GENERAL INTEREST my fi rst-year property law professor, Thomas Bergin, who used that opportunity to chal-lenge us to take responsibility for making work what he called “our country’s new experiment in democracy.” To explain why he considered our Constitution to be a “new experiment,” he pointed out that his grand-mother had been born in the same year that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had died, a period which consisted, in his case, of just two long generations. Professor Bergin warned us that the roots for our democratic system did not run deep and could be destroyed if we neglected our duty and allowed to erode the constitutional guarantees of liberty, justice, and equality. He stressed the important part we should play as lawyers in determining the fate of our system of government. So now, when I think of Watergate, I think of Dean Turnbull’s passionate lecture about the heroism of the men who stood up for the rule of law. Although I am also re-minded of the shame on the faces of the men who attempted to undermine our democracy, I am proud to have witnessed how our legal system dealt with their conduct. Most im-portantly, Watergate reminds me of Professor Bergin’s challenge to take responsibility for making this new experiment in democracy succeed. Frederick M. Bruner graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1972 and from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1975. After 20 years in private practice as a trial attorney in Norfolk and Richmond, he joined the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission as a Deputy Commissioner in the Alexandria offi ce in 1995 and moved to the Richmond offi ce in 1997. He presided over Workers’ Compensation hearings throughout the commonwealth until 2016. He now manages the com-mission’s Compromise Settlement Department. Politics and lawyers have always been inextricably intertwined, a Venn diagram with much intersection. As early as 1875 when Ulysses S. Grant appointed John Henderson to investigate alcohol tax revenue corruption, numerous Presidents have appointed or been investigated by lawyers known as special counsel. In all, 29 men and women have fi lled that legal role, with President Clinton being the subject of the most investigations (12), and President Reagan coming in second with six, according to the Saturday Evening Post . The position is rarely a popular one, and Kenneth Starr, who investigated the Clintons, once referred to himself as a “skunk at a garden party” as he was being escorted from the White House. Join the Intellectual Property Law Section Founded in 1970, the IP Section seeks to advance the quality of intellectual property law practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We strive to create opportuni-ties for our members to get to know one another, to provide good CLEs to IP and non-IP attorneys, and to keep our members informed about developments in IP prac-tice in the commonwealth. Visit http://bit.ly/vsbip Choose to Report Voluntary pro bono reporting is new on your license renewal statement this year. Active lawyers can help the bar assess the justice gap by reporting their pro bono hours. Learn more at http://bit.ly/PBreporting. www.vsb.org GENERAL INTEREST FEATURES | Vol. 67 | April 2019 | VIRGINIA LAWYER 41