by Carol Eisenberg
Harriet Miers, former White House counsel and unsuccessful U.S.
Supreme Court nominee, has returned to her old law firm, but with a new portfoliio – as a registered agent for the Pakistan People’s Party and the Embassy of Pakistan.
Working for the public affairs arm of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP, Miers filed papers to represent both Pakistani entities with the U.S. Justice Department, according to Legal Times’ blog.
“On her foreign agent registration short form for Locke Lord Strategies, a subsidiary of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, the former Supreme Court nominee cites her work as part and parcel of Locke Lord’s effort to ‘promote better understanding of the country’s recent political, social, and economic developments’ and line up state visits to Washington,” the blog reported.
The firm’s relationship to Pakistani leaders long pre-dates her involvement, however.
One partner of Locke Lord Strategies, Mark A. Siegel, was a decades-long adviser and close friend to Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, who was slain in December. She died two months before the publication of a book on which they had collaborated, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West.
Despite her death, Bhutto’s party won a large number of seats in Pakistan’s National Parliament, and formed a coalition government with the Pakistan Muslim League (N). A short time later, the Embassy of Pakistan signed a $900,000 contract with Siegel, according to Roll Call. The firm is believed to represent the political party pro bono.
Siegel, for his part, has longstanding ties to the Democratic Party, serving in the administration of former President Jimmy Carter, as the executive director of the Democratic National Committee and as former chief of staff to Democrat Steve Israel, a Long Island congressman.
Other clients of Locke Lord Strategies include the American Veal Association, the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association and the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System.
See the web of connections of the companies and people involved.
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(Submitted by reader)