Thanks to wonderful diaries by Noise of Rain, St. Croix Cheesehead, and other Kossacks, and, ultimately, the hard work of Wisconsin Voces de la Frontera, the real depth of the right wing plan to sell the state to the Koch Brothers has been revealed. The speaker of the assembly, Fitzgerald, has contracted, at the expense of Wisconsin taxpayers, with the law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich LLC, to redraw the maps of the Wisconsin legislative districts, and has convinced all the Republican members of the legislature to sign, via MB&F, nondisclosure agreements with regard to all of this.
There are huge legal and political problems here for the Republicans. But what can be done about it? Let's start with this law firm.
Now, normally, I wouldn't recommend that lawyers be criticized for taking on unpopular clients. The general freedom of lawyers to represent unpopular causes and clients is essential to constitutional protections.
But this act by MB&F goes well beyond any sort of constitutional protection. This law firm purported to contract with the legislature to do public business (redistricting) of an intensely political nature behind closed doors, shutting out the democratic process, as well as the opposition party and the public in general. And all of this was done while being paid by the public. In short, with the permission of grifter Fitzgerald the law firm usurped the role of the legislature and arrogated to itself the role of secret ruler of everyone in Wisconsin.
So to my mind, this is not a case of a brave lawyer defending an unpopular client, but of a law firm which has vastly exceeded its authority and needs to be held accountable to the ultimate clients, which in this case are the people of the state of Wisconsin who paid the law firm's fees.
MB&F has 230 attorneys spread throughout five offices, four in Wisconsin and one in Chicago. It would be simply wonderful if a few of their clients, which I guess means everybody in the state of Wisconsin, could show up outside one of these offices with signs demanding back their legal fees, on the grounds of malpractice, specifically, betrayal of the interests of their clients in open government.
But I don't think an Occupy type of thing here would do the trick. That's too easily ignored by these folks, and in fact would get them a sort of street cred with the Koch Brothers and their ilk. Rather something low key, with nicely printed flyers and perhaps a blow up of that non-disclosure agreement.
That this law firm is a lackey of the 1% as shown by the way they seem to be slavering for the opportunity to foist a "right to work for nothing" law on Wisconsin. From the MB&F website:
Client Alert
February 7, 2012
On February 1, 2012, Indiana adopted a right-to-work (“RTW”) law that prohibits a labor agreement from requiring an employee to join a union and/or to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment. The RTW Act was passed by the Indiana Legislature over opposition from Democratic lawmakers who engaged in a walkout for several weeks before action could ultimately be taken to pass the law. Indiana now joins 22 other RTW states, mostly in the south and west of the United States.
The Indiana law does not require employers to inform employees about the change in the law; however, employers may wish to do so. Keep in mind that the union has little or no incentive to inform employees about RTW issues. Indiana’s law does not affect public sector employers or private sector employers covered by the Federal Railway Act (airline and rail industries).
Let's also make sure MB&F gets it's own Santorum problem. This outfit is so well established that it has
its own Wikipedia entry, no doubt assiduously tended by the marketing department. There's been no change since 12/31/11 to that page -- let's fix that!
This outfit, Michael Best Friedrich, was also the same gang that gave "free" legal services to alleged Judge Michael Gableman, who miraculously and ENTIRELY COINCIDENTALLY, NOTHING TO SEE HERE CITIZENS ruled in favor of Michael Best clients more than any other judge on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. (source)