President Bush has named Deputy Attorney General (and former white collar criminal defense attorney) Larry Thompson to head his new Corporate Fraud Task Force, also known (by presidential description no less) as a financial fraud swat team.

We're not crazy about prosecution task forces, and swat teams even less so, but if we have to have one, we laud Larry Thompson's appointment. Larry is seasoned, fair, level-headed, smart and a very nice guy.

We liked his position on the McDade Law (the McDade law states that all lawyers, including Department of Justice lawyers, are subject to existing state ethics laws and rules governing attorney conduct). He said it's good for the profession and that the Justice Department "stubbornly and unwisely continues to urge its repeal." (Federal Lawyer, Jan. 2001.)

We like his support for grand jury reform.

Of course, we don't like his support of the Administration's anti-terrorism proposals, particularly the monitoring of attorney client conversations.

But as Meatloaf says, two out of three ain't bad.