Obama's lawyer days were effective but brief

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Obama's lawyer days were effective but brief
The head of his former firm says he did good work. But not all of it was related to voting and civil rights.
By Dan Morain, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 6, 2008

CHICAGO -- In his books, speeches and campaign commercials, Sen. Barack Obama often harks back to his days as a civil rights attorney. It is fundamental to his autobiography, displayed on his campaign website and woven into his appeals for votes. In one of his television ads leading up to the South Carolina primary, Obama recalled "working as a civil rights attorney to make sure that everybody's vote counted." Senior attorneys at the small firm where he worked say he was a strong writer and researcher, but was involved in relatively few cases -- about 30 -- and spent only four years as a full-time lawyer before entering politics.

Obama arrived in Chicago in 1993 with a degree from Harvard Law School and was hired as a junior lawyer at the firm then known as Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard. He helped represent clients in civil and voting rights matters and wrongful firings, argued a case before a federal appellate court, and took the lead in writing a suit to expand voter registration. But the firm also handled routine legal matters and real estate. Obama spent about 70% of his time on voting rights, civil rights and employment, generally as a junior associate. The rest of his time was spent on matters related to real estate transactions, filing incorporation papers and defending clients against minor lawsuits....

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Those were not the cases Obama highlighted in the self-portrait drawn in his first memoir, "Dreams From My Father." "In my legal practice," he wrote, "I work mostly with churches and community groups, men and women who quietly build grocery stores and health clinics in the inner city, and housing for the poor."

Obama had made a name for himself at Harvard, where he was the first African American president of the law review. That accomplishment generated press accounts and prompted Judson Miner, head of the firm that bears his name, to recruit Obama. Obama took time to complete "Dreams From My Father," then joined the 13-attorney firm. "He was doing the work that any first-year or second-year associate would do," Miner said. "In litigation, he was doing basic research and writing memos. . . . In the first couple years he would play a very minor role. He wouldn't know (much), so he would take the lead from whoever was supervising his work."

He did have some noteworthy cases. Among them, Obama filed a major 1995 suit that successfully forced Illinois to enforce the 1993 federal Motor Voter law, which sought to make it easier for people to register to vote. Obama took what Miner called the "laboring oar" on some cases. He took the lead arguing a 1994 case before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of a securities trader who had been improperly fired. The court ruled for his client.

"This is a central part of his life and story," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief campaign strategist. "He could have written his ticket at any law firm in the country. . . . He decided instead that he wanted to be a civil rights attorney, and he signed up with a small firm that had a reputation for doing this kind of work."

People who knew Obama in the early 1990s said he made it clear that he aspired to run for public office. For that, the firm, now called Miner, Barnhill & Gallard, was a good place to start....

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obamalegal6apr06,1,4620113,full.story

[Fovea]

1. Difficult decision to prepare for a career in public service.

Esp in the era of trashcan journalism.

I am sad that the media who determine so much about public careers and policy is so obsessed with moralism, and so blithe about ethics.

[IowaGirl]

2. Another very interesting post, DeepModem Mom....

:kick: