Greedy Trial Lawyer
In Texas "Pro Bono" Means "Good For The Pros"
Category: Why Didn't I Think Of That?
For my entire career I have had the mistaken impression pro bono work had to be performed on behalf of charities or the poor. You know...you take on a landlord-tenant dispute for some downtrodden soul with five children and no job who is being evicted the week before Christmas.
Now, I discover pro bono recipients can include Supreme Court justices. Who knew?
Complaints Filed Over Discounted Fees for Texas Justice Caught in Miers Nomination Flap
Mary Alice Robbins, Texas LawyerTravis County, Texas, prosecutors are investigating whether Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht received an illegal gift when Jackson Walker discounted its legal fees for representing him in his 2006 fight with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
On July 24, the citizens' group Texas Watch filed complaints about the reduction in Hecht's legal bill with three agencies, including the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office, which investigates and prosecutes alleged wrongdoing by public officials. Jackson Walker represented Hecht in his successful challenge of the judicial conduct commission's public admonition of him for his support in 2005 of then-White House counsel Harriet Miers' failed nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Miers has been a member of Locke Liddell & Sapp in Dallas since May.
Gregg Cox, chief of the Public Integrity Unit, says the unit was aware of the situation involving the discounted legal fees for Hecht before Texas Watch filed its complaint. "It's under review and has been under review," Cox says, but declines further comment.
Jackson Walker Houston partner Charles "Chip" Babcock, Hecht's lead counsel in the appeal of the commission's public admonishment of the justice, says the firm provided 25 percent of its services to Hecht as pro bono work.
Texas Watch alleges in its complaints that Hecht may have broken the law or violated judicial canons in accepting the firm's discount, which the group estimates was worth about $100,000.
From Law.com
Does the Supreme Court justice get to reciprocate by doing a little pro bono work for the Jackson Walker firm? (Letter from Justice Hecht to "Chip": Dear Chip...It was my pleasure to vote in your favor on your last appeal. Isn't this mutual pro bono stuff great! I feel so good. Your buddy in good deeds, Nathan)
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