"There's a better way to serve than having a referendum on my personality, my cockiness, my arrogance."

—attorney A. Scott Bolden, Sept. 1

Three years after his run for an at-large council seat ended in a landslide loss to Phil Mendelson, Bolden has had no trouble maintaining his public profile—and his bank account while he's at it. The Reed Smith partner has joined Fred Cooke as the attorney of choice for parties aggrieved by various organs of city government, offering the above quote in a September Washington Post profile. Just this year, Bolden's appeared in the corner of accused Ward 8 nonprofiteer Brenda Richardson, ex-first-lady Cora Masters Barry, and mayoral cronies Omar Karim and Sinclair Skinner. The guy gets results: He saved Barry's nonprofit from eviction, then a week later, saved a Virginia school from certain demise, getting the city to reverse its decision to pull out the special-education students it had placed there. Not even revelations that he sits on the board of the troubled nonprofit health-care provider run by buddy David Wilmot—or his childish refusal to speak to LL—have stopped Bolden's roll.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

More from LL's Quotes of 2009

When contacted on Friday evening, Richardson referred questions to Barry spokesperson Natalie Williams. This morning, Richardson wrote Washington City Paper:

"If you have any further question, please contact my lawyer, Scott Bolden at Reed Smith..."

When reached this morning, Bolden was in no mood for "further questions."

Bolden wrote in an e-mail:

"Jason, not sure how much clearer I can be...[neither] me nor my client will be speaking with you or anyone from the City Paper. Please refrain from contacting me or my client, Ms. Richardson in the future. Any additional attempts on your part to contact us will be deemed in my view as an attempt to harass her and/or I—not an attempt to interview one of us. Thanks."

This is not the first time Bolden has stepped in to represent a member of the Barry camp. Bolden represented Barry's son after he incurred charges for assaulting a police officer. Bolden lost by a huge margin to Phil Mendelson in the 2006 Democratic primary for an at-large council seat; he ended up in a dispute over a BlackBerry bill.