Comments on: The Economics of Pro Bono Litigation http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/02/the_economics_o.html The Law, the Universe, and Everything Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:19:19 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 By: Maryland Conservatarian http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/02/the_economics_o.html/comment-page-1#comment-55435 Maryland Conservatarian Tue, 06 Feb 2007 17:36:44 +0000 http://www.solove.org/archives/2007/02/the-economics-of-pro-bono-litigation.html#comment-55435 I don't know how much you read NRO but if you kept on reading you would have read comments critical of Mr. Stimson and disagreeing with Cliff May. Although NRO is avowedly a conservative site, it still manages to exhibit more "diversity" of thought than many ostensibly non-partisan sites. As for his air quoting "legal Community" - deservedly so! I understand him to mean that it is ridiculous to consider that there is a "legal community" out there that can express outrage, agreement or any other kind of sentiment. I know this concept of communities is an attractive one for many (Jesse Jackson, for one, has made a lucrative living off of it) as it de-emphasizes the individual but the idea that there is a legal community that would ever coalesce so they can be summed up as to collectively not accept an apology is wishful thinking...or journalistic laziness...or both. I'm a lawyer so I guess I would be lumped into this so-called legal community but no one and no thing - not the ABA, the Maryland Bar Association or even the venerable Ed Meese - "speaks" for me as a member. I have not been critical of these or other pro-bono efforts despite the ridiculous rhetoric that they sometimes produce. Hopefully all the grandstanders wailing and gnashing their teeth over Stimson's statement will remember (although many of us will also be there to remind them) all these moral posturings when other members of this same legal community defend so-called polluters, tobacco companies, Right-to-Work organizers and Republicans in effort to make sure they too get a fair shake. I don’t know how much you read NRO but if you kept on reading you would have read comments critical of Mr. Stimson and disagreeing with Cliff May. Although NRO is avowedly a conservative site, it still manages to exhibit more “diversity” of thought than many ostensibly non-partisan sites.

As for his air quoting “legal Community” – deservedly so! I understand him to mean that it is ridiculous to consider that there is a “legal community” out there that can express outrage, agreement or any other kind of sentiment. I know this concept of communities is an attractive one for many (Jesse Jackson, for one, has made a lucrative living off of it) as it de-emphasizes the individual but the idea that there is a legal community that would ever coalesce so they can be summed up as to collectively not accept an apology is wishful thinking…or journalistic laziness…or both.

I’m a lawyer so I guess I would be lumped into this so-called legal community but no one and no thing – not the ABA, the Maryland Bar Association or even the venerable Ed Meese – “speaks” for me as a member.

I have not been critical of these or other pro-bono efforts despite the ridiculous rhetoric that they sometimes produce. Hopefully all the grandstanders wailing and gnashing their teeth over Stimson’s statement will remember (although many of us will also be there to remind them) all these moral posturings when other members of this same legal community defend so-called polluters, tobacco companies, Right-to-Work organizers and Republicans in effort to make sure they too get a fair shake.

]]>