Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 28, 1990 TAG: 9005280064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Now he's doing it on behalf of the Richmond-based Hunton and Williams law firm, which he joined as a partner after leaving the governor's office in January.
The firm, the largest in the state and one of the largest in the nation, is in the vanguard of legal firms moving rapidly into the international law arena. Hunton and Williams recently opened an office in Brussels, Belgium, where it expects to specialize in environmental issues likely to grip Europe in the wake of dramatic political changes occurring there.
Baliles - who concentrated on environmental law in private practice and as a deputy attorney general before launching his political career - has been put in charge of the firm's international practice group, which includes more than 40 Hunton and Williams lawyers.
He is quickly emerging as an expert on legal strategies for foreign companies wanting to expand their operations into the United States and domestic companies that want to do business abroad.
"It's a fascinating time for me," Baliles said in a recent interview in his office here, where he lights between trips to the firm's office in New York, Washington and Brussels to promote international business. He's been to Europe once and is going back there in June. He's also planning a trip to the Far East and other parts of the world this year.
Looking more relaxed than during his last months as governor, Baliles said his new job has been "intellectually stimulating," and "I think it will be professionally satisfying for some time to come."
Does that mean he's through with politics?
"I don't know. I haven't ruled anything in or out," Baliles said. He reminded a reporter that he rejected pleas from fellow Democrats that he run for the U.S. Senate this year against the Republican incumbent, John Warner.
He did so "because I felt I needed to take time off [from politics], to reflect, to recharge my batteries, to do something new. That may be why I find this position right now to be so satisfying. I like the pace, I like the nature of the challenge, the scope of work, the extent of travel, the company of colleagues."
He said he found it remarkably easy to adjust to not being governor.
Baliles said he recognized that as governor he had only four years to carry out his agenda, and he left the office satisfied that he had done just about everything he wanted to do. "And I was never intoxicated with the perquisites of power, so it was not a shock to lose them."
In the perquisites-of-power department, Baliles was tight-lipped concerning actions by his successor, Douglas Wilder, that seemed designed to embarrass him.
Shortly after taking office in January, Wilder issued a stop order on highly prized low-numbered license plates that Baliles had asked to be processed for his former cabinet secretaries, senior staff members and friends.
Then, taking advantage of a mistake made in the House of Delegates, Wilder held up hundreds of appointments Baliles had made in the final months of his term and eventually rejected several that were to have gone to Baliles' close political allies.
At the time those developments hit the press, associates told reporters that Baliles was livid. But in the recent interview, Baliles brushed it aside.
Even so, Baliles seemed stung by perceived attempts to disparage his much-touted transportation program and suggestions that he had left a budgetary mess for Wilder to straighten out.
The gist of the criticism about the transportation program Baliles put in place in 1986 is that the cost of meeting the needs will be higher than expected. Wilder has made a point of reminding people that he had warned in 1986 that Baliles' transportation study commission was not figuring the cost of inflation.
But the commission "concluded minimum costs would be in excess of $20 billion, just to meet the most critical needs and that would not even come close to addressing all the desired needs," Baliles said.
The legislature approved only $12 billion, so it's "not exactly a surprise" to say now that not enough money was appropriated.
But "if you look at the bottom line of the transportation program - and this was never denied, hasn't been denied and can't be denied - the result of the new program is that the amount of money available for new construction has been tripled," Baliles said.
As long as the state continues to grow, every governor will have to find more money for transportation, Baliles said.
Baliles said, however, he would not attempt to judge what kind of agenda Wilder may be following in that area or any other.
Each governor has a different approach to problems, and Baliles said Wilder has not been in office long enough for anyone to assess his record. Additionally, he said he would "try to maintain certain traditions of courtesy that former governors have extended to their successors" and not comment on Wilder's administration.
Meanwhile, Baliles is begining to move back onto the speakers' circuit. He has given a couple of commencement addresses at Virginia colleges this spring and recently addressed the Virginia State Bar's international law seminar in Williamsburg.
By most accounts, Baliles has made a big hit with other members of the Hunton and Williams firm - both by emphasizing the global perspective he wants it to have and by shrugging off any special treatment to which an ex-governor might feel entitled.
by CNB