The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles was filled with national political figures, including former vice president Al Gore, foreign dignitaries, and much of the sprawling metropolis’s ruling establishment on March 28. The metal-skinned venue, winter home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was the setting for former U.S. secretary of State Warren Christopher’s memorial service. Christopher had died ten days earlier at the age of 85 after battling kidney and bladder cancer.
Also attending the service were hundreds of attorneys and staff members at O’Melveny & Myers, where Christopher practiced law for 50 years and was chair from 1982 to 1992. For them Christopher, or “Chris,” as they referred to him, wasn’t a larger-than-life civic leader or international statesman, but a treasured colleague and mentor. “For all of us at the firm today, Chris has been the heart and the soul of O’Melveny & Myers,” eulogized firm chair Arthur “A.B.” Culvahouse, Jr.
