It was a beautiful wedding. When Houston’s Bracewell & Patterson called a press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel two years ago to introduce its new partner, Rudolph Giuliani, the firm’s lawyers beamed. Their trophy mate was a real catch, someone who would bring instant name recognition for Bracewell’s fledgling New York office. Like a good traditional bride, the firm changed its name to Bracewell & Giuliani. The hard-nosed New York politician and the savvy Texas firm cast their relationship in terms that might make a Hallmark card writer blush. Their union, they said, was ignited by a burning passion for the law.
“I wanted to practice law,” said Giuliani, 63, during an interview in late February. “I really enjoyed it. It’s who I am.” Or, as Patrick Oxford, Bracewell’s managing partner, said in 2005: “It was really his love of the law that really drove our conversations.”
