The Deal of the Century: The Breakup of AT&T

by Steve Coll

Bitten, the AT&T trial team retreated to its caucus suite at the Madison Hotel. “What can we do to convince this guy?” Saunders asked, referring to Greene. “What haven’t we tried?” It was then that Saunders seized on the “parade of stars” idea. The plan was, as one of the AT&T lawyers put it later, to tell Judge Greene, in effect, “Look, you dumb son of a bitch, this is not a liberal-conservative thing. Good, honest people who you respect share our opinion on this thing.” One Sunday morning, the senior trial team convened in Saunders’ suite to discuss what kinds of witnesses might be able to soften Greene’s harsh attitude toward the phone company. “If you could have anybody in the world come in and talk to Greene—anybody in the whole world—who would it be?” Saunders asked his partners. They made a list on a blackboard and tried, once again, to work up the judge’s psychological profile. George McGovern was an obvious candidate. Maybe a Kennedy. Benjamin Hooks, NAACP president and a former FCC commissioner, seemed a good choice. They tried to narrow the profile even further. What about someone who shared Greene’s most fundamental life experience, his escape from Nazi Germany?