But David E. Kendall, the President's private lawyer and chief legal strategist, is away on vacation, and no decision has been made.

She was otherwise a key legal strategist in the civil rights movement, helping to desegregate Southern schools, buses, and lunch counters.

Nov. 23, 1965 - Outfit lieutenant, legal strategist and chief "political fixer" Murray "The Camel" Humphreys suffered a fatal heart attack.

What happened next illustrates why it is hard to take Mr. Meese seriously as a legal strategist, much less a constitutional scholar.

His father is a vice chairman, an executive vice president and the chief marketing and legal strategist at MB Financial, a Chicago holding company that owns several banks.

Mr. Maddox, who is given credit for being the legal strategist, and Mr. Mason, a politically ambitious man, speak with disdain about the law and the criminal-justice system.

Colleagues and competitors describe him as a master legal strategist.

Asked today whether the Gore team feared any kind of retribution in court because of Mr. Gore's criticism during the campaign, one legal strategist said no.

I mean, he's not our legal strategist or anything, but he does understand our view.

At the Rose law firm here, where Mr. Foster practiced for 22 years, he was known as one of the state's top legal strategists and perhaps its consummate gentleman.