friday, february 16, 1979
daily nebraskan
page 7
Nebraska attorneys debate lawyer competency issue
By Carla Engstrom
Chief Justice Warren Burger has recently
and repeatedly said many of America's
practicing lawyers are not qualified to re
present their clients. Nebraska attorneys
and law professors have mixed views on
this issue.
Lancaster County Public Defender
Dennis Keefe said the quality of Nebraska
trial attorneys is "very high."
"Most attorneys are very competent and
can represent clients adequately," Keefe
said.
He qualified his statement by saying
there are some counselors who are not
competent, but that was true in any pro
fession. Assistant Dean Ray Mazen of the UNL
College of Law said the college has classes
in trial advocacy and clinical programs.
Clinical programs allow students to
research and assist attorneys in their
practice.
"There is a limit to what you can do
with a person," Hazen said.
Poli
ice . . .
Continued from page 1
Compounding the suspicions of some of
the applicants, according to one officer, is
the fact that four of the top six scores re
ceived on the aptitude tests were received
by officers with C-Line classification.
"It looks like they've got a number of
paradoxes in the system as they set it up,"
the officer said. "I think that they will pro
mote sergeants."
Coffey said he could not confirm or
deny whether the results of the test
as stated by the officer were true.
"But," Coffey added, "I don't think
there's anything undercurrent or anything.
Ha'ing three people outside the depart
ment to act as the promotion board was
intended to remove any question of favor
tism." Fairness emphasized
Gade also emphasized the fairness of
the selection process. Throughout an hour
long interview on Wednesday, he continual
ly repeated that there was no news value in
the charges and that they undoubtedly
came from the same small group of officers
who would rather take their accusation'; tn
the press than confront him.
As far as the applicants' concerns over
the letter, Gade addressed each of the three
points in the letter separately. He insisted
that only the personnel material from the
past year would be submitted to the select
ion committee.
"My feelings on that is, what's the use
in rehashing things that ocurred three or
four years ago? They were told only their
last performance would be submitted to
the selection committee," he said.
Also, the committee has the right to
interview only certain applicants, he said.
"We're talking about 12 or 13 appli
cants. It's kind of foolish to talk to each
and everyone of them." he said. "That's
not up to me to decide. That'll be up to
the committee to decide."
Some officers told the Daily Nebraskan
they feared that allowing Captains Kenneth
Markle and Robert Edmunds to evaluate
the applicants would be allowing them to
create favoritism by giving good marks
only to those officers they wished to see
promoted.
But Gade expressed faith in his two top
officers.
Neither Edmunds nor Markle operate
that way," he said. "They're not going to
delibeiately put somebody down to keep
them from becoming lieutenant. I have a
lot of faith in those two. I just can't see
them doing that."
When asked why the officers who
applied for the job weren't told in the be
ginning that the other stipulations would
be included in the selection process, he re
sponded, "What difference would it make?
You have to take it a little bit at a time. It
was their choice to apply. The whole idea
is to get all the information to them and
this was being done very carefully. We
knew damned well there would be
bitches.
"We could have said that only those
people in supervisory positions could
apply, but this opens up the opportunity
for six other people to apply for it."
Discontent disagreement
Gade also disagreed with the charge that
there was much discontent among his
officers.
"The feeling I have is the majority of
the people here are satisfied and have
feeling we are trying to get things done."
he said. "I haven't heard a complaint, not
one complaint. Nobody has told me a thing
about it."
The selection process has been postpon
ed two weeks. Originally, interviews with
applicants were to begin Feb. 19, with the
appointments tentatively scheduled to be
made by March 1 . Both Gade and Coffey
said in order to insure adequate notice in
the employee publication "The Bulletin
Board,'" the process was delayed.
The decision to appoint three lieute
nants to the force was made last summer,
following a study of the police department
by Dr. Richard Bourne.
Bourne recommended the appointments
be made to improve the flow of communi
cation between the sergeants and the cap
tains and to make the newly appointed
officers shift commanders. Currently, that
duty is shared by the sergeants. Gade said
that all C- and B-line officers with at least
four years experience and two years of col
lege could apply .
China pact produces more jobs
More jobs will be available to Asian
Studies students because of the new rela
tions vith China, according to Peter Cheng,
UNL Chairman of Asian Studies and pro
fessor of political science.
Cheng said as a result of the United
States' new relations with China, a Chinese
language course will be offered next semes
ter as a night extension class.
Cheng said students must know the
language of a country they work in, in
order to communicate with those people.
Asian Studies students usually get jobs
in other countries by going through a job
file he keeps in his office, he said. These
jobs are available through private compan
ies. Companies, such as the Lindsay Com
pany who specializes in farm equipment,
need representatives to send to China and
other countries to teach people how to use
the equipment, Cheng said.
He said Asian Studies, which began in
1972, is offered as a minor.
About 200 to 300 students are enrolled
in Asia Studies which in made up of classes
from various departments, Cheng said. He
said some of the departments include polit
ical science, history, geography, art,
theatre, music, physical education, and an
thropology. "It's possible if we pick up momentum
in languages and if the university has
money to support the language program,"
he said.
He said the major job requirement in
the field of Asian Studies depends on
knowledge of an Asian language.
The Asian Studies Program places
people in jobs. He said he knows of two
students that have jobs but, most students
choose to do graduate work.
Cheng said the Asian Studies program
has a Japanese language student to go to
Japan each year to study. Kawasaki pays
for a student's plane fare to Japan, and the
student is responsible for his own spending
expenses, including room and board and
tuition, he said.
The program is in its fourth year of
operation and has been very successful,"
he said.
Union Board elects officers
The law college is "a bit removed from
the day to day practice," Hazen said in re
ference to Burger's statements.
The college tries to strike a balance be
tween areas of expertise and general prac
tice, Hazen said.
Roger Kirst, associate law professor who
teaches trial advocacy, did not want to
comment on Burger's statement.
But he said "We are aware of the con
cerns he (Burger) has -addressed and we are
seeking to address the problem at the law
school."
Kirst said he is more interested in teach
ing students than where Nebraska ranks
with other states.
"Trial advocacy is an important tool for a
lawyer, but I would be teaching that if Ne
braska ranked first or fiftieth," he said.
Apprenticeships
Keefe said the clinical training programs
are good if properly administered and that
apprenticeships "might not be a bad idea."
"I'd hate to see it be a lengthy appren
ticeship," Keefe said.
However, Keefe expressed some doubt
over apprenticeship because many attorn
eys prefer to set up their own practice after
admission to the bar and apprenticeships
would prevent them from doing so.
Tom Hagel, deputy county public de
fender said he didn't think the issue of in
competent trial lawyers was a "big pro
blem" and that it has been exaggerated.
To put it in perspective, Hagel said,
there are some doctors, p'umbers, electric
ians that are incompetent.
Hagel said a good clinical program can
take care of some complaints about in
competent trial lawyers.
As far as professions go, Hagel said, the
legal profession does a good job of weeding
out incompetent lawyers.
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February 28, 1979 J
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GEES) tJuUlD GM
Eta
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The Nebraska Union Board elected new
officers Wednesday night.
John Drcuscher. forme: secretary of the
board, was elected president. Vice
president is now Dan Ripa and the new
secretary is Robert Moline.
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