Ford Appoints Law Professor As White House Legal Counsel

Philip E. Areeda '51, professor of Law and a specialist in anti-trust matters, was named Friday as a counsel to President Ford.

Areeda said yesterday that he would act as a "general adviser" to the president and do "whatever I'm asked to do." He said he "would not be surprised" if his job included advising the president on legal questions arising from the pardon of former President Nixon.

Areeda suggested that since his field of expertise is "the intersection of law and economics," he would probably also deal with economic matters. "I'm not going to try to compete with the Council of Economic Advisers," he said. "But if the president chooses to avail himself of my abilities, I will certainly give him my advice."

James D. St. Clair, lecturer in Law, yesterday congratulated Areeda on his appointment. St. Clair declined to offer Areeda any advice in view of his own experience as special counsel to former President Nixon, because, he said, his own job was of such a "special nature."

"I think it would be presumptuous of me to tell him how to do his job when I hardly know the man and when I have no idea what he will be doing," St. Clair said.

Areeda will join Philip W. Buchen, the present White House counsel, on a part-time basis until mid-October, when the job will become full-time. The appointment is an open-ended one, but Areeda said that he expects to return to the Law School when he leaves the White House staff.

He served as executive director of the Nixon Cabinet task force on oil import control in 1969 and as assistant special counsel to President Eisenhower between 1956 and 1961. Areeda said he expects his duties under President Ford to be very different from the ones he had under Eisenhower and that they will have only the "legal component in common."

During the 1972 presidential election, Areeda was one of a group of 79 academicians who urged the re-election of President Nixon in a series of newspaper advertisements. Areeda said however that as the Watergate scandals unfolded he was less happy that he had supported Nixon.

Areeda said yesterday that he had met with Ford recently and expects he "will find the association very pleasant."