The following tribute was written by William Lee, Co-Managing Partner of WilmerHale.
The story originally appeared in The Wellesley Townsman on March 15, 2001.

Long known as a "lawyer's lawyer" and best remembered for his assistance to Joseph N. Welch at the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, and 20 years later, for his representation of President Nixon, Jim St.Clair had a long and distinguished career of public and private service to the United States, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Boston, the Harvard Law School and many other clients, institutions and causes.

Mr. St.Clair first gained prominence as a trial lawyer in 1954, in a laudatory opinion by the Federal District Court Judge Charles E. Wyzanski in a case in which Mr. St.Clair had represented in Cape Cod Food Products, Inc. against National Cranberry Association and others. In his opinion, Judge Wyzanski wrote: "Plaintiff's chief counsel, James D. St.Clair, Esq., in his thoroughness of preparation, economy of effort, choice of emphasis, quality of examination and cross-examination, presentation of arguments, analysis of the law, courtesy to parties, witnesses, opposing counsel, and the Court, and that indefinable distinction which breeds excellence, can stand comparison with any lawyer who has appeared before me in the last dozen years. With becoming deference to his seniors, but with unflinching courage in examining witnesses, in meeting opposing arguments, and in resisting what he regarded as unsound rulings from the bench, plaintiff's counsel set a model not likely to be surpassed."

Throughout his career, Mr. St.Clair served as counsel to many clients, large and small, public and private, and in important public service cases. Among the earliest and the most important was his representation of the Department of the Army, with Joseph N. Welch in the famous Army-McCarthy hearings, which many credit as the beginning of the downfall of the late Senator from Wisconsin whose tactics and conduct gave history to the term "McCarthyism." With Mr. St.Clair seated beside him, Mr. Welch's excoriation of Senator McCarthy for his cruelty, recklessness and abandonment of any "sense of decency" was carried to millions of television viewers.

Twenty years later in 1974, Mr. St.Clair was asked to represent President Nixon in the Watergate matter. He resigned from Hale and Dorr LLP to undertake that service, and argued before the Supreme Court the important issues raised by that representation. Despite many requests and opportunities, he was the only person intimately involved with the President's defense who wrote no memoirs about his experiences nor gave any in-depth interviews. Those who knew him were not surprised; his conduct was consistent with life-long respect for and devotion to the rule of law and his deep belief in the sanctity of client confidences. And, as he said on many occasions, he represented the office of the President as much as the man who occupied the office. In 1997, Father Robert J. Drinan, S.J., the former congressman, said of Jim St.Clair's refusal to exploit his Watergate experience and representation of the President: "I always hold up the example of Mr. St.Clair as the model of how a lawyer should deal with his client. The lawyer should be the counselor and confidante of those who ask for legal assistance. If more lawyers would emulate the granite discretion of Mr. St.Clair, the reputation of the legal profession would be significantly higher. "

In 1991, Mr. St.Clair was asked by Mayor Raymond Flynn of Boston to investigate and review the practices of the Boston Police Department. The report of the "St.Clair Commission" as it came to be known, was a tribute to incisive powers of investigation and triggered important changes in the manner in which the department was organized and managed and resulted in the then innovative concept of community policing. Mr. St.Clair also performed other important public service responding to Massachusetts Governor John Volpe's requests to have him serve as Special Counsel in removal proceedings involving certain public officials, to the requests of the judiciary to represent indigents in civil criminal cases and in his representation of the States of Maine and South Carolina and the Town of Mashpee, Massachusetts, in landmark cases involving Indian land claims.

Jim St.Clair had a brilliant courtroom style, which at all times displayed his mastery of the facts and his ability to translate complex subjects into simple, understandable terms. His examinations were crisp, thorough and often relentless, yet he was always respected and admired by his opponents and even by those who were subject to his examinations. His demeanor, inside and outside the courtroom, was unfailingly dignified, courteous and considerate and projected his warmth, friendliness, good humor, and genuine love of the law. His longtime partner and fellow trial lawyer, Jerome P. Facher, said of him: "Jim St.Clair was the best trial lawyer I have ever seen. His talent for taking complex facts, absorbing them and creating a brilliantly organized and incisive examination was enormous and was always admired even by opposing counsel. Coupled with his skills as a lawyer was a kindly, gentle, courteous person totally without rancor or mean spirit, no matter how sharp the controversy. He was, in the best sense of the word, a gentleman, a true professional who brought only credit to his profession, and who will serve for generations to come as a model of a trial lawyer, good citizen, great colleague, and remarkable human being."

Mr. St.Clair brought his remarkable skill and experience to the teaching profession in serving more than twenty-five years as a Lecturer at Law in Trial Practice at the Harvard Law School teaching future trial lawyers, in an immensely likeable and memorable way, the techniques of trial practice his students continue to use today.

He was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He served as president and as chairman of the Executive Board of Horizons for Youth. He was a trustee and director of the Walker Home and School, a director of the Boston Opera Association, and co-managing trustee of the Amelia Peabody Foundation.

Mr. St.Clair was born in Akron, Ohio. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was the winner of Ames Moot Court competition. He served four years in the Navy in World War II. He received awards or honorary degrees from Tulane University, Gettysburg College, Emerson College, and the University of Virginia Law School.