Who is Abe Fortas from Gideon's Trumpet and what is their importance?

Abe Fortas is the fifty-two-year-old Washington attorney appointed to represent Gideon. He's a member a thirty-lawyer firm, Arnold, Fortas and Palmer. He's a graduate of Yale Law School as is one of his partners. He's Jewish and tremendously interested in making money for his firm, though he is also instrumental in drafting Government legislation and advisor to Lyndon B. Johnson and F.D.R. There's no indication how Fortas comes to be appointed, as it's simply a matter for the Supreme Court Justices to decide which attorney is to be appointed to represent any particular client. Fortas has been in the Supreme Court before and is familiar to the Justices.