IT ISN`T UNUSUAL these days for lawyers and law firms to pitch their services with the verve of carpet salesmen. They may do it via commercials during late-night ”B” movies or ”all-star” wrestling telecasts in much the same way that, according to Chief Justice Warren Burger, ”dog food, cosmetics and hair tonic are touted.”
So, in many respects, there was little surprise in seeing Mark Seatvet, a representative from a small Chicago law firm, at an exclusive club luncheon recently hawking a firm`s services. What was surprising was the worthiness of the message, the way it was delivered and to whom it was addressed.
Seatvet isn`t a lawyer, but a consultant with expertise in the needs of the deaf. At the luncheon, he spoke silently by ”signing.” His audience consisted of about 75 members of the Chicago Senior Club for the Deaf, and he told them that the law firm for which he works was extending its resources to the needs of the deaf and hearing-impaired.
Seatvet believes the firm, Beerman, Swerdlove, Woloshin, Barezky & Berkson, is the first private law firm to reach out to the deaf. It doesn`t offer free legal services for the deaf, as some legal aid groups do for poor people, but does attempt to provide deaf clients the same legal services for a fee provided to nonhandicapped clients. These include divorce, personal injury, corporate, insurance, real estate and estate-planning work.
SEATVET ACTS AS a coordinator of the firm`s deaf legal services at an hourly fee about a tenth of what the firm`s attorneys charge. He has the first contact with a potential deaf client, often over a special teletype device allowing communication over a telephone.
He serves as a liaison and interpreter for the client and the lawyer handling the client`s case. With Seatvet smoothing the way for client and lawyer, the firm believes it can handle cases of the hearing-impaired quicker than if he weren`t present and, in the long run, keep the client`s costs down. ”Frequently, problems involving the deaf are more a matter of misunderstanding than an issue that necessitates litigation,” Seatvet said.
”In some cases, it may take only an initial interview with a lawyer to resolve things. When representation is required, we want to offer deaf persons an unhindered opportunity for professional counsel.”
SEATVET SAYS the deaf as a group tend to be clannish and somewhat mistrusting of the nonhandicapped. Traditionally, if they had a problem of a legal nature, they would talk to another deaf person, to a priest or a doctor. Seldom would they seek the services of a lawyer and, when they did, they often became cynical about what they saw.
”For instance, it`s difficult for them to understand when they walk into a courtroom and see their lawyer joking with the opposing lawyer or with the judge,” Seatvet said. ”They feel that their interests are being traded away in some kind of sinister deal.” Seatvet has even spoken to judges about such misunderstandings and asked them to refrain from informal bantering with attorneys.
Although Seatvet joined the firm only a few months ago, the idea was born in a ”legal activism” class that firm partner Howard London took in 1978 from Professor John Banzhaf at the National Law Center at George Washington University. Several of the projects undertaken by Banzhaf`s students have had significant impact, including one resulting in a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that virtually banned cigarette advertising from television.
London prevailed upon the District of Columbia to install ”TTY” devices –telephone-teletype communication terminals–in local government offices. About the same time, the firm`s office manager, Jan Wegner, currently a law student, learned sign language and together the two persuaded other partners to launch the project. Reaction from other firms has been complimentary.
”Lawyers outside the firm–just as lawyers here–never realized the problems of the deaf,” London said. ”It`s not that they were insensitive, it`s just that they never thought of it.”
”What we`re doing is no secret. In fact, I would be very happy if every other law firm in the city decided to do the same thing.”
HEADING FOR NEW PASTURES
HERE`S THIS WEEK`S scorecard on law firm departures and dissolutions:
First, the doors are opening at Rooks Pitts & Poust and out will go partners George Gessler, Terence Flynn, Dixie Laswell, Thomas Fleischmann and John Hughes, as well as associates Mark Dym and Philip Comella, to form the succinctly and smoothly named entity of Gessler, Wexler, Flynn, Laswell & Fleischmann, Three First National Plaza. That should be a joy to any manufacturer of stationery. They`ll be joined by Bob Wexler of Fox & Grove and do mostly environmental and tax litigation, as well as venture-capital and medical-malpractice work.
They take the space of what was Freeman Atkins & Coleman, now no more. It`s said the firm was partly victimized by frictions resulting from lower-than-expected fees in some major plaintiffs` class-action and antitrust endeavors. Ironically, just after the break-up, an appeals court reinstated several hundred thousand dollars in fees in one case. But the deed is done, and Robert Atkins moves to space with Fischel & Kahn at Three First National and will work for the time by himself, while Marv Freeman and Paul Hansfield also get room at Fischel & Kahn and labor as a pair. Robert Coleman and Barry Freeman remain in the same building, working together on a mix of legal and insurance efforts, aided by old colleagues Susan Padove and Eugene Schiltz.
FEE WATCH
IF YOU THOUGHT the academic life didn`t have its economic benefits, think again. One of the brainiest of the University of Chicago law faculty is Frank Easterbrook, 36, nominated by President Reagan for a spot on the federal appeals court here. As are other faculty members, he`s sometimes involved with the Loop research firm of Lexecon, which has made a mint in part by assisting a downtrodden element of society, Fortune 500 companies, defend themselves in antitrust matters. He just scored a big win for three Chicago plaintiff firms, including the just-mentioned, defunct Freeman Atkins & Coleman, by helping to convince an appeals court to restore millions of dollars in fees in a big Philadelphia class-action case. His hourly rate? Try $375. But lawyers involved say the grand total, which they won`t divulge, was modest given the outcome and the academic`s apparently lightning-quick work habits. ”The guy was well worth it,” said one.
Elsewhere, the county will pay $250,000 in fees to George Galland and Charles Barnhill as a result of their winning the nation`s biggest racial discrimination award on behalf of 1,000 current or former welfare workers who are black. The ultimate payout will be around $15 million from the county and state to workers who performed the same duties as white colleagues but were paid far less. No similar settlement on fees has yet been reached between the two lawyers and the state, which pays the lion`s share of the discrimination award.
KEEPING THE LID ON TIGHT
THE CITY`S VIDEO conscience, Walter Jacobson, rambled on one night last week about the hypocrisy of Mayor Harold Washington not yet disclosing personal income tax reports as he vowed during his campaign. The point was made with typical sledgehammer aplomb and, as usual, allowed viewers to turn out the bedroom lights assured that at least someone is seeking to keep elected officials in ethical line and maintain the highest of moral standards. One footnote: Jacobson is the object of a pending libel suit brought by a major cigarette manufacturer as a result of a commentary on the manufacturer. The case is in the pretrial discovery stage, and the defense has succeeded in seeing that several documents are filed under seal and thus out of public view. According to court records, they are ”the employment contract and current financial statements” of–guess who–one Walter Jacobson.
FIGHTING WORDS
THE COURTROOM of Circuit Judge Albert Green last week saw a seminar on the language of the American picket line. It came in a hearing in which Cicero`s Danly Machine Corp. alleged that striking steelworkers flouted Green`s order involving picket-line violence. The union denied the charges, but the local president was found in contempt and sentenced to 10 days in jail. During the hearing, Danly attorney Robert Joyce of Seyfarth Shaw Fairweather & Geraldson persisted in inquiring about words uttered to those crossing the picket line–”scabs” in union parlance. ”Scummy, slimy, scab, dog,” one worker recalled as words he utilized. Joyce suggested that harsher epithets were employed and gave examples. He thus intimated that men out of work for eight months, and whose refrigerators are increasingly bare, might for some reason resort to etiquette unsuitable to the Union League Club at the luncheon hour. Alas, one worker did admit that, yes, he did use a 12-letter word of renown.
BRIEFS: Stephen Ramsey, the Justice Department`s chief environmental trial lawyer, joins Sidley & Austin. . . . Decalogue Society of Lawyers presents a $7 luncheon lecture Friday on trials for Nazi crimes, Chicago Loop Synagogue, 16 S. Clark St.
With this column we welcome Maurice Possley, who valiantly covers the federal building with Tribune colleague William Crawford and replaces the departing Brian Kelly. He`s no stranger and will finally get credit for his many contributions. You see, there is some justice in this world.
