‘Pinstripe brigade’ is hard at work planning to defend protesters in 2008
Hoping for a “robust,” peaceful dialogue, corporate lawyers hope to negotiate parade routes and defend arrested demonstrators.
In decades past, Twin Cities protesters were largely represented by a handful of dedicated lawyers in rumpled suits at odds with the establishment.Next year, thanks to the 2008 Republican National Convention coming to St. Paul, things could be different.
A small armada of corporate attorneys, many of them partners in the area’s most prestigious law firms, have begun meeting and strategizing ways to defend thousands of protesters expected to flock to the Twin Cities next September. And not for $500 an hour, but for free.
“In days gone by it’s been Ken Tilsen, Larry Leventhal, Doug Hall, me,” says Peter Thompson, a retired attorney. “Now, we’ve got Dorsey & Whitney, Faegre & Benson, Briggs and Morgan, Fredrikson & Byron. I think it’s wonderful.”
Pro bono, or volunteer, work is common for attorneys, but observers are impressed by this effort, which was mobilized by the Minnesota affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“This is the first time you have the pinstripe brigade on the protesters’ side” during a major party convention, said Craig Sautter, a DePaul University professor, a consultant to Democratic candidates in Illinois and the author of three books on presidential convention history. “This is probably the most sophisticated legal effort ever on behalf of protesters to make sure their rights are adequately protected.”
The lawyers can be expected to collaborate with members of the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild such as Bruce Nestor and Jordan Kushner. The guild is an activist-minded group of local attorneys who traditionally advocate for demonstrators. As many as 50 of them may get involved next year.
Republican leaders hope that the focus at the convention will be on the presidential nomination, not the protesters, and that the convention will be free of disruption.
“America is a great democracy,” said Matt Burns, a spokesman for the Republican Convention, “and we are confident everyone will have ample opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights — including the right to assemble peacefully.”
Crash course in protesting
At Hamline University Law School this month, some 50 lawyers and law students got a crash course on convention protest issues, where speakers included Art Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The Minnesota ACLU’s decision to jump into the fray so early was partly driven by the problems faced by protesters in 2004 at the Republican Convention in New York and the Democratic Convention in Boston.
Some 1,800 protesters were arrested in New York, including onlookers. In Boston, say local attorneys, authorities set up a penned area for protesters, discouraging demonstrations. They say that by the time Boston attorneys got details of the demonstration site and took the case to federal court, a judge ruled there was too little time to litigate.
The local lawyers say they want to avoid as many of those problems as possible. Jeffrey Keyes, a partner in Briggs and Morgan, has assembled the lawyers to research city ordinances, demonstration permits and march routes.
Bill Pentelovitch, a partner at Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, and two other attorneys met with a reporter last week to discuss their strategy.
“We think we are probably going to ask the city to designate a portion of Kellogg Boulevard, probably stretching from John Ireland Boulevard, all the way to the Wabasha Bridge as a free speech zone where people will be able to congregate and protest,” Pentelovitch said.
He said protesters will need to be near the Xcel Energy Center, the convention site, so delegates can see and hear them, and go talk to them if they wish.
Based on the experiences in New York and Boston, demonstrators might not learn their march route until shortly before the convention.
“That’s why you have judges, and that’s why you have some of the best trial lawyers sitting in this room,” said Pentelovitch. “We’re not experts on protest demonstrations. We’re experts on civil litigation in the Twin Cities. We know this town, and we know the judges.”
Dealing with mayor, chief
Pentelovitch said he hopes St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John Harrington “are going to be willing participants in a meaningful negotiation.”
Neither was available for comment, but Bob Hume, Coleman’s spokesman, said, “The mayor has been very clear that a priority in the planning process has to be protection of the First Amendment rights of those who come to the convention.”
Just what makes corporate lawyers get involved in defending protesters?
“We would do this if this were a Democratic convention in town,” said David Potter, managing partner at Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, noting a similar legal effort is underway in Denver, where the Democrats will meet in 2008.
Potter says he wants “robust dialogue” that protects protesters’ rights, whether they support or oppose the Republican Party.
“The ACLU has a client here,” says Keyes. “It’s the Bill of Rights.”
Thompson, the retired activist attorney, thinks there is another reason why corporate lawyers are involved. “Hopefully, it’s an awakening of the moral sensibility of the bar,” he said.
Staff librarian Sandy Date contributed to this report. Randy Furst • 612-673-7382 • rfurst@startribune.com
© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
