White Collar Titan Reid Weingarten on Juries Clients and the Scariest Federal Prosecutor... Page 2 of 5 Sometimes their reaction is denial, sometimes shock and horror, sometimes anger, but it’s always dramatic. The mission at a minimum is to get the client to understand what’s happening so that he can be effective for me, in terms of my defending him. LD: Have you ever declined to represent someone because you were so appalled by what they did? RW: At this point, I’m in the fortunate position of turning down more cases than | take. | turn down cases for many reasons, though it’s not so much that I’m appalled by the behavior. The way | look at it is, do | bring value? Is there something about me representing the individual that adds something, as opposed to every other lawyer in town? | think if | halted, or | was so shocked or appalled or dismayed by the conduct that I’d pull my punches, |’d know that. | break bread with the would-be client. If there’s a visceral feel, either overtly or covertly, that I’m not going to want to spend time with him or her, it all factors in. There are often a variety of factors that cause me to take seriously the potential of the representation, and then | turn it down. LD: Are conflicts much of an issue? RW: Steptoe & Johnson is a big firm, but it’s not one of the megafirms. There have probably been a dozen significant matters | got conflicted out of because of Steptoe’s other representations. But | have colleagues who work at much bigger firms who are constantly getting conflicted out of representations. | represented the CEO of Goldman Sachs, and Goldman intersects with everyone in the world. If | had nothing but Goldman-like representations, that would be an issue. But if you represent Jesse Jackson Jr. or [other] public officials, as | do, the potential for conflicts is significantly less. LD: What agency is most likely to strike fear in the heart of defendants? RW: The Southern District of New York is the elite prosecutor