Best Launching Pad for Cabinet Positions

We include the phone number only as a courtesy, in case you're considering a career as a public servant. But be warned: Dialing it could cost you up to $500 an hour, the going rate for the top partners at The Firm. Still, that's a small investment if you have an eye on a position in a presidential cabinet -- Democratic or Republican. Former Denver mayor Federico Peña hadn't been with the law firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber (and then) Strickland for six months when he got an emergency call from Bill Clinton in December 1992 to become Secretary of Transportation (Peña later served as Secretary of Energy, too). And the process repeated itself this past December, when lawyer/lobbyist Gale Norton was tapped from the firm to join George W. Bush's administration as Secretary of the Interior. (As for the missing Strickland, his name came off the firm's stationery when he became the U.S. Attorney for Colorado -- a position the Democrat had to surrender shortly after Bush's election.)