When ethics violations are just another opportunity to raise money

Remember Nathan Hecht, the Texas Supreme Court justice who went on the media circuit to defend his old pal and former White House counsel, Harriet Miers? Well, he ran into a little trouble with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct last year for shooting his mouth off, and ran up a bunch of legal bills in the process. Rather than simply pay them the way normal people would, Hecht asked many of the lawyers who practice in his courtroom to pick up the tab, raising nearly $450,000 for a "legal defense fund." (Could his defense really have cost nearly half a million bucks??)

Today, Texas Watch released a study looking at how well those donors fared before Hecht in court after they chipped in to the defense fund. Not surprisingly, they came out looking pretty good--except for the plaintiffs' lawyers, who for some insane reason also anted up. Famed tobacco lawyer Wayne Reaud's law firm ponied up $5K, and then went on to lose an employment case. The decision was unsigned, so I guess it's possible that Hecht actually voted in Reaud's favor and just didn't want anyone to know about it! But I suspect not even lots of money could help Hecht overcome his distaste for big-shot trial lawyers and their sad-sack clients. After all, the tort reform group Texans for Lawsuit Reform has been one of his biggest supporters.