Where Were Bar Members When Fieger Spoke Out?
Michigan Lawyers Weekly - February 07, 2000
Fieger, Fieger, Schwartz & Kenney PC
Southfield,MI
To The Editor:
I have read with interest the ongoing debate in Lawyers Weekly with regard to the First Amendment rights of lawyers. In fact, it appears you recently named James B. Ford a "Lawyer of the Year" for his defense of attorneys' free-speech rights. Taking nothing away from Mr. Ford and his vocal defense of the Constitution, both you and your readers are apparently woefully ignorant of the work done by my partner, Geoffrey Fieger, in defense of lawyers' First Amendment rights.
The Attorney Grievance Commission forwarded a request for investigation to Mr. Ford regarding his public statements. It was later dropped. During that same time, Mr. Fieger was litigating and winning at least three formal complaints charging him with conduct no different in nature from Mr. Ford's criticisms of the third branch of government.
It should be obvious to any reasonable person that the continued pursuit of Mr. Fieger by the AGC is political. Consider the following: Mr. Ford is alleged to have called a decision by the Supreme Court "completely political" and "almost absurd," and also said that "until widows and orphans can donate as much money as insurance companies [to judicial campaigns] we'll continue to see these types of decisions." That request for investigation was dismissed with no formal disciplinary proceedings following an uproar orchestrated by a letter-writing campaign in Lawyers Weekly.
Gov. John Engler, an attorney, stated in 1993 that Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James R. Giddings was a "lunatic" who "got his law degree from a mail order school." A request for investigation was dismissed after Mr. Engler, through Justice Clifford Taylor's wife, Lucille, warned the Attorney Grievance Commission about being politically manipulated and suggesting that the Attorney Grievance Commission "adopt a posture consistent with the First Amendment and summarily reject these complaints." The Attorney Grievance Commission, in the letter dismissing the complaint, even offered to provide assistance to Engler in the future.
While all this was going on, the AGC has filed a litany of formal complaints against Mr. Fieger for his exercise of free speech. In March of this year, a formal hearing will take place seeking to discipline Mr. Fieger for stating, with regard to Jackson County Circuit Judge Chad Schmucker, "I've found it shocking that a judge would use a political agenda to embarrass me."
To all of the righteously indignant members of the bar who defended Mr. Ford, where have you been for the last five years while those same First Amendment rights that you consider so precious have been trampled by the AGC's efforts to persecute Mr. Fieger? If they can do it to Mr. Fieger, they ultimately will do it to Mr. Ford and you!
If the members of our profession chose to speak out for Mr. Ford while remaining silent in connection with the prosecution of Mr. Fieger, we all will have lost.