I am pleased to report that I am now local counsel for prominent conservative/libertarian bloggers Mandy Nagy and Patrick Frey in litigation filed by a Maryland resident and public figure of some notoriety. The facts and circumstances of the case have some very indirect, 6-degrees of separation overlap with litigation with which I was involved in 2012. The primary pro bono attorney is Ronald Coleman, Esquire, of Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP of New York, who has moved for pro hac vice admission; I was pleased to discover that he is a fellow Princeton graduate.
Without regurgitation of what inquiring minds can find elsewhere, the case involves free speech rights of bloggers, allegations of civil violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act and a host of defendants, mostly but not solely conservative bloggers, represented by attorneys including some pro bono attorneys.
The politics of most of the defendants in the case pertain to a general profession point known to attorneys, but sometimes missed by the general public. The representation of a client does not signify (or exclude the possibility) that the attorney has a personal, political or philosophic agreement or disagreement with the client on any topic. While attorneys may sometimes choose to pro bono work that is “close to their heart”, it is often in the representation of people of somewhat unpopular views that important legal work gets done, including important pro bono work.
You don’t have to want to do carpentry to represent a carpenter on a carpentry case. Replace “carpentry” with “same-sex marriage”, “marijuana consumption”, “deer hunting”, “conservative blogging”, “liberal blogging” or the like. It’s sort of like asking an architect whether she would like to wash cars for a living because she produced drawings for a car wash for hire. You also don’t have to oppose the views or avocations of a client to represent the client, either; there’s no inherent conflict of interest from agreeing with or disagreeing with a client, in and of itself.
I appreciate the professional opportunity to participate in this work involving the protection of public rights and civil rights.
