Watergate 50 Years On: Has the Legal Profession Forgotten Its Lessons?

White House Counsel John Dean and Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks in a Rare Event Marking the 50th Anniversary of the Watergate Break-in

An exciting program presented by Thompson Hine LLP. Fifty years after the Watergate scandal broke, we will revisit the chain of events leading up to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. You will hear from two key players: John Dean, White House Counsel, and Jill Wine-Banks, Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutor. The discussion will be led by Thompson Hine partner Jim Robenalt.

Thursday, June 9

John Dean
Before becoming White House Counsel in July 1970 at age 31, Dean was Minority Counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Associate Director of a law reform commission and Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He served as White House Counsel during the Nixon administration for 1,000 days. He did his undergraduate studies at Colgate University and the College of Wooster, with majors in English Literature and Political Science. He received a graduate fellowship from American University to study government and the presidency before entering Georgetown University Law Center, where he received his J.D. in 1965. Dean recounted his days in the Nixon White House and Watergate in three books, Blind Ambition (1976), Lost Honor (1982), and The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It (2014).

Jill Wine-Banks​
Wine-Banks began her career as the first woman to serve as an organized crime prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Just over four years later, her trial capabilities and win record led to her selection as one of the three Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutors – and the only woman – in the obstruction of justice trial against Nixon’s top aides, including his Attorney General, Chief of Staff and Chief Domestic Adviser, and Nixon himself, who was named an unindicted co-conspirator. Her team delivered a briefcase of evidence to the House Judiciary Committee as a road map to impeachment. She was also a major player in the Watergate tapes hearing, cross-examining Rose Mary Woods, Nixon’s secretary, about the 18 ½ minute gap in a key White House recording. Wine-Banks is the author of The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President (2020).

Jim Robenalt
Robenalt is a partner in Thompson Hine’s Business Litigation practice group. He has been named one of America’s leading lawyers in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. For more than a decade, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® and selected for inclusion in Ohio Super Lawyers® through a process that includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations. Since 2000, he has won major trials and arbitrations in complex litigation involving over $161 million and defended significant construction cases, tax cases and professional malpractice cases. Robenalt is the author of several historical books, including January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month That Changed America Forever (2015).