Deans Ask Bush to Change Panel

Charging that the leadership of the Legal Services Corporation is not fulfilling its role in providing legal help to the poor, five prominent law school deans--including Harvard Dean James Vorenberg '49--sent a letter to President Bush urging him to quickly appoint a new board of directors.

In a letter released last week, the deans wrote that the current board, who were all appointed by former President Ronald W. Reagan, "are undermining the proper functions of the Corporation. "Under the corporation's charter, Reagan's board will serve until Bush appoints a new one.

"We believe law schools have an obligation to teach students that they are personally responsible for helping achieve justice," reads the letter. "It is deeply disturbing to us that the current Corporation board is permitted to continue to send a destructive message to our students."

Bush has not offered a public response to the letter, according to the White House media relations office. And Legal Services Corporation officials said last week they did not expect the letter--signed by the deans of law schools at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Yale and the University of Chicago--to speed up the appointment process.

Noting that Bush must appoint 11 members to the board, Corporation Chair Michael B. Wallace '73 said "For most agencies, it's hard enough to find one person."

Wallace charged that the deans had not adequately researched the workings of the corporation before sending the letter.

"None of the deans have ever been to one of our board meetings. None of the deans have ever had any conversations with me," said Wallace. "Everything they said in the letter was obviously reliant on second-hand information."

But Vorenberg said in an interview that the deans' position is "generally accepted," and he cited a letter by the president of the American Bar Association highly critical of the current board. "It's not the case that this is five law school deans whistling in the dark," said Vorenberg.

"It's very important that the vacancies be filled so that the Corporation can move. I think we all realize [Bush has] got a lot of important appointments to make," Vorenberg said. "We're asking that this be one of them. What he really needs to do is reconstruct the whole institution."

Created in 1974, the Legal Services Corporation was under fire throughout most of the Reagan era, Wallace said. The former president proposed its abolition during his first seven years in office, and it was saved annually only after Congress insisted on funding it.

Despite Reagan's lack of support for the program, Wallace said the current board was committed to providing legal services to the poor. "I don't have any doubt in my mind about that," he said. "The difference has to do with how the service is best delivered."

The deans accused the current board of wasting money to test out competitive bidding approaches to providing legal services for low-income citizens.

Wallace said he did not think the deans' letter would expedite Bush's selection process, but he said he hoped the president would decide soon.

"I've told them 'the sooner you get me out of here, the better I'd like it,'" he said.