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The New York Times
What’s Offline
Equal Rights, Pro
Bono
By PAUL B. BROWN,
nytimes.com on the Web, July 28, 2007
PRO bono isn’t just for bleeding
hearts anymore,” The American Lawyer writes. “Very quietly, big firms are
taking on conservative causes as well.”
Typically law firms will provide some services free. They classify the
work as “pro bono publico,” from Latin, meaning for the public good. And
the term is usually shortened to pro bono, as in a lawyer representing a client
free is described as working pro bono.
Because the services are typically offered to those who do not have the ability
to pay, pro bono work has been associated with liberal causes. But that is
changing, Vivia Chen writes.
“Bolstered by influential groups like the Federalist Society, religious
organizations and pro bono advocates, big firms now regularly champion
libertarian causes such as free speech and property rights,” she writes.
Some are challenging race-based policies and representing groups opposed to gay
rights and abortion.
For the most part, the lawyers interviewed in the article said that taking on
conservative causes does not cause problems within the firm or with their paying
clients.
For example, Donald B. Ayer, Jones Day’s pro bono partner, said that at his
firm, lawyers can take on almost any project, providing there is no conflict of
interest. “It’s a free country.”
All this can lead to some strange bedfellows.
“In the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case recently argued before the Supreme Court, the
American Civil Liberties Union sided with evangelical Christian groups to
challenge restrictions on high school students,” Ms. Chen writes.
The court ruled against the students.
PERCEPTION/REALITY You probably have a pretty clear image of who drives a
hybrid.
Odds are that that image is wrong.
According to Reader’s Digest, which cites research done by Autobytel.com, the
facts about hybrid owners are:
¶40 percent are Republicans, and 36 percent are Democrats.
¶31 percent are in the Northeast and 21 percent in the Midwest. Just 16
percent live on the West Coast.
¶57 percent are over age 45.
¶About half (49 percent) don’t have a college degree, and 35 percent make less
than $40,000 a year.
COMPLAINING 101 Just in time for the seemingly endless airline delays
this summer, Black Enterprise offers a refresher course about how to complain
effectively to the people who run the airlines (or any other business).
The first step is to “go to the source.” If the company has a formal complaint
procedure, “follow it to the letter. Be sure to keep copies of
everything.”
Then put it in writing. “Mail is best, since phone calls may be routed to
a call center,” which may not have the authority to do what you want, and
“e-mails can be easily ignored.” The magazine suggested sending everything
certified mail with return receipt requested so that the company won’t be able
to say later that it never got your letter.
Make sure you are clear, factual and unemotional in detailing what went wrong.
Include names and dates. “The more specific you can be the better.”
Finally, tell the company exactly what they can do to make you happy. If
you want your money back, say so.
INFLUENTIAL TV Ladies Home Journal wonders whether it is the “Grey’s
Anatomy” effect, referring to the fictional television program that shows that
all doctors are remarkably good-looking people who have endlessly fascinating
lives.
“In a new poll of 1,500 teenagers, ‘doctor’ came in first as girl’s most
desirable career, with 10 percent naming it their ideal job,” the magazine
writes. “When ‘The Apprentice’ premiered three years ago, ‘businessperson’
topped the charts.”
Clearly, there needs to be more TV shows about people who write for newspapers.
FINAL TAKE You already know it costs a fortune to rear a child, but here
is more bad news for parents. Charles Schwab surveyed a representative
sample of teenagers and asked them how old they thought they would be when they
became “financially independent.”
The answer, says Money magazine: 25.
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