Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Lawbeat

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Legal News

: Lawbeat

Pro bono hater, or victim of a misquote?

By Mark Obbie

ADVERTISEMENTS

Did a legal newspaper rip a judge's comments about pro bono out of context, and did critics then rush to judgment about the judge's meaning? I'm still trying to figure out the answers to both questions. Walter Olson reports at Point of Law that 2nd Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs claims he was quoted "grossly" out of context when he made critical remarks about pro bono work and impact litigation at a Federalist Society event in Rochester. In her coverage of the judge's talk, Elizabeth Stull wrote in the local legal paper, The Daily Record, on Oct. 8 (no link available):

Pro bono work primarily is an "antisocial" and self-serving activity lawyers use to develop their skills, firms use to recruit and "give solace" to associates, and nonprofits use to further a political agenda, Judge Jacobs argued.In particular, litigation against the government and government officials and impact litigation are attempts to improperly expand the courts' reach in legislative matters, the judge said."No public good is good for everybody," Jacobs said.

The Jacobs-bashing has been predictably spectacular, climaxing in a National Law Journal op-ed by Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, that called on Jacobs to "apologize to the profession" for his "misguided" and shameful remarks. When The Wall Street Journal's Dan Slater blogged about all this yesterday, Jacobs evidently had had enough. He had an aide issue a statement to the WSJ Law Blog calling the Daily Record's account wrong. He wrote:

I support, endorse and solicit pro bono work, and my talk said just that. The talk identifies abuses.

I asked Daily Record editor Tara Buck to respond. She declined, but thus far the paper has not run a correction (other than an unrelated one on another out-of-context quote from the same event). My first reaction is the same as Olson's: that it's literally unbelievable that a circuit chief judge -- in particular one from New York, who has a history of pro bono work in Big Law -- would denounce all of pro bono work. And so the story is immediately suspect, as are the critics' denunciations. But I'm trying not to commit the same error of jumping to conclusions. The complete story from the Daily Record goes on to quote Jacobs at length with thoughtful but highly critical comments about misplaced priorities in pro bono. Did the judge not express himself clearly? Did the reporter clumsily and inaccurately overstate what he was saying, or trying to say? Did partisan critics pounce without thinking skeptically enough about what might actually have been said? I don't know, but I feel safest in answering the last question as a big, fat "yes."

Full post as published by Lawbeat on October 23, 2008 (boomark / email).