James D. St. Clair

James Draper St. Clair (April 14, 1920 – March 10, 2001) was an American lawyer, who practiced law for many years in Boston with the firm of Hale & Dorr. He was the chief legal counsel for President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Early life James St. Clair was born on April 14, 1920, in Akron, Ohio. He was raised in a number of Midwest cities, including Erie, Pennsylvania, Buffalo, New York, and Albany, New York. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois in 1941. From 1942 to 1945 was an officer in the United States Navy. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1947 and joined the firm of Hale & Dorr two years later. He became a senior partner in 1954. Legal career Army–McCarthy hearings St. Clair first gained notice while assisting Joseph Welch in the Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954. St. Clair selected Fred Fisher to assist with the case. Fisher was sent home before the hearings began after Welch confirmed his prior membership in the National Lawyers Guild, an organization accused of Communist sympathies. Joseph McCarthy attacked Fisher's membership in the group, which led to Welch's famous line "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"