Looking back on it, the old hands at Kaplan, Russin and Vec-chi were never really comfortable with Michael Abbell. Kaplan, Russin is a sedate Washington law firm that specializes in commercial work. Abbell, however, was a paunchy criminal attorney who made no apologies for representing drug kingpins like the reputed leaders of the Cali cartel. Then one day in 1989 one of the firm's lawyers in Bogota sent a letter about Abbell to the home office—and the gist of this letter, according to those who saw it, was "My God, he's going to get us killed." The rivalry between the Medellin and Cali cartels was approaching open warfare in Bogota; even a respectable U.S. law firm might be bombed. One of the partners tried talking to Abbell. "Why is there even a discussion of this?" Abbell replied. "This is the kind of work that criminal lawyers do."
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