Respected judge, litigator retires from the fray

Arlin Adams has had a front-row seat for much of modern American history.

During 65 years as a respected federal appeals court judge, litigator, and, even at times, a political operative, Adams has had the ear of national leaders.

For a time in the late 1960s, Adams was a protege of former President Richard Nixon, who put Adams on a short list for the U.S. Supreme Court, a seat that eventually went to William Rehnquist.

He was close with former Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton and with Walter Annenberg, a confidant of Ronald Reagan who urged the president to nominate Adams for the Supreme Court when it became clear that Annenberg's preferred candidate, Robert Bork, had run into trouble during Senate confirmation hearings. The seat went instead to Anthony Kennedy.

As an independent prosecutor, Adams helped run an 8½-year investigation of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development under Reagan that resulted in 17 convictions, more than $2 million in fines, and a finding that the department was rife with fraud.

Now, at age 90, Adams has decided to step down from his position as counsel to the Center City law firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis L.L.P. to devote time to personal interests. His retirement brings to a close a career that brought him in close contact not only with presidents and foreign leaders, but also put him at the heart of pivotal events in Philadelphia and the region.

"I've had all these advantages," he said in an interview last week.

Lawyers who practiced before Adams while he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia said his style was austere and precise, and without the bluster that is characteristic of some judges.

"He keeps an air of humility; he is certainly not pretentious," said Paul Titus, a lawyer and colleague of Adams' at Schnader.

His career benefited from his reputation for legal discernment but also from the assistance of powerful politicians who came to rely on him for advice. Adams came of age during the Depression, when at 16 he worked in a $5-a-week job to bolster family finances. He did his undergraduate work at Temple University and went on to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was named editor in chief of the law review. He joined Schnader in 1947, became close with Scranton, and served for a time as his secretary of public welfare.

Adams was introduced to Nixon at a luncheon in Delaware, and a short time later Nixon asked him to manage his 1967 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania. Adams agreed, in part at the urging of the firm's founder, William Schnader. After Nixon took office, Adams was nominated to the prestigious Third Circuit, where he served from 1969 to 1987.

It was while he was on the Third Circuit that Adams came excruciatingly close on three occasions to being elevated to the Supreme Court. He lost out to Rehnquist when word leaked of Nixon's intention to appoint Adams. The Republican Party's conservative wing was just gathering strength at the time, and Adams' affiliation with the relatively liberal Scranton worked against him.

Adams was one of two finalists for an open seat on the court during the administration of President Gerald Ford, and Scranton, Ford's transition director, pushed Adams' case hard. But John Paul Stevens, who had strong backing in the Senate, was nominated.

Adams' third go for the court, in 1987, was more of a long shot and came after his old friend, Annenberg, wrote Reagan suggesting that in light of the political controversy over Bork's nomination the administration instead seek Adams' appointment. Reagan wrote back saying that Adams was highly qualified and would make a good nominee, but that he had already settled on Anthony Kennedy, who went on to confirmation.

For Adams, who lives in Cheltenham with his wife of 69 years, Neysa, the experience was confirmation that it was time to leave the Third Circuit and return to private practice, which he did by rejoining Schnader Harrison. Since then he has served in multiple roles including independent counsel in the HUD probe and trustee in the New Era bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, at the time the largest nonprofit bankruptcy in U.S. history.

The legal profession has changed much during Adams' time, and he says some of those changes have been for the worse. He says political and ideological battles over appointments have undermined the judiciary. And he decries what he says is the heightened focus among lawyers and law firms on making money and away from the ideals of the profession. But he also is convinced that these things will work themselves out.

"The normal state of the majority of citizens, especially in a place as blessed as this country, is to do the right thing," he said.