Maybe I don’t understand the hiring practices at law firms but it would seem to me that you hire an attorney to practice law and bring revenue into the firm and not be dead wood. Unless of course you doing a favor for the Chicago political machine or you need a token minority in house for appearance sake.
Hiring the chief editor of the Harvard Law Review would not be a token hire of anything. Just because he wasn't a trial lawyer doesn't mean he wasn't a good and productive lawyer. Nobody was doing a favor for anybody, actually this firm was known for taking on the Daley administration and the city.