Clinton's '35 years of experience' cover, gasp, lawyering!

Lost in the surprising news about Hillary Clinton's admission that she had to loan her own campaign $5 million was an exchange with reporters over a part of her personal past that she seldom discusses.

Out on the campaign trail, Clinton likes to talk about her work with children and families. But The Times' Peter Nicholas notes that she seldom mentions the years she spent as a partner in the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Ark.

That's a touchier subject, of course, because some of her work for that firm figured in the famous Whitewater investigation, which proved a headache for her and her husband's White House.

At a news conference this week at Clinton's campaign headquarters near Washington, a reporter mentioned that the would-be president was once a top-flight lawyer in her day and asked why she doesn't bring it up more often.

"Thanks for the compliment,'' said Clinton.

She countered that she often mentions the "35 years of experience I had in the public, private and nonprofit sector.''

As popular as lawyers are in American society, she slides over the law firm part. According to her interpretation of that phrase, the Rose Law Firm years would fall under the "private'' part of that resume.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Tony]

YOU ARE REALLY REACHING. HILLARY'S WORK AT THE ROSE LAW FIRM IS WIDLEY KNOWN AND IS PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED IN HER MINI BIOS ALL OVER THE WEB. DO YOU GUYS HVE ANY INTELLIGENT THINGS TO SAY ANYMORE? CHEAP SHOTS ARE EASY. THOUGHTFUL ENGAGEMENT IS DIFFICULT.

[Jean]

I was younger during the whole Whitewater scandal, so I appreciate revisiting these PROUD ACCOMPLISHMENTS of hers that others call "cheap shots"

I think Hillary is being given a free ride with the TV journalists. I need more information besides her attempt to take cheap shots herself by stealing delegates from elections that were not REALLY, HONESTLY contested!

Another PROUD ACCOMPLISHMENT if she achieves this!

What a cheater! How can anyone support that?

[Jenna]

I can understand why she doesn't bring it up because lawyers aren't the most revered people in the world. Still, I think she has a lot to be proud of. She was the first woman partner at Rose Law Firm, which was a major accomplishment. However, it also bears mentioning that she didn't collect a full partner's salary because she was doing so much outside "public" work on behalf of women and children.

She has been breaking the glass ceiling all her life. Can't wait until she breaks the final glass ceiling and makes it back to the white house.

Go Hillary!

[Jenna]

Just in case folks want some specifics about how she was spending her time during this period, here is a sampling. Obviously this list doesn't include everything she was doing during that time period.

1977
-Joined the Rose Law Firm, a bastion of Arkansan political and economic influence, specializing in patent infringement and intellectual property law,while also working pro bono in child advocacy. She maintained her interest in children's law and family policy, publishing the scholarly articles "Children's Policies: Abandonment and Neglect" and "Children's Rights: A Legal Perspective" in 1979.
-Co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a state-level alliance with the Children's Defense Fund
-President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation, and she served in that capacity from 1978 through the end of 1981. For much of that time she served as the chair of that board, the first woman to do so.
1978
-Became First Lady of Arkansas
-Appointed chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee, where she successfully obtained federal funds to expand medical facilities in Arkansas' poorest areas without affecting doctors' fees.
1979
-Named first female partner at Rose Law Firm
1980
-Gave bith to Chelsea
1983
-Appointed to Board of Wal-Mart. While being the youngest and only woman director she used her position to champion personal causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program.
1985
-Introduced Arkansas' Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth, a program that helps parents work with their children in preschool preparedness and literacy.
1987
-Chaired the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, which addressed gender bias in the law profession and induced the association to adopt measures to combat it

[Brian]

Watch
The Clinton Chronicles, I think anyone who likes the Clintons probably should watch this! Go ahead and google it.

[Soldier's Mom]

Wow, patent law.
Nothing wrong with that, it certainly requires a detail-oriented person.
Leader of the Free World, now that requires someone with a broader view. Someone who can DELEGATE the details, and put his intelligence into weighing the decisions.
Like Barack Obama, who taught Constitutional law, practiced civil rights law, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and passed the bar on the first try.
Not that any of that by itself means all that much, but it all adds up.

[Ronald Loui]

Jenna is an example of why I sometimes get frustrated with the Hillary Clinton supporters. Hillary's accomplishments are numerous, and it would be nice to see the glass ceiling broken. But to those who know the national history of women in the professions, something is amiss.

So in 1979, Hillary was the first woman partner at a sexist law firm in a non-progressive state? Great! She might have made partner earlier at a law firm more deserving of her talents if she had not followed Bill Clinton to Arkansas.

It's one thing to have to struggle against enormous opposition and have plenty of battle scars, and say, "because of this, I should be first in line." It's actually a very different thing to be a leader and a true pioneer.

Arkansas did not have its first woman Supreme Court justice until 1975, Elsijane Trimble Roy. Mike Huckabee appointed the first woman Chief Justice in 2004, Betty Dickey.

But Hawaii already had Rhoda Valentine Lewis on its Supreme Court in 1959. By 1965, she was a judicial hero on national issues of civil rights and being considered for the federal bench.

Places like California, Hawaii, and Washington State produce lots of people who break barriers, naturally, in their stride. So no one blinks an eye to see a black man, Ronald Cox, and a woman, Mary Fairhurst, on the highest courts in Washington state (they already had a Chinese-American governor!). These places produce "propitious progressives" not reactionary progressives. They wonder how to do their work well, not how to make history, or how to get revenge. They don't think about being firsts -- it is left for historians to put asterisks by their names.

Of course, I chose Lewis, Cox, and Fairhurst because they all graduated from the same school as Barack Obama: Punahou School, in Honolulu, Hawaii. You will find in every profession that this place has produced women who have had great achievement early in the national timeline. These people did not set out to break barriers. They were very good at what they did, so people wanted them, and were willing to put race and gender aside.

When the right candidate comes along, you don't have to jump up and down about breaking barriers. You talk about the task, not the demographics. Otherwise, you get the "let-it-be-me" obsession, or the "I-Mark-McGwire-have-to-break-the-Roger-Maris-record". In retrospect, why did it have to be McGwire? Did anyone seriously think that the record would never be broken, with Sosa and Bonds, or Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols, around the corner?

[Mia]

I do not understand how Hillary could have made better carrer than one at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Ark. Before her sojourn in Ark., she was not even a licensed lawyer because she failed D.C. bar exam.
She cannot be deemed even as an innocent bystander because she let Bill sign the welfare reform bill, which still hurts children of single mothers. Maria W. Edelman at Children Defense, where Hill served only one nomial year, expressed her disappointment at Hillary's inaction.