Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Nixon in New York
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://victor-li.com/
CITY: Chicago
STATE: IL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born Pittsburgh, PA; married.
EDUCATION:Amherst College graduate; Columbia University, master’s degree, 2010; Tulane University School of Law, J.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, journalist, and lawyer. ABA Journal, assistant managing editor; previously worked at ALM Media Properties, New York, NY; and as a staff reporter for Law Technology News and the American Lawyer. Also worked as a lawyer and a freelance journalist. Periodically co-hosts podcasts under the auspices of Legal Talk Network.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals and law journals, including Corporate Counsel, the Am Law Daily, the New York Law Journal, National Law Journal, Texas Lawyer, Litigation Daily, Utica Observer Dispatch, Huffington Post, Columbia Journalist, Amherst magazine, Soccerlens, and the Berkshire Eagle.
SIDELIGHTS
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Victor Li is an award-winning multi-media journalist. In addition to earning a master’s degree in journalism, Li also earned his law degree and practiced law for three years before concentrating solely on writing and journalism. A contributor to periodicals and law journals, Li is also the author of Nixon in New York: How Wall Street Helped Richard Nixon Win the White House. The book explores the time that Nixon spent in New York City working for a prestigious law firm on Wall Street following his devastating loss in California’s 1962 gubernatorial election. “I’ve always been interested in Richard Nixon,” Li told American Lawyer Online contributor Meghan Tribe, adding: “I think he’s a real tragic figure in American history, and I mean that in a Greek tragic sense. [He’s] someone who really had the world in the palm of their hand and then blew it.”
Li begins the book with a look at the 1962 election and Nixon’s belief that his political career was in ruins following the loss. Just two years earlier he had lost the U.S. presidential election to John F. Kennedy. Nixon gave what would become a famous concession speech that was so bitter he looked like a sore loser. Nixon even told the press they would not have him to kick around anymore and that it was his last press conference. Li explores how the move to New York and the new connections Nixon made on Wall Street helped reinvigorate his political career, ultimately leading to his winning the 1968 presidential election.
According to Li, the law firm Nixon worked for was largely responsible for Nixon’s resurgence in the political arena. “The time that Nixon spent at the Wall Street firm, which added his name to its shingle, has largely been overlooked by historians,” wrote American Lawyer Online contributor Meghan Tribe. The law firm of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander gave Nixon contacts with numerous rich clients who would eventually become donors to Nixon’s presidential campaign in 1968.
Nixon also gained valuable experience traveling the world for the firm’s international clients. As a result, Nixon obtained important credentials as an expert in foreign policy, which voters highly valued at the time due to the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Furthermore, the law firm gave Nixon plenty of leeway to build an expert campaign staff of lawyers, writers, and researchers to bolster Nixon’s run for the presidency, believing that Nixon being president would also benefit the firm. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Nixon in New York “an engaging and well-written book that illuminates Nixon through the exploration of the midpoint of his career.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2018, review of Nixon in New York: How Wall Street Helped Richard Nixon Win the White House.
ONLINE
American Lawyer Online, https://www.law.com/ (April 20, 2018), Meghan Tribe, “New Book Digs Into Richard Nixon’s Time in Big Law.”
Victor Li website, http://victor-li.com (August 7, 2018).
Victor Li is an award-winning multimedia journalist based in Chicago. He is the author of the book Nixon in New York: How Wall Street Helped Richard Nixon Win the White House. He is currently an assistant managing editor with the ABA Journal, covering the business of law and legal technology. He periodically co-hosts podcasts under the auspices of Legal Talk Network. He previously worked at ALM Media Properties in New York City for over three years, serving as a staff reporter for Law Technology News and The American Lawyer. His work has also been featured in Corporate Counsel, The Am Law Daily, The New York Law Journal, The National Law Journal, Texas Lawyer and The Litigation Daily, as well as The Utica Observer Dispatch, The Huffington Post, The Columbia Journalist, Amherst Magazine, Soccerlens, and The Berkshire Eagle.
He earned his Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in May 2010 and wrote his master's thesis on the battle to legalize mixed martial arts in New York state. He worked as a freelance sports writer prior to matriculating at Columbia, contributing numerous articles and performing live match commentary for a soccer website.
He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Amherst College with a degree in history, earning departmental honors on his senior thesis, entitled: "The Wall Comes Tumbling Down: German Reunification and the End of the Cold War."
Victor earned his J.D. from Tulane University School of Law where he competed on the Moot Court Team, served as an editor for the Journal of International and Comparative Law, and represented indigent victims of domestic violence in civil and familial proceedings. After graduating from law school, Victor was admitted to the New York bar and worked as a lawyer for three years.
Besides writing, Victor enjoys listening to music, watching movies, collecting coins, and cheering for his two favorite teams: The Pittsburgh Steelers and Manchester United. He and his wife have an adorable corgidor named Bernie and are absolutely nuts about him.
Li, Victor: NIXON IN NEW YORK
Kirkus Reviews. (Apr. 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Li, Victor NIXON IN NEW YORK Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Indie Nonfiction) $120.00 4, 1 ISBN: 978-1-68393-000-6
A biography of Richard Nixon focuses on his years at a New York law firm before running for president.
In this debut history book, Li examines one of the less famous periods of Nixon's professional life, from his loss in the 1962 election for governor of California through his political rehabilitation and his successful run for president in 1968. The work focuses on Nixon's tenure at the Wall Street law firm that was renamed Nixon Mudge when he joined, drawing high-profile clients and repairing his public persona. Li shows how formative Nixon's law firm years were, giving him the opportunity to build the relationships necessary for a national campaign and also introducing him to colleagues like Leonard Garment and John Mitchell, who became important figures during his presidency. The work concludes with a brief overview of Watergate and its effect on Nixon Mudge alumni and the story of the firm's decline in the '80s and '90s. Drawing on both primary sources and previous scholarship, Li brings a lawyer's perspective to this analysis of Nixon's career, going into detail about his argument before the Supreme Court in a First Amendment case that involved Time Inc. and Life magazine. The author employs an informed historical viewpoint, tracing the connections between Nixon's path and the careers of other presidential aspirants. The prose is solid, flavored by Li's taste for metaphor ("If Kennedy was Camelot, then Nixon seemed to represent Prince John from 'Robin Hood' "), balancing analysis with substantial quotations from the principals involved. The book also does an excellent job balancing its particular focus with the need to provide readers with sufficient background, resulting in a solid overview of the time period and the political climate surrounding Nixon Mudge. Li approaches Nixon and the volume's other notorious characters with open eyes, acknowledging their strengths while pointing out the flaws that eventually led to crimes, convictions, and resignations. The author presents readers with well-rounded portraits of key figures in U.S. law and politics in the second half of the 20th century.
An engaging and well-written book that illuminates Nixon through the exploration of the midpoint of his career.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Li, Victor: NIXON IN NEW YORK." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534375052/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=08ad0c0d. Accessed 14 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534375052
New Book Digs Into Richard Nixon’s Time in Big Law
By Meghan Tribe | April 20, 2018 at 06:53 PM
Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, campaigning for office and using a hand gesture meant to signal victory in the Vietnam War. Nixon served in the White House from 1969 until his resignation in 1974.
Following Richard Nixon’s defeat in the 1962 California gubernatorial election, the former U.S. vice president appeared before nearly 100 reporters at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
“You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference,” said Nixon, effectively confirming the end of his political career.
For the next year, the Duke University School of Law graduate and his family bounced around Europe before eventually moving to Manhattan, where Nixon became a name partner at Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander.
The time that Nixon spent at the Wall Street firm, which added his name to its shingle, has largely been overlooked by historians. But a new book, “Nixon in New York: How Wall Street Helped Richard Nixon Win the White House,” by legal journalist Victor Li explores Nixon’s “wilderness years” as a white-shoe lawyer and how the high-powered firm allowed him to craft a formidable campaign that would land him in the White House six years later.
“I’ve always been interested in Richard Nixon,” said Li, an attorney who works as an assistant managing editor with the ABA Journal in Chicago. “I think he’s a real tragic figure in American history, and I mean that in a Greek tragic sense. [He’s] someone who really had the world in the palm of their hand and then blew it.”
The idea to tackle Nixon’s time in Big Law came during his three years as a reporter at The American Lawyer in New York. Most books that Li read about Nixon focused on his political activities, not his law career. At the time Nixon joined what was then Mudge Rose in 1963, the firm was a power player on Wall Street.
Rather than wait for someone else to write it, Li decided to roll up his sleeves and delve into the material. Of course, reporting and researching a period of Nixon’s life nearly 50 years ago came with its own set of challenges. Many people who were around at the time had died or were elderly with fading memories.
Victor Li.
But then Li came upon Thomas Evans, a former Nixon aide who would become managing partner of Mudge Rose.
“He was there for a long time and functioned as the unofficial historian of the firm,” Li said.
Evans had even started writing a bit about Nixon before his death in 2013. With the permission of Evans’ daughter, Li pored through the former Mudge Rose partner’s papers, which included an interview with Nixon himself.
“The ball just got rolling from there,” Li said.
As he began researching his historical account of Nixon’s legal career, Li said he was surprised to learn that Nixon was, actually, an impressive lawyer and a rainmaker for the firm.
“Mudge hired him to be the public face of the firm—someone who could bring in business, who had a lot of contacts in the corporate world [and] someone who when [clients] called, they would get that phone call returned immediately,” Li said.
For the first time in his life, Nixon was making a ton of money. He had grown up poor in Southern California and now could travel the world on Mudge Rose’s dime.
“For most people on Wall Street that would be the dream—that’s what you aspire to,” Li said about Nixon’s time in Big Law.
But for Nixon, that was never going to be enough.
“He wanted to be president. He wanted that more than anything else,” Li said. “There’s a quote in the book that [Nixon] said, “If all I have to do is practice law then I’ll be mentally dead in two years and physically dead in four.”
At the end of 1967, Nixon announced his plans to run for president.
“The firm took the position that what was good for Nixon would be good for the firm,” said Li about Mudge Rose.
Many of the firm’s partners, such as Evans, had roles in Nixon’s presidential first campaign. Patrick Buchanan, then an executive assistant at Mudge Rose, became Nixon’s adviser, an opposition researcher and speechwriter. John Mitchell, a senior partner at the firm, agreed to become Nixon’s campaign manager.
After Nixon was elected in 1968, many of the Mudge Rose lawyers went into the White House in various roles, including Buchanan and Mitchell, the latter of whom was appointed U.S. attorney general until he resigned in 1972 to head a committee to re-elect Nixon. (Mitchell, who died in 1988, was disbarred in New York state for his actions related to the Watergate scandal.)
Mudge Rose became known as the firm you hired if you had an issue with the federal government, Li said.
But this boom went bust almost as soon as Watergate hit. Though the firm was never implicated in the scandal, its reputation suffered.
Though Mudge Rose experienced a resurgence in the 1980s, a subsequent recession and collapse of the municipal bond market critically wounded the firm. In 1995, a year after Nixon’s death, Mudge Rose dissolved. (Click here for a feature story from The American Lawyer at the time about Mudge Rose’s collapse, which saw several Am Law 100 rivals pick up remnants of the storied firm.)
Nixon died at 81 on April 22, 1994. Copies of Li’s book can be purchased through Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Google Play.