Bar Conference Stages Musical Review of New Ethics Rules
The 2007 D.C. Bar Conference, held on March 26 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, brought together legal practitioners throughout the Washington metropolitan area to learn more about the revised Rules of Professional Conduct, which went into effect on February 1.

With the theme “Ethics Blues: A Musical Ethics Experience,” the conference combined substantive instruction on the new ethics guidelines with entertaining blues music.

The conference opened with a luncheon that included the presentation of the Beatrice Rosenberg Award to James H. Thessin, principal deputy legal adviser at the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State.

Thessin said that when first learning he would be receiving the award he wondered, “Why me?” Unlike Rosenberg, who was “a master appellate litigator,” Thessin has spent his career as a diplomat who “solves cases by trying to find ways in which both sides can win.”

“But Beatrice Rosenberg and I share one important set of principles,” he said. “For us our public office is a sacred public trust to be used for the good of all the American people and not for narrow or private gain. . . . We also share a passion to make sure that this big, great principle is passed on to the next generation of government attorneys.”

The Rosenberg Award recognizes lawyers providing excellent work on behalf of government agencies, service to the community and legal profession, and mentoring younger lawyers.

The educational portion of the program began with a plenary session led by Jack Marshall, president of ProEthics Ltd. He provided an overview of the salient amendments to the rules. Leah Wortham, professor of law at the Catholic University of America, presided over the second plenary session, which was devoted to secrets and client confidences. The third session concerned legal business transactions, with speakers Eric Hirschhorn, a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP and vice chair of the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee, and Daniel Schumack, a partner at Schumack Ryals PLLC.

D.C. Bar legal ethics counsel Heather Bupp-Habuda served as moderator.

In the late afternoon a special meeting of the membership resulted in an affirmative vote to allow the D.C. Bar leadership to advocate in support of public funding for the D.C. Access to Justice Commission. The commission, now in its third year, relies on public support in its mission of increasing the availability of civil legal services for the underserved and reducing barriers to the civil justice system.

The conference ended with a reception honoring the D.C. judiciary. Judges Frank E. Schwelb of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia were singled out for recognition as having taken senior status and retiring from the bench, respectively.

During the closing reception, the D.C. Bar Foundation presented its Jerrold Scoutt Prize to Diane Weinroth, special counsel at the Children’s Law Center and adjunct professor of law at American University.

Weinroth said that lawyers “need to hear the stories of the poor and the disadvantaged, we need to understand them, and we need to tell them in order to secure some measure of fairness and justice.”

The Scoutt Prize honors superior performance by an attorney who has worked for a significant portion of his or her career at a nonprofit organization providing hands-on legal services to the poor and disadvantaged in the District of Columbia. —J.R., K.A.

Board of Governors Approves Budget
The proposed 2007–2008 budget, as recommended by the D.C. Bar Budget Committee, received unanimous approval by the Board of Governors at its meeting on April 10.

The budget calls for an increase in members’ dues from $180 to $188 for active members, from $115 to $118 for inactive members, and from $90 to $95 for judicial members.

The approved budget incorporates only one change to the budget plan as published in the April issue of Washington Lawyer. In order to maintain the required level of $750,000 in the Clients’ Security Fund, the budget also authorizes a transfer of $227,192 from the dues-funded reserves to the Clients’ Security Fund.

The 2007–2008 dues levels for active, inactive, and judicial members fall $1, $4, and $7 below the projected dues levels contained in the Bar’s 2003 dues ceiling recommendation, respectively. Moreover, these levels remain below the current Bar dues ceiling of $195.

D.C. Bar Election in Progress
The D.C. Bar annual election is under way for positions on the Board of Governors for the 2007–2008 term, including three seats in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association.

The names of candidates appear in the election coverage article on pages 36–41 of this issue of Washington Lawyer. Candidate biographies may be viewed online at www.dcbar.org/elections.

Ballots and instructions were distributed to all active D.C. Bar members and made available on the Bar’s Web site on April 27. Members have until June 6 to vote.

Results of the election will be announced on the Bar’s Web site and at the Bar’s Annual Business Meeting and Awards Dinner on June 21 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue NW.

Totenberg Delivers Rauh Lecture
On April 9 the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law held its 15th Annual Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Lecture with guest lecturer Nina Totenberg, the legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio.

Moderating the lecture was Wade Henderson, the school’s Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Professor of Public Interest Law, who asked Totenberg questions that focused on her long and esteemed journalism career, including her award-winning work on the sexual harassment allegations of Anita Hill against then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and the revelation of Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg’s marijuana use, which in 1987 led him to withdraw his nomination.

Speaking about the 1991 Hill–Thomas story (which Henderson said “forever altered the landscape of judicial appointments”), Totenberg said she had heard rumors about possible misconduct on the part of Thomas, but for a while was unable to pin down anything definite.

“The amazing thing to me is that it stayed secret as long as it did,” she said. “It really was extraordinary to me how many people knew about this but didn’t tell.”

Totenberg said she attributed people’s silence to the fact that Hill, then a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, did not want her identity revealed, and added that Hill’s wish to keep her anonymity but have her allegations against Thomas made public was naive. “She wanted something that was unachievable,” said Totenberg.

When asked about the trend in confirmation hearings since the 1987 Senate rejection of Republican nominee Robert Bork, Totenberg said the result has been that “every nominee since then, to a significant extent, when faced with a hostile Judiciary Committee, has simply said nothing, absolutely nothing.”

She said John Roberts and Samuel Alito were extremely good candidates, but that their nomination hearings did not reveal much. Roberts, she said, “was an extraordinarily able nominee,” and had the ability to deflect questions in a light, nonconfrontational manner. In contrast, Alito “bored the committee to death, and he bored the public.”

Totenberg said opponents of Harriet Miers’s 2005 nomination were justified in being outraged. “They wanted somebody who was a brainy conservative who could pull the Court in the direction that they wanted it to go, and she was definitely not it.”

The evening’s lecture also led to a discussion about the access Totenberg was given to Justice Harry Blackmun’s papers following his death in 1999, but before they were allowed to become public. Reading through the papers, Totenberg said, made her “come away thinking better of the Court.”

The Rauh Lecture is named in honor of one of the law school’s founding members and a highly regarded public interest lawyer. Past Rauh lecturers have included Representatives Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.), Father Robert Drinan, and Marian Wright Edelman. —K.A.

Luncheon Lauds Partnership for Immigrant Children
Through their combined efforts on the D.C. Partnership for Immigrant Children, the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children and Ayuda, Inc. have provided legal assistance to numerous immigrant children who found themselves alone and detained after fleeing their home countries to escape poverty and violence.

For its work, the partnership was one of 10 such joint ventures that were recognized by the Mutual of America Foundation (the charitable arm of the Mutual of America Life Insurance Company) with its 2006 Community Partnership Award. The awards ceremony was held in November in New York.

On March 9 a luncheon was held at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the work of the center and Ayuda, as well as to recognize the organizations and individuals who played an important role in the partnership’s success.

Every year organizations from around the country apply for the award, which is given to partnerships between nonprofits and the public and private sectors that make valuable societal contributions. The D.C. Partnership for Immigrant Children was one of two alliances that received an honorable mention by Mutual of America.

A program of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants that began two years ago, the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children (NCRIC) provides pro bono legal and social services to unaccompanied immigrant children who have been released from detention. Ayuda is dedicated to protecting the legal rights of low-income Latino and immigrant communities in the Washington metropolitan area and beyond.

Gregory Chen, NCRIC’s director of policy analysis and research, said the center could not have done its work without the support of many law firms, some of which were represented at the luncheon.

“With your support the center staff has been able to serve 1,500 children and match 554 of those with counsel on a pro bono basis,” he said.

Chen also said that several D.C. firms, the D.C. Bar Foundation, and the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia, among others, have contributed to the center financially.

Through its work in schools, community organizations, and state and local agencies, Ayuda identifies children in need of assistance and refers these cases to NCRIC, which then matches the child with a pro bono attorney. Ayuda also works with pro bono attorneys and assists with state court representation. Both organizations train attorneys to carry out such work. —K.A.

Youth Law Fair Focuses on Internet Predators
One hundred seventy-six middle school and senior high school students gathered at the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse on March 17 for the eighth annual Youth Law Fair, presented by the D.C. Bar Litigation Section in cooperation with the D.C. Superior Court.

This year’s event drew attention to the possibilities, and potential dangers, of using the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. With the theme “Internet Vulnerability: Teens and Risk,” the program provided participants with the opportunity to express their own thoughts on the subject, as well as explore the legal ramifications of online activity.

Following introductions by Lorelie Masters, cochair of the Litigation Section, and Judge Melvin R. Wright and Chief Judge Rufus G. King III of the D.C. Superior Court, the law fair began with a speak-out session led by Curtis Etherly, vice president of public affairs for the Mid-Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

Etherly encouraged the students to think about the good and bad aspects of the Internet and asked for their opinion of proposed legislation in other states to limit Internet access for persons under the age of 18.

The students then divided into four groups to participate in criminal mock trials, with some taking on the role of judge, jury, or counsel. Lawyer volunteers and judges explained the justice system and how to prepare for trial. Verdicts were revealed at the conclusion of the fair.

The criminal case dealt with a man under psychiatric care for a child pornography compulsion who visited a teen chat Web site while ostensibly ordering a sweater at the request of a friend. When the man later returned to the chat site, an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl engaged him in conversation. The chat concluded with the two agreeing to meet, and the man was arrested for attempting to have sexual relations with a minor. The case included a description of the defense of entrapment.

The fair also included a tour of courtrooms and holding cells, complimentary lunch, and exhibitors presenting information on teen law, summer job tips, and scholarships.

The Youth Law Fair was cosponsored by the D.C. Bar Administrative Law and Agency Practice Section; Antitrust and Consumer Law Section; Arts, Entertainment, Media and Sports Law Section; Computer and Telecommunications Law Section; Corporation, Finance and Securities Law Section; Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice Section; District of Columbia Affairs Section; Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section; Estates, Trusts and Probate Law Section; Family Law Section; Health Law Section; Intellectual Property Law Section; International Law Section; Real Estate, Housing and Land Use Section; Taxation Section; and Tort Law Section. —J.R.

Basketball Game Benefits the Homeless
The Hoya Lawyas, made up of Georgetown University Law Center faculty and administrative staff, hosted the 20th Annual Home Court Benefit Basketball Game on March 21 against the Capitol Hill’s Angels, comprising members of Congress. The game raised approximately $305,000 for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. The Lawyas won 47–38. —K.A.

Clerkship Conference for Minorities Renamed After Robert Wone
For four years the Judicial Clerkship and Internship Conference has provided insight and information to minority law students about judicial clerkship opportunities. This year’s conference, on March 24 at Howard University School of Law, was particularly poignant in that the cosponsoring organizations agreed to rename it after Robert E. Wone, who died in August 2006.

Robert Wone initiated the conference in 2003 after attending a similar function at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting the year before in Chicago.

According to John Truong, an assistant U.S. attorney and current president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area (APABA-DC), Wone wanted “to expose minority law students to the benefit that they would gain by having a judicial internship or a clerkship after they graduated from law school.”

Truong said henceforth the conference would serve as an excellent memorial to Wone, who would have been this year’s APABA-DC president. The event, he said, “allows us to carry on [Wone’s] ideals about ensuring that there is diversity in the judicial system.”

The conference opened with an introduction recognizing the influence and legacy of Wone, including remarks from his widow, followed by a plenary session on clerking and internships with speakers Leah Frazier of Miller & Chevalier Chartered; Patricia Tolliver Giles of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia; Michelle Johnson and Jessie Liu of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; and Zakiyyah Salim of Heller Ehrman LLP in New York.

The first of four break-out sessions, moderated by Kenia Seoane-Lopez of the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, focused on trial court clerkships and featured Senior Judge Eugene N. Hamilton and Magistrate Judge Aida L. Melendez of the D.C. Superior Court, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and Judge Alexander Williams Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The second session, moderated by Jessie Liu, addressed federal appellate clerkships. The panelists included Judge Robert N. Davis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Judge Timothy B. Dyk of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and Judge Scott W. Stucky of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

The other two sessions dealt with the application process for clerkships at the trial and appellate level for both the state and federal bench.

The trial court panel was moderated by Marianela Peralta of Dickstein Shapiro LLP and included Judges Laura A. Cordero and José M. López of the D.C. Superior Court and Judges Ricardo M. Urbina and Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Tamra Moore of the Federal Trade Commission moderated the appellate court panel, with Judges Anna Blackburne-Rigsby and John R. Fisher of the D.C. Court of Appeals and Judge Robert N. Davis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

The conference’s most significant segment came during lunch, when eight current and former Supreme Court law clerks discussed their experiences and offered advice on the Supreme Court clerkship application process.

Conference sponsors included Covington & Burling LLP; Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP; Heller Ehrman LLP; Howrey LLP; and the Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice at Howard University School of Law.

Sponsoring organizations included APABA-DC, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Maryland, the APABA Educational Fund, the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia, the South Asian Bar Association of the District of Columbia, the Washington Bar Association Judicial Council, and the Washington Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. —J.R.

Mansukhani Addresses Minority Attorney Networking Event
Sunil Mansukhani, executive director of the D.C. Access to Justice Commission, gave the keynote address at the April 10 session of the D.C. Minority Attorney Networking Series at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

The series is organized by Arnold & Porter LLP and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, LLP and sponsored by an additional 35 law firms.

Following introductory remarks by D.C. Bar President James Sandman, Mansukhani reflected on his varied career choices, including a judicial clerkship and working as a line attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Unsure where he wanted to settle professionally, he selected positions offering flexibility and opportunities to build his legal skills.

However, he felt detached from Washington itself and particularly the legal needs of the local poor. Serving as executive director of the Access to Justice Commission, a body created in 2005 by the D.C. Court of Appeals, helped him learn what those needs are. Unrepresented parties in civil cases have a far slimmer chance of having their rights vindicated. Even if the amounts in question are comparatively small, he said, they are tremendously significant for the parties.

Mansukhani presented some startling facts. Of the approximately 550,000 residents of the District, 100,000 live in poverty (below $9,800 individual annual income). Of the approximately 50,000 practicing D.C. Bar members in the District, 115 work full-time at the staff attorney level helping the poor. Only 10 of those attorneys are based east of the Anacostia River in the District’s most poverty-stricken neighborhoods.

The goal of the Access to Justice Commission, he said, is to improve those numbers by securing funding for 25 to 30 additional legal services attorney positions, increasing pro bono, and developing private sector contributions.

Mansukhani closed with three suggestions for his listeners: get involved in the local community if you have not already; be strategic when selecting volunteer opportunities to emphasize skills you want to develop and always follow through on your commitments; and work for the government at some point in your career. Remember, he said, that you are more than your professional accomplishments. —J.R.

Asian Pacific American Bar Panel Discusses Affordable Housing
On March 14 the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area held a panel discussion at Greenberg Traurig LLP on affordable housing, from breaking down language barriers to serving as advocates for tenants.

Hosted by the association’s Women’s Forum, the discussion featured panelists Christopher Anderson, manager of single-family housing programs in the Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Housing and Community Affairs; Richard Eisen, a principal with Eisen & Rome, P.C.; Lisa Hasegawa, executive director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (NCAPACD); and Kyrus Freeman, an associate at Holland & Knight LLP and chair of the Land Use Committee of the D.C. Bar Real Estate, Housing and Land Use Section.

In her opening remarks, moderator Rosy Lor said that, according to the local nonprofit So Others Might Eat, perhaps more than 20 percent of District residents do not have stable, affordable housing.

Although specific housing statistics about the Asian community are unavailable, Hasegawa said that for many recent immigrants, Asians and otherwise, there is a “tension between affordability against language ability,” and that some Asian immigrants, such as Cambodians, are not well served by available language resources.

Hasegawa said that because of these impediments, organizations such as NCAPACD, which serves the housing and community development needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, are in need of volunteers with language skills.

Lawyers also can address housing issues by working with real estate developers who renovate buildings into affordable housing, said Eisen. Lawyers who serve as tenant advocates, he added, must balance the interests of tenant groups with the interests of local government and real estate developers.

Anderson spoke about Montgomery County’s mandatory inclusionary zoning law (also known as the Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit program), which grants developers permission to build extra housing units in a residentially zoned area as long as those units are designated and priced to be affordable.

Even with such a program, Anderson said, the need for affordable housing units still outweighs the availability. In 2006, for example, there were 400 affordable housing units produced in the county and a wait list of 1,600 people for those units.

Last year, in response to the lack of affordable housing, the D.C. government adopted inclusionary zoning, which Freeman discussed.

The law would apply to developments of 10 housing units or more, but will only become effective once the zoning commission adopts a map of where the zoning will apply and the mayor adopts a process to determine which families can live where.

Freeman said that one of the problems that could arise from the law is developers pleading economic hardship in constructing affordable housing units at a particular site and building them on land they own elsewhere. —K.A.

Bar Members Must Complete Practice Course
New members of the District of Columbia Bar are reminded that they have 12 months from the date of admission to complete the required course on District of Columbia practice offered by the D.C. Bar’s Continuing Legal Education Program.

D.C. Bar members who have been inactive, retired, or voluntarily resigned for five years or more are also required to complete the course if they are seeking to switch or be reinstated to active member status. In addition, members who have been suspended for five years or more for nonpayment of dues or late fees are required to take the course to be reinstated.

New members who do not complete the mandatory course requirement within 12 months of admission receive a noncompliance notice and a final 60-day window in which to comply. After that date the Bar automatically suspends individuals who have not attended and forwards their names to the clerks of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and to the Office of Bar Counsel.

Suspensions become a permanent part of members’ records. To be reinstated one must complete the course and pay a $50 fee.

The course is $190. The next course dates are May 12, June 12, and July 7. Advance registration is encouraged.

For more information or to register online, visit www.dcbar.org/mandatorycourse.

Julie Reynolds and Kathryn Alfisi are staff writers with the D.C. Bar. They can be reached by e-mail at jreynolds@dcbar.org and kalfisi@dcbar.org.