Mr. Smith Comes to the A.B.A

Moving through the crowd, the white-haired, chunky, effervescent lawyer works as hard as a campaign politician. A crunching squeeze of the arm for one man, a glad-handshake for the next, hugs for all the wives. Then, with his back-country Florida drawl, he exhorts his fellow attorneys--this time about the need to weed out incompetent practitioners perhaps, even by requiring periodic retesting of lawyers. It is all said with an ingratiating charm and leavened with warming phrases about law as the "major bulwark between man and his government." At the finish, there is a loud ovation. But the radical proposition has not been missed. An elderly attorney corners the speaker afterward and growls: "You son of a bitch,I'm going to write a test that you'll fail."

As the current president of the American Bar Association, Chesterfield Smith has been more than fulfilling the traditional task of addressing just about any law school, local bar association or legal group that invites him (estimated totals for the 18 months, since be became president-elect: 200 speeches and 225,000 miles traveled). Unlike some of his predecessors, however, doling out Pollyanna platitudes. He sticks to his mission: to shake up the A.B.A. and the entire legal profession.

Time was when A.B.A. president were not down-the-line conservatives could at least be counted on to avoid controversy. Smith leaps into disputes at every opportunity. He has, for example, made no secret of his opposition to criminal penalties for marijuana possession. Speaking to a group heavy with former A.B.A. presidents, he suggested that his predecessors should be seen and heard from less. At a meeting of local and state bar presidents, he told his colleagues that they ought actively to encourage malpractice suits against inept lawyers.

He stirred his biggest ruckus just two days after President Nixon fired Archibald Cox. Smith condemned "this defiant flouting of laws and courts." The Louisiana Bar Association voted to censure Smith for his stand. Last week, at the A.B.A.'s midyear meeting in Houston, halfway through Smith's twelve-month term in office, some delegates were still grousing about "Chesterfield's outspokenness." Smith's Watergate stance, said Texas Bar President Leroy Jeffers, was an intemperate "catering to the popular passions of the time. Let American lawyers be no part of such rotten and shabby business."

Despite the complaints, Smith has managed to accomplish some important internal housecleaning. Among his rulings: any lawyer with more than six years' service on an A.B.A. committee must step down; committee chairmen may serve no more than three years; no one may serve on more than one committee. Said a St. Louis lawyer who was bumped from a committee as a result: "It was traumatic at the time, but it made sense." The organization's House of Delegates has already approved his position on marijuana. Last week it took up a broad array of issues in which Smith has been interested. The delegates:

>Endorsed creation of a new National Court of Appeals to hear certain kinds of cases and render decisions that would be final unless the Supreme Court intervened within a set period of time. The aim is to reduce the high court's work load. Many delegates wanted to table the matter, but Smith persuaded them to take a firm stand in support of the idea.

>Voted to keep pushing for an end to the popular election of judges and to limit state Governors' unfettered power of appointment. Smith had backed this proposal as well, which envisions a commission that would nominate candidates for the Governors' consideration.

>Opposed blanket shield laws that would protect journalists from being required to reveal confidential sources in court. Smith had supported that action, as he did a vote condemning all mandatory minimum criminal sentences, such as those covering drug offenses in New York State.

> Continued to be cool toward so-called "closed" prepaid legal services -meaning plans that offer the services of a specific group of lawyers in return for regular prepaid fees. Instead, the A.B.A. favors a Blue Shield-type approach that would allow members to choose any lawyer they desired. Smith preferred to endorse both kinds of plans as a way of promoting the concept of prepaid services.

Big Cruds. Even when he loses, Smith is not overly distressed. For one thing, there is satisfaction merely in seeing the A.B.A. grapple with serious current problems. For another, he observes, "If I don't get shot down, I've underbid my hand."

One reason that Smith gets away with heresies that would not be tolerated from others in the profession is that his boat rocking is done from a well-established position in the first-class section. Back in Lakeland, Fla., his practice earned him $100,000 a year and will probably be worth more when his presidency ends. One big client was the phosphate industry, which only recently lost its battle to avoid a special tax. But during the years Smith was lobbying for the industry, he was always able to make good on his boast: "There ain't going to be no phosphate tax this year."

His country roots-he is the son of a small-town public school superintendent-gave rise to an aggressive candor that takes priority over personal status or popular trends. "I represent some of the biggest cruds in Florida," he cheerfully told a Senate subcommittee. Back in the '50s, he spoke out against racial segregation. He played a major role in drafting a new state constitution that won voter approval in 1968, and he was largely responsible for establishing uniform rules of procedure in Florida courts.

Now 56, Smith is not likely to fade away after his term expires, despite his objections to former A.B.A. presidents who assert themselves. His drive is too great to tolerate passivity and he is too committed to the A.B.A.'s public service responsibilities. As he recently told an audience of law students: "We are not a trade association. We are not a union. We are out to improve justice and the administration of society. If you don't intend to work to improve the quality of justice, then I hope that you flunk your exams."

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