'Radioactive' Resume: What's Next for Eliot Spitzer?
Less than a week ago, bringing in New York’s high-profile governor as a high-profile partner would have been a major coup for any major law firm, if Eliot Spitzer had been willing to consider such a position.
Now, following his sex-scandal-sparked announcement today that he will resign from office on Monday, Spitzer’s resume is so “radioactive” that it will be at least a year before he can rehabilitate himself sufficiently to land such a job, one managing partner of a large New York law firm predicts.
Plus, there’s another problem presented by Spitzer’s history as a hard-hitting, crusading reformer: It has alienated him from the corporate community. “My sense is he doesn’t have a lot of friends he’s going to get business from,” this unnamed managing partner tells the New York Law Journal.
An unnamed chairman of another law firm compares Spitzer’s situation to an even more infamous scandal that forced another politician and lawyer—President Richard M. Nixon—to resign from office in 1974. “Could Nixon have been hired as a law firm partner after leaving the White House?” he asks. “That’s probably the most similar situation.”
However, time is forgiving, points out legal recruiter Ann Israel. Prior to his downfall, she says, Spitzer could “absolutely” have expected seven-figure law firm offers.
What might the soon-to-be-former state governor do during his expected period of post-resignation penitence? The New York Law Journal doesn’t attempt to answer this question, but other news reports touch upon it.
“I assume he’ll go into the real estate industry, which his father is involved with, banking, or the practice of law,” former New York City Mayor Ed Koch tells Time magazine.
Until recently considered a possible presidential candidate in 2012, Spitzer himself “suggested he would serve the public again at some future point, but outside of politics,” notes CTV, a Canadian network.
Promising career options for Spitzer might include philanthropy or a political news analyst position, points out amNew York.
And those options shouldn’t be limited by financial considerations, because “Mr. Spitzer probably does not need a paycheck,” adds the National Post. “He was born into wealth as the son of a New York real estate developer said to be worth $500 million.”
Key to Spitzer’s future success, the Canadian newspaper predicts, will be avoiding criminal charges and finding a way to live down the apparent hypocrisy of his conflicting prosecutorial image and personal behavior and come across as a more sympathetic figure.
