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Duke's 19th Century media concept

By Mark Obbie

If it weren't so offensive, Duke University's legal assault on a litigation opponent's PR strategy would be downright funny. But not funny ha ha. Funny sad.In this memorandum filed last week, Duke seeks a gag order against lawyers for the unindicted lacrosse players who announced their civil suit against the university in a well-publicized press conference in Washington last month. The players, who accuse the university of smearing them in the early days of the notorious rape investigation, used PR tactics that were aggressive but hardly extraordinary in modern times. In addition to the press release and press conference, the plaintiffs' PR firm, Robert Bork, Jr.'s Bork Communication Group, produced this Web site, with the pleadings, a blog, and associated links and resources to make its case to the press and public.Sounding like an echo from the 1838-1842 tenure of Duke's first president Brantley York (pictured here), Duke's esteemed counsel harrumph about Bork's improper tactics. Why look, they sniff: A World Wide Web site, available everywhere, 24/7! And a press conference in the National Press Building. And -- horrors -- a press release. What century do these lawyers practice in? And have they noticed that Duke itself has used a Web site to promote its side of the story, as Durham-in-Wonderland's KC Johnson points out?The offensive side of this, of course, stems from the very nature of the suit. Abandoned and smeared by the very university that should have protected innocent students in the face of a corrupt police investigation and prosecution, the students are using the common tools available for fighting back: lawyers, lawsuits, and flacks. I don't know if their suit has merit, legally or politically. I don't know if a literal reading of North Carolina's lawyer-ethics code prohibits tactics like Bork's. But I do know if I were Duke, I'd tell my lawyers to stand down. (Via ABA Journal.)

Full post as published by Lawbeat on March 06, 2008 (boomark / email).