WASHINGTON INSIGHT

LEGAL OUTPOSTS: When Richard Nixon became President, he tapped one law partner, John N. Mitchell, for attorney general and made another, Leonard Garment, a top White House attorney. Meanwhile, Nixon’s New York law firm quickly took advantage of its political connections, setting up a Washington office. Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander built a lucrative list of clients who had business with the government, sparking questions about possible conflict of interest. . . . Now, the Little Rock, Ark., law firm where Hillary Rodham Clinton worked while her husband was governor has made deep inroads into Bill Clinton’s Administration. Webster L. (Web) Hubbell, a senior partner in the Rose Law Firm of Little Rock and a golf partner of the President, is currently Justice Department liaison with the new powerbrokers in the White House. He is expected to land a high post at the Justice Department. Vincent Foster Jr., a close friend of the Clintons, is White House deputy counsel and William H. Kennedy III, another Rose firm partner, is associate counsel. . . . The firm has no plans for a Washington office. “We don’t see ourselves becoming high-priced lawyer-lobbyists,” said spokesman Ronald M. Clark. “But we think the visibility could help our business in Arkansas.” He added: “We don’t expect any special favors from those people (Hillary Clinton and the three other former partners). They’re making a tremendous sacrifice, financial and lifestyle, to go to Washington. They’re doing it not to help us but to help the country.”