Page 344 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
ing two against the infamous Roy Cohn, but I learned of those losses later), and that he had graduated from Yale Law School. Impressive, for sure. (Walpin actually wore a gold chain that led to the watch pocket of his vest and, as I later learned, was attached, not to a watch but to a Phi Beta Kappa key that he earned at City College.)
He also displayed a prosecutor’s argumentative nature, but not one that was displayed in the way that a professor—say, Professor Ziegler— would display it. When he questioned me, it seemed that he was challenging me not for the purpose of exploring my intellect or ability to respond on my feet but rather because he had firmly held substantive beliefs and had trouble dealing with ideas that were distasteful or alien to him. My favorite moment came when he asked me what other firms I was considering. I told him that I had been to Milbank and Dewey dur- ing the prior week, and he squinted his eyes and, meaning it, asked why in the world I would consider such firms. This question, had it been reversed—namely, to ask why these firms would consider me—would have been better: Milbank and Dewey were well known to be “white shoe,” which meant that they were WASPy and that, at that time at least, like Cadwalader, they were not famous for taking Jews. I don’t know what came over me, perhaps the liberalism of my Amherst education, but I told him that I had to consider whether it was a good thing for me to go to a firm that was essentially all Jewish. Walpin, who saw Rosenman as a Jewish firm, as it then was, could neither believe nor handle that response. I might as well have said that I was a devotee of sadomasoch- ism. He certainly didn’t find it remotely interesting, and I was left with an incredulous “What?” That’s the last thing that I remember about the Walpin interview. I’m sure that it ended cordially. I’m also sure that I was glad when Peter Nadel came to extricate me from Walpin’s clutches.
After we were out in the hall, Peter asked me if I had time for lunch. Obviously, I did, but I’m sure that I conspicuously looked at my watch before accepting. Lunch! That was certainly great news. The only per- son who had ever given me lunch before was my mother. This was clearly a good sign, but I do recall thinking two things (other than
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