Nigeria, May 18 -- On the eve of his decision to nominate Oliver Wendell Holmes as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, that "the ablest lawyers are men whose past has naturally brought them into close relationship with the wealthiest and the most powerful." What he left unsaid was that they are also men who profit from such relationships. Profiting from the deployment of unrivalled skill and intellect in the service of the wealthiest and the most powerful is not criminal but it is possible to achieve material wealth and end up craven or hollow.

Continuing his letter to Senator Cabot Lodge, President Roosevelt also expressed his joy and ...