Summary of the Oral History of William F. Causey
by James E. Rocap, III
“My eclectic career.” That is how Bill Causey sums up his career near the end of his oral history. And that it was (and remains).
Bill Causey began life on the cutting edge of science. Diagnosed at a very young age with pulmonary stenosis, his pediatric cardiologist searched for a surgeon to make the life-saving corrections. Dr. Alfred Blalock, a famous heart surgeon at Johns Hopkins, at first declined. “I don’t do three-year-olds. They don’t survive the operation.” His pediatric cardiologist responded: “Well if you don’t operate on him, he’s going to die.” So Dr. Blalock operated, Bill Causey survived the operation at the tender age of three, and at least in 1952, his eclectic-career-to-be was now safe to be had.
And what a career it turned out to be. To start, a chance encounter on the Hill with a very inquisitive Senator Robert F. Kennedy in April 1967, led one year later to Causey joining the 1968 Kennedy presidential campaign. First working with “a young lawyer in Baltimore named Paul Sarbanes” (later to serve as United States Senator), Causey’s skills in organizing and motivating other young voters soon became apparent to the Kennedy campaign organizers, which led to extended work in the Indiana primary campaign (which Kennedy won), the Oregon primary campaign (which Kennedy lost), and the California primary campaign (ending tragically in Kennedy’s assassination).
Having become “much more politically aware,” Causey decided to enroll in American University because of its School of Government and Public Administration. He remained politically active in student politics at American, and following the tumultuous campus years of 1968 – 1971, he enrolled in law school at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. He worked for Judge Dulany Foster during the day and attended law school classes at night. Causey recounts his time with Judge Foster, observing that he learned more from Judge Foster than law school.
His next stop was on the staff of the House of Representatives Administration Committee. Causey ended up there because, during law school he had written a paper on the history of presidential papers. “There was no policy or law at all for what happened with presidential papers.” Causey’s paper eventually made its way through a friend to the House Administration Committee, which hired him to assist the General Counsel at GSA to draft regulations implementing the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974. Eventually that work led him to follow the litigation over the disposition of President Nixon’s papers, as well as the Presidential Records Act of 1978. Causey moved to the Committee on Education and Labor shortly after, but once he reached five years of service on the Hill, he decided to join the small litigation firm of Donahue, Ehrmantraut & Montedonico. Thus started his career as a trial lawyer.
Causey recalls many of the stories of his work with the Donahue firm, much of it in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, including before Judge Joyce Hens Green, Magistrate Judge Burnett, and Judge Royce Lamberth. Eventually, Causey joined James Falk to form Falk & Causey for a short time, and then moved to Jackson & Campbell because of his desire to do more trial work. He stayed at Jackson & Campbell for a number of years, where he created a niche practice touching on art and related issues. One case he describes in detail involved Georgia O’Keeffe, which he ultimately settled under unusual circumstances, all of which are discussed in the oral history. After several years, Causey joined Peabody & Brown for a short stint, but left to become the assistant general counsel for litigation at Red Cross. He describes some of the major cases under his watch, including a dispute with Johnson & Johnson over use of the iconic red cross, and a large swath of litigation following Hurricane Katrina involving harassment of Red Cross workers in the shelters that had been set up.
Following the Katrina litigation, Causey was approached about another different and unique litigation opportunity, this one at the Office of Professional Responsibility within the Department of Justice. Following multiple investigations at OPR, after three years Causey decided it was time to retire and work on a book he had been writing for some time. Not so fast. Irv Nathan, whom Causey had known for many years, had been appointed Attorney General for the District of Columbia. He called Causey and asked him to work for him for 12 to 18 months to help resolve three or four major cases facing the District of Columbia. One involved liability for the Pershing Park demonstration in 2001, at which the D.C. Police had encircled a large crowd of protestors and arrested them. Five students at George Washington University Law School had been caught up in the arrests, and then sued. The case went before U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. Nathan wanted the case settled. Causey agreed, asked Judge Sullivan to refer the case to a mediator, and eventually it was assigned to then retired U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson. Causey describes the difficult settlement dynamics and the eventual solution. When Karl Racine was elected Attorney General, he asked Causey to stay on, which he did in order to resolve other major cases.
In December 2016, Causey retired to write his book, which focused on a space engineer named John Houbolt, who “basically figured out and then convinced NASA how to send astronauts to the moon and back.” Why a book on space? Not surprisingly, in addition to all of his other ventures, Causey had been a docent at the Air and Space Museum for over 20 years. There, he met many of the astronauts and engineers from the Apollo space program and became fascinated with the career of Mr. Houbolt.
Along the way, for 34 years Causey taught as an adjunct professor on trial practice and evidence at Georgetown University Law Center, was nominated for the Superior Court bench (not confirmed), served on the Board of the Historical Society, took five oral histories himself, including that of Watergate prosecutor Earl Silbert, served on the D.C. Bar Board of Governors and on the Board of the Council for Court Excellence, among many other service-oriented projects.
Eclectic career indeed. And an oral history well worth reading.
