by Brett
Lieberman for Virginia Business December 2005
In nearly 20 years as a federal prosecutor in Alexandria,
David G. Barger had handled many high-profile cases.
He prosecuted Webster Hubbell, a former associate
attorney general, for mail and tax fraud and William
V. Aramony, former president of the United Way, for
fraud and embezzlement.
But he found the doors to many Washington
and Northern Virginia law firms closed when he decided
to enter private practice. The reason for the cold
reception
was his most famous case: the Kenneth Starr investigation that led to the impeachment
of President Bill Clinton. “I did not appreciate the hostility that would
be generated from the other side for just trying to do your job,” says
Barger, now a partner in the Tysons Corner office of Williams Mullen, where he
specializes in white-collar criminal defense and corporate compliance “I
was stunned. I was shocked by it.”
Barger had gone to work for the Justice Department in 1984, handling criminal
tax cases. He joined the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria five years
later. Barger eventually was detailed to Starr’s investigation of the president’s
involvement in the Whitewater development deal in Arkansas. He was trying to
determine if any crimes had been committed long before the president’s
dalliances with Monica Lewinsky surfaced. “I went to look at Webster Hubbell,
and then Linda Tripp showed up and we ended up having to give a lot of attention
to that,” says Barger, a self-described moral conservative and economic
and environmental moderate. “My mindset when I went over there was I was
a career guy doing my job,” he says, adding that in hindsight that view
was “too simplistic.”
Barger has since come around to agreeing with Starr that the Independent Counsel
Statute, which Congress did not reauthorize after the Clinton investigations,
is fatally flawed. The law can’t work, especially when investigating a
sitting president, he says. “The stakes are so high in investigating the
president that anybody around the president will do almost anything to protect
him,” he says.
Ultimately, Barger found in Williams Mullen a firm that “didn’t hold
it against me” that he had worked for Starr. “What you’re looking
for is a guy who has been there, a guy who is smart, a guy who can get you out
of trouble or keep you from getting into trouble,” says Julious P. Smith,
chairman of Williams Mullen. “David’s credentials are impeccable.
He’s had wonderful experience with the U.S. attorney and has done a lot
on the prosecution side, which makes him very valuable on the defense side.”
Barger’s experience has taught Barger how to find the mistakes in the government’s
case, but he also knows when to persuade clients to negotiate the best deal
if prosecutors put together a solid case.
He cut his teeth on the type of cases many lawyers would never want to touch.
Though he only took one tax class in law school and a single undergraduate
accounting class, he was drawn to tax work in the Justice Department’s criminal section
by a deeply rooted sense of social justice. He was frequently appalled by what
he found. “We were investigating and prosecuting complex cases that involved
people that could afford not to cheat but cheated anyway,” he says.
The courtroom allows Barger to indulge in two of his passions: teaching and public
speaking. As a trial lawyer, Barger says he is trying to educate a jury. He,
in fact, has experience as an instructor, having taught part time at a Maryland
community college while attending law school and then at James Madison and Catholic
universities after graduation. Teaching, in fact, helped pay the bills when he
was a young lawyer trying to start a solo practice. He wound up taking many court-appointed
cases that paid little but provided him with extensive courtroom experience.
Barger’s own education seems to be the only bone of contention between
him and the members of his firm. He is a Maryland Terp among University of Virginia
Wahoos at Williams Mullen. “Ask him why a smart guy like him went to Maryland,” says
Smith with a laugh.
