Jim Thompson`s years as U.S. attorney, 1971 to 1975, are called ”The Days of the Giants.” Thompson and his predecessor, William Bauer, now chief judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, hired a bright, aggressive group of young lawyers, some of them right out of law school, and gave them a mandate to go after official corruption wherever they found it: on the police force, in City Hall; it didn`t matter.
The roster of the Kiddie Corps, as they were known, reads now like a Who`s Who of the Illinois Bar. In addition to Dan Webb, the list includes U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sam Skinner; former Illinois Atty. Gen. Tyrone Fahner, now in private practice; former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, now in private practice; James Montana, chief judge of the Illinois Court of Claims and a criminal defense attorney; U.S. District Judge Charles Kokoras; Judge Joel Flaum of the Court of Appeals; U.S. District Judge Ilana Rovner who was the former deputy governor; U.S. District Judge James Holderman; Farrel
”Tex” Griffin, chairman of the Illinois Racing Board and in private practice; Gary Starkman, former counsel to Gov. Thompson, now in private practice. Other well-respected attorneys now in private practice include John Simon, Michael Monico, Gordon Nash and Matthias Lydon.
They remember those days as highlights of their careers.
Gov. Jim Thompson: ”That was the best job I ever had. In five years, nobody ever wrote a critical editoral about me, everyone called me sir, and we put crooks in jail. Compare that to any other job, including the one I have now. We assembled, in that office, the finest collection of assistant U.S. attorneys ever, anywhere. They`ve proven that, not only by their record while they were there, but by what they`ve done with their lives since they`ve left. Many of them have stayed friends to this day. I remember the first state fair when I was governor. A whole bunch of them came down with their families and stayed at the mansion. We must have had 40 or 45 people in sleeping bags all over the place.”
Tyrone Fahner: ”Everyone in the city thought we were pretty crazy then. We were . . . setting new rules. We prosecuted over 2,000 public officials. One former alderman told us: `Enjoy yourselves now, because none of you will ever practice law in this town again. You`ll be finished.` The traditional approach had been to go into the office, do the job, make friends and then go into law firms. But we were aggressive. We prosecuted politicians, police, aldermen-things that people who want to ease their way into the private sector don`t do. We didn`t care. We didn`t curry any favors with anyone. We knew we looked good or bad together, so we always helped each other. If one of us lost a case, we all felt awful; if one of us won, we all celebrated.
Ilana Rovner: ”I remember one day when we were all having our picture taken and I thought to myself: `We`re the most fortunate group of people who has ever lived. We have the opportunity to do public service and at the same time work with each other.` I remember my heart just sort of swelling.”