LETTERS
LETTERS Tax preparation Charles Peters is usually close to the mark, but in his latest attack on those protesting the catastrophic medicare surtax ["Tilting at Windmills," September] he missed...
...Incidentally, I am prepared to pay my share of a general tax to provide catastrophic health care for those who need it but cannot afford it...
...EDWARD L. WOLF Washington, D.C...
...In the first six months of 1989, Arnold & Porter attorneys contributed 15,000 hours to pro bono practice—over $2 million in "billable" time...
...It is distinguishable from other universities in that a more significant portion of its all too limited endowment— which goes to support scholarships and academic endeavors—is invested in real estate rather than equities or bonds...
...And it was partly to remedy this unfairness that the catastrophic care burden was placed on the affluent elderly...
...J. WARREN MCFARLAND Winter Springs, Florida The editor replies: Yes—if the affluent elderly will give up their social security income in excess of what their own and their employers' contributions, plus interest, pay for...
...Nevertheless, given the political machinations to which Medicare is subject, it would be foolish for me to cancel my current medical insurance...
...Estate of the university During the course of Mr...
...Is Mr...
...LETTERS Tax preparation Charles Peters is usually close to the mark, but in his latest attack on those protesting the catastrophic medicare surtax ["Tilting at Windmills," September] he missed by a mile...
...David Shaw should report the attorney to the California bar for professional misconduct...
...It is true that law firms can, and arguably should, do more to provide pro bono representation...
...If anyone is being deceptive it is those who refuse to acknowledge that institutions organized for profit and the people who work for them may also be committed to doing good for its own sake...
...A few years ago GW students were referring to the school in the student paper as "George Hyman University," after the big D.C...
...If Teresa spent a little more time mastering the basics of her craft, she would have a lot more time to, say, work on pro bono projects or just hang out...
...Though much of the damage is done, there are probably still opportunities to bring more community spirit to GW's real estate ventures...
...The George Washington University does own some real estate...
...JAMES W. JONES Washington, D.C...
...The Monthly's strong antilawyer bias is undercutting the credibility of its reportage of lawyerly behavior...
...As one of the individuals interviewed for Liza Mundy's article, I must confess to a sense of disappointment...
...This writer would be the first to applaud...
...All of Eva's anxiety could have been avoided (and with better results) if Shaw had consulted a legitimate immigration counseling center, contacted a Latino law professor, or been more careful...
...The author replies: To Washingtonians who fought the demolition of the Red Lion block, who grieved the flattening of the Circle Theater, the university might as well have been developer Oliver Carr...
...Yet, under the present terms of the law, I will be required to pay a surtax (not the full amount) to receive lesser benefits...
...With all due respect, that is truly a mindless comment...
...But he should review the files...
...The legal profession is one of the few (if not the only) professions in this country genuinely committed to pro bono service...
...yet the hourly contributions of major law firms are far more impressive than your article would indicate...
...construction company...
...Arnold & Porter, one of the law firms cited in your article, has a 40-year tradition of pro bono work...
...But the suggestion that firms undertake such work only, or even primarily, as a recruiting device or as a sop to dissatisfied associates completely ignores the possibility that for some law firms the principal reason to undertake pro bono work is good old-fashioned altruism...
...We do not deceive ourselves or anyone else into thinking that a law firm is the same as a public interest group, but we recognize that we nonetheless can play a role in advancing the public interest...
...DAVID LOEFFLER Milwaukee, Wisconsin Liza Mundy rather cynically chooses to overlook the substantial contributions that law firms have made in their efforts to provide pro bono representation...
...The George Washington University, moreover, supports a hospital that last year provided over $20 million in uncompensated medical care to the poor and homeless of the District of Columbia...
...Trachtenberg, who assumed his position just 15 months ago, cannot be blamed for the university's past behavior...
...Mundy had called the "ambiguities" of doing public interest work in a private law firm turned out to be just another diatribe against big law firms and the lawyers who work in them...
...Peters also prepared...
...What I had expected to be a thoughtful look at what Ms...
...So Teresa's all-night effort was grossly inefficient, even if pompous Billy did need the memo...
...Trachtenberg is president of The George Washington University...
...Any first-year associate with sufficient credentials to be hired "at one of the biggest law firms in Washington" would know, or could quickly learn, that federal law, not the law of each state, provides the answer to the question of whether the union could enjoin the sale of Company X to Company Y when Company Y doesn't plan to recognize the union or to continue to employ the current unionized workers...
...The 1986 reform legislation updated the registry, so that many aliens eligible for legalization (arrival before 1982) are also eligible for registry (continuous residence since 1972...
...Without question, the fact that a firm does pro bono work will certainly help it attract and retain associates...
...MICHAEL A. OLIVAS Madison, Wisconsin...
...Even more pathetically, all the parties missed Eva's eligibility for the registry provisions that would have allowed her to become a permanent resident immediately, without the intermediate time spent in the amnesty program...
...Our Washington colleagues in the profession (Wilmer, Cutler's representation in Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education, a pro bono case concerning book banning in the South, comes immediately to mind), as well as firms in cities across the nation, have made similar contributions "for the public good" in their communities...
...Wolf is an associate of Arnold & Porter Migrating headaches I read with recognition and horror the recent story on the amnesty applicant ["Take a Number and Wait," David Shaw, September...
...Rowe's text ["Down and Out in Washington on $89,500 a Year," July/August], he threw in a gratuitous and, if I may say so, an unfair dig at The George Washington University...
...In so doing, she does a serious disservice to the legal profession and to the important ideals upon which it is founded...
...Free legal representation of organizations and individuals involved in criminal or civil cases is, in fact, a critical part of our profession's ethos...
...Still, I have been able to obtain medical insurance for myself and my wife that provides better coverage than the proposed catastrophic health care at less cost than the proposed maximum surtax for a married couple...
...We have undertaken cases in which we have argued for (and won) the right to court-appointed legal counsel, fought against housing discrimination, and for the reproductive rights of women, and defended the First Amendment rights of organizations (including The Washington Monthly) among many, many others...
...Jones is managing partner of Arnold & Porter...
...STEPHEN JOEL TRACHTENBERG Washington, D.C...
...Pro boners Imaginative scenarios played out by invented characters such as "Teresa" are useful vehicles for educating the laity about professional behavior—unless the author gets it all wrong, as Liza Mundy did ["The Pro Bono Hustle," September...
...That excess is now financed by a tax that has to be paid by struggling workers whether they can afford it or not...
...I am one of those retirees who is protesting the surtax and I cannot be considered affluent, except in contrast to someone barely above the poverty level...
...Whatever the virtue of the rest of the article may be, it seems to me less than fair to characterize GW as a "real estate development firm...
...He refers to the old Circle Theater and then says (in parenthesis) that "a real estate development firm called George Washington University has since torn it down...
Vol. 21 • November 1989 • No. 10
