Thomas Walker, a Charlotte defense attorney who has stood by the side of fallen political figures, is learning about the trouble of standing at the crossroads of law and politics.
President Barack Obama has nominated Walker to the post of U.S. attorney in North Carolina's Eastern District, a job with controversy on every page of the appointment book. Walker, 45, doesn't have the job yet - it requires Senate confirmation - and he's already being volleyed in a game of political one-upmanship.
His appointment is part of the normal process when presidential administrations switch parties. Walker, like Obama, is a Democrat and is poised to inherit investigations of two North Carolina Democrats, former Gov. Mike Easley and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards. The investigations began under George E.B. Holding, the current U.S. attorney and a Republican. Neither investigation has brought indictments.
U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, who submitted Walker's name to the White House, asked the administration to keep Holding in place until the two high-profile probes are complete. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said this week that he intends to hold up Walker's confirmation until the investigations are complete.
At first glance, Walker seems the picture of a party loyalist. He is a lifelong Democrat from the mountain town of Waynesville. He's written checks to the campaigns of Democrats in state and federal offices over at least a decade. Easley and Edwards both collected from Walker during bids for office. So did Hagan and Obama.
A closer look, though, reveals a roster of mentors, former bosses and colleagues with alliances to both parties. Walker has been recruited and hired by Republicans. And, as a private lawyer, he has defended Republicans. Among the most notable is Sam Currin, a Republican who held the same post in the 1980s that Walker hopes to occupy.
"A good U.S. attorney leaves politics at the door, and Thomas is one of those people that would. He'll do the same thing for Republicans as Democrats," said Robert Conrad, a federal judge and the chief of North Carolina's Western District. A Republican, he is a former colleague and boss of Walker.
Walker declined to be interviewed for this article, saying only that he was honored by Obama's appointment.
Almost a preacher
Walker is well-known in his home turf of Charlotte for bringing juries to tears with a voice that rises and dips like that of a Southern minister. Those roots are genuine; Walker nearly chose the pulpit over the bar.
Walker headed to seminary out of college, putting on the back burner his interest in the law and public service. After a year, though, his quest for delineating right from wrong shifted from the Bible to law books.
As a prosecutor, Walker climbed quickly to high-profile criminal cases. He has tried a half-dozen or so death penalty cases; in each, fellow lawyers say, he found a way to engross jurors.
"He has that common touch. Juries just seem to know him, to relate," said Conrad, the judge.
To many in Raleigh and points east, though, Walker is a stranger. For the past six years, he has worked as a white-collar defense attorney in Charlotte, practicing with Alston & Bird, a large firm with offices in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Research Triangle Park. Former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas works for the firm in Washington.
That was his first move to the other side of the courtroom. Walker began his career as a prosecutor with the Mecklenburg County District Attorney in 1990. From there, he prosecuted federal crimes in the state's Western District.
But Walker has roots in Eastern North Carolina, too. He graduated from Campbell Law School in 1990; Walker spent those years living in the rural Harnett County town of Coats. And, before joining Alston & Byrd in 2003, Walker worked as special deputy counsel to state Attorney General Roy Cooper, helping shape major criminal justice policies. In that role, he helped clear the backlog of rape kit tests at the State Bureau of Investigation lab, which had allowed many sexual perpetrators to go undetected.
Quiet role in big cases
Behind the scenes, Walker has had a hand in many cases that commanded headlines in the Triangle. He represented Meredith Norris, the former top aide to then-House Speaker Jim Black. Norris was convicted of illegal lobbying.
In 2002, the fate of death-row inmate Alan Gell came to his attention. Jim Cooney, a Charlotte defense attorney, handed Walker a copy of a court filing asking for relief for Gell, who was later found to be innocent.
Walker, Cooney says, brought it to the attention of the attorney general and helped shepherd the case. Though Walker was one of a handful of advisers who instructed Cooper to retry Gell, Cooney credits Walker for the way he worked with defense attorneys. He said that Walker helped ensure defense lawyers got copies of all the evidence in the case, years before the current law required such openness.
"His philosophy is that if it hurts my case, you're entitled to it. If it doesn't, why wouldn't I give it to you?" Cooney said.
The state ended up paying Gell $3.9 million in a settlement this year for the conduct of officials who prosecuted the case.
Cooper relied on Walker's guidance even after he left the office. Cooper hired Walker as a consultant in 2008, in the midst of a review of the Duke lacrosse case, in which three students were falsely accused of raping an escort dancer. Cooper's office paid Walker's firm $30,000 for him to determine whether the state could bring criminal charges against former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong for his handling of the case. Walker concluded that although much of the case was handled in a questionable matter, there was no basis for pursuing criminal charges.
"He's effective," Cooper said. "He's fair, and he doesn't let politics influence the decisions he makes."
Copious corruption
That reputation will be put to the test in the Eastern District. Though the district is burdened by complex drug, pornography and gun cases, it is notorious for its heavy load of political corruption cases tied to wrongdoing by state government officials. In the courthouse where Walker is expected to make his new office, former Agriculture Secretary Meg Scott Phipps and former House Speak Jim Black have fallen.
Colleagues who know Walker say he won't flinch in the face of these high-profilecases.
"While the nomination process is political, once you get in, you swear off politics," said Mark Calloway, a former U.S. attorney in the Western District who hired Walker in 1994. "Thomas won't have any problem doing that."
