A.B.A.: No Show

In the wake of the Supreme Court's extended term, Chief Justice Warren Burger begged off his scheduled state-of-the-Judiciary speech. Then Vice President Gerald Ford suddenly discovered that he had another commitment. They were not the only dropouts. Of the 11,000 lawyers expected, only 6,200 made it to Honolulu for the week-long annual gathering of the American Bar Association. "Nixon's resignation took the tension out of this meeting," said Lawyer Carl Nielson of Hartford, Conn. And after the tension went, the Pacific sun and balmy air apparently softened all remaining resolve. As a result, at one afternoon meeting a 200-member quorum could not be mustered for the first time in memory.

Where were the lawyers? In the surf, on Waikiki beaches or strolling along Kalakaua Avenue with their families, decked out in colorful sports shirts for the men and matching muumuus for their wives. Outgoing A.B.A. President Chesterfield Smith of Lakeland, Fla., called the no-show performance "deplorable, disgraceful and regrettable." All this past year Smith had been doing his feisty best to stir colleagues into facing up to the public suspicion and derision heaped on lawyers since Watergate. The beach bliss-out was a response the profession can ill afford.

Some business was accomplished by the members of the A.B.A. House of Delegates. They voted unanimously to back "fair, just and impartial application . . . of the law regardless of the position or status" of an alleged wrongdoer. That less-than-bold proposition was the A.B.A.'s way of opposing special legal treatment for Richard Nixon. In a more forthright action, the delegates voted 117-110 to support "earned" immunity from prosecution for Viet Nam draft resisters (it could be earned by service in the armed forces or in other public-service employment). Talk about legal ethics pervaded the convention. But little was done. On the other major leadership concern--prepaid group legal services--there was also scant progress. (If and when the A.B.A. sets advisory guidelines, such insurance programs will help give the middle class greater access to legal advice.)

Deeper Appreciation. Incoming A.B.A. President James Fellers, 61, says that he is "a bit more cautious and moderate" than Predecessor Smith, but he promised last week to continue the push for group legal services and a refurbishing of the code of legal ethics. A general practitioner in Oklahoma City, Fellers was president of the state bar in 1964 when a bribery scandal involving nearly half the Oklahoma supreme court led to a Fellers-appointed investigating committee. Final tally: one justice impeached and removed, two convicted of income tax evasion, and one dead before action could be taken. "Out of that emerged a number of judicial reforms," recalls Fellers. Now, he says, "Watergate has supplied the momentum for the profession to develop a deeper appreciation of their responsibilities as attorneys." Perhaps so, after the lawyers take their leis off.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.