The career antitrust lawyer approaches his job as if the Sherman Act operates like a physical force for good in the universe of commerce.

That office had career lawyers, some of whom stretched back to the time of Lyndon Johnson.

Mr. Johansen is a career lawyer with the labor relations board.

He said a career lawyer at the department had concluded that it would not violate the law.

Former career lawyers in the civil rights division have charged that it turned decidedly more partisan in the Bush administration.

But he repeated he never hired career lawyers based on their politics.

She seemed to trust no one among either the political appointees or the career lawyers.

The new employees with religious backgrounds were enthusiastic about such cases, seeing them akin to combating slavery, a former career lawyer in the division said.

A number of career lawyers who served as section heads or deputies in the civil rights division have been replaced.

Under the system, known as the honors program, nonpolitical career lawyers had screened applicants.