena power.
He had a genius for friendship and mentored generations of lawyers as he truly – more than anyone I have ever known – loved the practice of law and those who toil in the trenches.
He probably gave out more free advice than any lawyer in history as money was not what drove him to show up at the office – immaculately dressed and indisputably Jake – every day well into his 90s.
From Disciplinary Counsel Phil Fox
His practice was unusual in that while he was a figure of national stature—he later became an Independent Counsel himself—he had a truly local practice. He wrote a treatise that was the Bible for D.C. torts law. He served on the BPR and was president of the D.C. Bar. But he did not seem to be a lawyer with a national practice, always traveling to other cities. He was a D.C. guy. He was also beloved for his eccentricities. A visit to his law office was worth paying for. No windows, every wall lined with book shelves, full of interesting and offbeat books and gimcracks of all shapes and sizes. He used to run in long white pants, ala Big Bill Tilden. He was a warm, kind soul about whom I never heard a negative word.
And this was a man who spent a lifetime in litigation.
We are poorer for his loss but immeasurably richer to have known such a wonderful person. (Mike Frisch)