Although he hasn’t practiced law in over 30 years, newly-minted vice presidential nominee Joe Biden remains a favorite son in the legal community.
Like all potential VPs, Joe Biden was thoroughly vetted by the Obama campaign, his relationships to lobbyists carefully analyzed. The Am Law Daily did some of its own vetting of the new nominee and the extensive legal ties that bind the Bidens. Older son Beau, 39, followed his father into politics, and is currently the attorney general of Delaware. Younger son Hunter is a partner at Oldaker, Biden & Belair, a Washington law and lobbying firm. Hunter stepped down from the firm’s lobbying affiliate in 2006 in keeping with a Senate ethics bill requirement. His firm was retained as legal counsel to the Biden campaign and paid more than $57,000 this year.
The senator has longstanding relationships with law firms that donated to his congressional races and his two bids for the White House. Top contributors for his recent run were the Law Office of Peter Angelos in Baltimore, Maryland, which donated $156,250; SimmonsCooper in East Alton, Illinois contributed $146,600; Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones in Wilmington gave $145,625; and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor in Wilmington gave $127,979.
Many of those firms have handled asbestos and bankruptcy cases, issues Biden has weighed in on from his seat on the judicial committee. Biden was a critic of the failed Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution (FAIR) Act of 2005, which would have trimmed returns on future litigation and hurt firms like SimmonsCooper, a billion dollar asbestos practice which used son Beau’s former law firm, Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick (now Bifferato Gentilotti), as local counsel to file asbestos suits in Delaware.
Angelos’ firm also represents asbestos clients, and Stargatt & Taylor has handled mass tort asbestos cases, representing court-appointed advocates for unknown future claimants–individuals representing people who have been exposed to asbestos but have not yet become sick.
