A Brahmin for Justice

With a sense of noblesse oblige

In a startling analogy for a Republican, Attorney General-designate William French Smith, 63, said last week that he would like to enjoy the same relationship with Ronald Reagan that Bobby Kennedy had with his brother John. Indeed, Smith, who has been Reagan's attorney for 15 years and handles his business affairs, is almost as close as a brother to the President-elect. Claiming that the post-Watergate barriers erected between the President and the Attorney General are too restrictive, Smith wants an "easier" relationship. Says he: "J.F.K. and R.F.K. didn't have any crises, and I would hope that we wouldn't have any crises either."

Does that mean the relationship revert to the cozy intimacy of former years, when the Attorney General sometimes too readily did the bidding of his boss? Replies Smith: "Obviously, the Justice Department has to be independent, but it is part of the Executive Branch. Independence relates only to certain kinds of activities; for instance, those involving the White House itself." People who know both Reagan and Smith are convinced that there is no cause for concern. Smith, one of three managing partners of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the second largest law firm in Los Angeles, has a solid reputation for being nobody's man but his own. Los Angeles Attorney Seth Hufstedler, husband of Jimmy Carter's Secretary of Education Shirley Hufstedler and a Democrat, feels that Smith's views will certainly coincide with Reagan's. But Hufstedler adds: "If you ask 100 lawyers in Los Angeles--make that 100 Democratic lawyers--I don't believe that you will find one who would doubt Smith's integrity."

Born to a Boston Brahmin family, Smith learned to love California while wintering there as a boy. After graduating from U.C.L.A. and Harvard Law School ('42) and a stint in the Navy, he decided to practice law in California. "I wasn't going to be dictated to by my ancestors," he says. "I came to Los Angeles principally because that was the place where things were going to happen." He specialized in handling labor matters for corporate clients. Though a forceful negotiator, he won the respect of his adversaries. Says William Robertson, executive secretary of the Los Angeles County AFL-CIO: "He is really an objective and brilliant attorney. And, unlike a lot of labor lawyers, he is not a union buster." Smith met Reagan in 1963 and became a kitchen cabinet adviser when his friend was elected Governor of California.

Though a lifelong conservative, Smith is no ideologue. Says a colleague in Los Angeles: "He's not going over any cliffs with all flags flying. He wants to be a team player, and that tempers his conservatism." Still, Smith is likely to come down on the conservative side of several divisive issues now before the Justice Department. Conservatives hope that he will go slow on prosecution of sex and racial discrimination cases, emphasize street crime over white-collar offenses and relax some of the department's trust-busting zeal. But he tends to wield a scalpel rather than an ax, and zealous conservatives may be disappointed at his deliberate pace. Says Los Angeles Lawyer Leonard Janofsky, a former American Bar Association president: "He will analyze the pros and cons. He won't do anything precipitously. And when he does something, it will be carefully thought out."

While Smith belongs to Los Angeles' best and, in some cases, most restrictive social clubs, he has a wide range of friends. He was an early supporter of Los Angeles' mayor Tom Bradley, a Democrat and a black. Says Smith's law partner Paul Ziffren, a Democrat active in civil libertarian causes: "Smith has a strong and pure sense of noblesse oblige." Smith's second wife Jean is also heavily engaged in civic affairs; the attorney has four grown children from his first marriage, which ended in divorce. Smith is a fastidiously groomed, buttoned-down Establishment figure, but his establishment is open to practically anyone with ability and motivation. That attitude should serve him well in Washington.

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