Oregon State Bar Bulletin — APRIL 2002
| Letters |
Happy With Lopez
I am delighted that Angel Lopez is the first person of color to
serve as president of our bar. It is also quite noteworthy that
a criminal defense lawyer has been chosen to lead the bar. I don't
practice much in that area anymore, but I have the greatest respect
for the lawyers that have committed themselves to representation
of the accused. They get little respect from the public and media
and too often I have been shocked to hear even 'liberal'
educated people (some even lawyers) make the comment: 'How
can they represent those people?' That is one comment I never
let go without a lecture on the vital and historical role defense
counsel plays in our system of justice.
And yes, it may sound a tad trite, but gosh, Angel Lopez really
does appear to be a nice person!
Richard A. Weill
Troutdale
End of MDP?
I suspect the Big Five accounting firms' efforts in aid of 'multidisciplinary
practice' have been dealt a lethal blow by the Enron collapse
and the alleged destruction of records by the company's accounting
firm. I welcome such a result. However, an argument in favor of
multidisciplinary practice could still be made. No one can imagine
lawyers being so venal as to condone fraudulent accounting practices
and the destruction of records; ergo the accountants and the lawyers
had to have been walled off from each other.
Tom Elden
Salem
Confidentially …
The bar's published Guide to Setting Up Your Trust Account says
on page 14 that to protect client confidences no client name should
appear on a deposit slip which the lawyer sends to the bank. A January
11 CLE added that when a lawyer draws on the trust account the lawyer
should not note the name of the client on the check's memo line.
I began worrying that bankers would read my clients' names on their
checks to me or mine to them, so I asked my mentor, a disbarred
Arkansas lawyer, how he used to protect his clients from this bank.
'Cash,' he said. He would carry a client's check to the
client's bank, cash the check there, and then deposit anonymous
currency into his trust account. Disbursement worked the same way:
he wrote a check to himself, walked to the bank with his hooded
client, cashed the check and handed the currency over on the spot.
No slip of paper ever clued the lawyer's bank that an identifiable
client had retained or paid the lawyer or that the lawyer had recovered
money for the client. My mentor thus maintained the highest standards
of confidentiality adjured today by the Oregon State Bar.
Craig P. Colby
Portland