Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 8, 1 August 1999 — Lawyer dollars [ARTICLE]

Lawyer dollars

I read with interest Trustee Akana's report on her trip to Washington, D.C., to hire various law firms to prepare OHA's amicus curiae brief in Rice vj. Cayetano. The State of Hawai'i has hired a very eapahle lawyer, John Roberts, to argue the case, who will be paid, thank goodness, out of the attorney general's purse. I am somewhat bewildered by Trustee Akana's implications that Senators Dole and Mitchell will have a role in preparing the amicus brief, whieh I understand is limited to 50 pages. I have to ask: What specifically will these gentlemen do? Will the lawyers brought on board eaeh produce five pages of the brief? Furthermore, the senators' firm is primarily a lobbying organization and I do not beheve lobbying is at all appropriate in dealing with the Supreme Court. I ean understand the hiring of John Waihe'e who is knowledgeable about the issues and could probably produce a fine brief in a few hours. May I ask how mueh these 50 pages or less are going to cost us Hawaiians, including the trustees' travel costs? I would also like to know how mueh OHA has spent annually on legal fees in eom-

parison to programs directly benefiting Native Hawaiians. George H. Robertson Kawaihae, Hawai'i