U.S. Court Acts to Probe Lawyers in Bribe Scandal

CHICAGO —  The judges of the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois, in a rare move, have appointed a special counsel and given him subpoena power to investigate alleged misconduct of lawyers implicated in the Greylord judicial bribery scandals here.

Scores of lawyers could be barred from practicing in federal court here as a result of the extraordinary, but virtually unpublicized, action by the District Court’s executive committee.

About 300 lawyers have testified in bribery trials, been named in testimony or have been indicted in a widespread, years-long Justice Department investigation of corruption in the Cook County court system. The continuing investigation, code-named Operation Greylord, has resulted in the convictions of six state court judges on bribery and extortion charges, 13 attorneys and 16 police officers and court employees.

State Court Criticized

Federal judges decided to exercise the rarely invoked power to appoint an outside counsel because of disenchantment with the Illinois Supreme Court, which oversees attorney discipline and is responsible for punishing errant lawyers, court sources said.

“The Illinois Supreme Court is notorious for excusing any kind of lawyer misconduct,” said one U.S. district judge, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. “A lawyer can do anything short of assassinating the entire Illinois Supreme Court and still get his license back.”

In recent years, the Illinois high court has restored the right to practice law to former Chicago city councilmen and to a former Illinois attorney general after they served federal prison sentences. At times, the Supreme Court has rejected or reduced sanctions recommended by the Illinois Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the agency it established to police lawyers.

William G. Clark, chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court was unavailable Tuesday. But, in a recent speech on legal ethics, he called the disciplinary commission “a well-oiled machine without need for repair.” And he said the Supreme Court “has acted promptly to suspend or disbar each and every attorney or judge who has been convicted (in Greylord).”

19 Are Disbarred

So far, 19 lawyers and judges have been disbarred as a result of Greylord convictions, formal action is pending against 30 more and 250 are targets of state investigations, according to John C. O’Malley, deputy administrator of the disciplinary commission.

The U.S. District Court judges named Fred H. Bartlit Jr., a partner in the Chicago law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, to head their inquiry. “He’s a methodical, meticulous investigator who is tenacious as a bulldog and not political,” a federal judge said.

Normally, the Justice Department provides lawyers for court-initiated investigations, but in this case there was an obvious conflict of interest. Many of the lawyers who are targets of this investigation have been given immunity from prosecution by the U.S. attorney’s office in exchange for their testimony against judges.

The District Court ordered the special investigation 10 weeks ago, but it was publicly disclosed only last week by Chicago Lawyer, a monthly legal publication.