The Washington Post is being taken to task for publishing a piece on Elizabeth Warren's legal work while she taught at Harvard University. The focus of the article was the $675 hourly rate.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended Warren on Twitter, "BREAKING NEWS: Lady Had A Job, Got Paid More Than Me
Nice work. Now do the amount of Wall Street, Big Pharma, & Fossil Fuel presidential candidates accepted over their careers & how much they’re taking now."
Jordan Weissmann of Slate thought Warren was being underpaid.
But there are issues with Warren's legal work more significant than her hourly rate. To start with, Warren was never licensed to practice in Massachusetts yet she listed the Bay State as her "primary practice location." This was an issue during her 2012 Senate campaign against Scott Brown. Alas, Massachusetts voters did not care about this any more than about her deceptive claims of being of Native American origin.
Then there is the question of the clients Warren represented such as LTV Steel. She wrote a petition to the Supreme Court on their behalf in 1995 arguing they should not be obligated to pay health benefits to retired employees. Obviously there's nothing illegal but doing this, but it does call into question her claims as a champion of working people. If Warren wants to question Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin for benefitting of the back of workers who lost their jobs because of the Sears bankruptcy then fine. Then she should expect questions about her own conduct during bankruptcy proceedings. This involves scrutinizing her legal work.
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