No Room at the Inn

If any group could be expected to equate a confirmed reservation with a binding contract it would be a bunch of lawyers. Not the American Bar Association. Preparations for the A.B.A.'s annual meeting this week in Montreal were so tentative that delegates had to display more than fancy legal footwork merely to get there.

Four new hotels promised by Montreal officials were not ready, and as many as 3,000 lawyers who wanted to attend were forced to stay home. On top of that, the A.B.A. had to cough up $75,000 to bus some delegates back and forth from convention headquarters to hotels as much as an hour's ride away. Judges who are members of the A.B.A. usually hold their own meeting in conjunction with the convention, but this year they were chivvied into convening early, clearing their agenda and getting out of town fast so that their beds would be available for lawyers still to come. Yet, things could have been worse. A threatened strike by hotel employees, which would have canceled the convention, did not materialize.

A.B.A. staffers saw the trouble coming and recommended a shift in sites. They were overruled by the A.B.A. governors, who decided that Montreal would somehow make room.

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