Letters to the Editor

      INSPIRATIONAL OR OFFENSIVE?
      Nicolás C. Vaca's short story in the April issue ["El Borrachito"] brought tears to my eyes. I work as an immigration attorney for a small nonprofit organization serving the farmworker community of the Pajaro Valley, and I am also a member of the board of trustees of the local school district. Much of my life touches on the two worlds that Mr. Vaca described so eloquently. His story inspires me to continue my work serving the educational and immigration needs of my community with more dedication and humility.
      Doug Keegan
      Watsonville
     
      Why does your magazine persist in printing articles such as "El Borrachito"? I'm sure that if someone wrote an article about a black drug dealer who visits a lawyer, you wouldn't print it. So why print such offensive articles about Hispanics?
      In my practice, about 99.9 percent of my clients are Hispanic. I represent immigrants all the way from Mexico to Argentina and Spain. All of them are hardworking, sophisticated, and intelligent businesspeople. This article, and similar ones you've printed in the past, are misrepresentations of the Hispanic immigrant population.
      As for Mr. Vaca, if he wants to see his name in California Lawyer, he should write something more intelligent than that piece of Chicano literature garbage.
      Felipe Cervantes
      Norwalk
     
      Nicolás Vaca portrays an attorney whose client fits the description of a dangerous client in Steve Albrecht's Expert Advice ["Securing Yourself Against Dangerous Clients"] in the same issue. Albrecht warns about irrational clients who show up without an appointment and have recent arrests for alcohol violations, which more than partially matches the description of the client in Vaca's story.
      I appreciate that the intent of Vaca's story was to show the similarities in history that can resonate between client and counsel and the desire to be compassionate toward those whose paths have diverged from our own. Nevertheless, a client who is drunk, irrational, and persistent cannot be assumed to be harmless. A client who is blacking out memories of his office visits has a significant alcohol problem and is a danger to himself and those around him.
      Meg Zweiback
      Oakland
     
      PROSECUTORIAL ADVANTAGE
      Your "Graduate School for Prosecutors" item in the April ESQ. section is a hoot to those of us who have toiled for decades in the vineyards of California criminal defense. The prosecution already has limitless funds, all the guns, and the support of most of the judiciary (trial and appellate). They are subjected to very little of the professional disciplinary scrutiny brought to bear against virtually all other members of the State Bar, and they enjoy a presumption among increasing numbers of a dangerously naive public that they are the good guys who wear white hats. Now, they get advanced education to make the ominously growing governmental invasions into the precincts of liberty and privacy even more effective.
      Have we taken leave of our senses?
      Michael J. Kennedy
      Palm Springs
     
      FOR THE (SELF) DEFENSE
      I appreciated Steve Albrecht's Expert Advice column on workplace violence ["Securing Yourself Against Dangerous Clients," April]. Dangerous clients are clearly a problem, but in my experience the real threats to our personal safety are the litigants on the other side of our clients' disputes.
      For those of us in small counties, the problem is particularly acute. It is a rare occurrence for me to visit a public place and not run into a person that I have sued on behalf of one client or another. Almost every time I go to the grocery store, church, out to dinner, or to the movies, I run into someone who is potentially holding a grudge against me.
      Albrecht makes a great point: One must be aware of potential threats. I submit, however, that it is more important to be prepared for the inevitable.
      William S. Smerdon
      Brawley
     
      Mr. Albrecht's article included many useful recommendations for maximizing law office security. However, he made one omission, namely, having at least one employee in the office properly trained in the use of firearms for self-defense.
      I recognize that the mere mention of the use of firearms for self-defense is objectionable to some, if not politically incorrect. But when deadly force is used against innocent victims, there are no second-place winners. I would rather use a firearm to save lives than attend funerals of those who could have been saved by its use.
      R. M. "Mac" Jacobs
      Lake Forest
     
      OUT OF PLACE
      Martin Lasden's review of David Mamet's The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews [Books, April] is out of place in California Lawyer. Neither the book nor Lasden's review thereof has anything in particular to do with the law or the legal profession. Rather, the book represents Mamet's passionate plea for Jews to return to Torah observance, while the review constitutes Lasden's defense of personally having "succumb[ed] to the temptations of assimilation." If Lasden wants to misdefine Judaism by morphing it into the secular and universal values of "social justice, compassion, and spiritual enlightenment" (whatever in the world he means by such highly subjective terms), that is his prerogative; but his review does not belong in a secular legal magazine such as California Lawyer.
      Howard N. Madris
      Los Angeles
     
      GENDER BIAS BIAS
      Joan C. Williams' MCLE article, "Gender Bias in the Law" [April], is itself gender biased, in that it makes unwarranted assumptions and mostly ignores the bias against men. The article assumes there are fewer female law partners because of gender bias, but it ignores the factors well documented by Warren Farrell in his book Why Men Earn More. For example, women usually prioritize flexibility, shorter drives, and factors conducive to the choice of being primary parents, and they generally still seek men who out-earn them so they can make that choice. Meanwhile, men prioritize income, work 90 percent of overtime, travel more, drive longer commutes, and simply have less options than women.
      The article makes unsupported claims, such as that aggression is deemed assertive in men but abrasive in women, a myth that can be debunked by comparing the temperaments of TV attorneys and jurists such as Judges Judy, Wapner, Brown, and Efriam. The article mentions antimale bias only at the end, regarding paternal leave, but ignores other antimale bias such as that found in criminal sentencing, child custody/paternity, the Selective Service, court attire, exclusion of men from domestic violence policies, international forced labor laws, sex-based pricing, and more.
      Many subscribers who read the article to earn an MCLE credit for Elimination of Bias likely still do not know of the following sex-based biases: Men receive higher sentences than women for the same crime when all factors are equal (Crime and Delinquency, 1989, v 35, pp 136?168); a drunk driver who kills a woman will receive a three-year higher sentence, on average, than one who kills a man ("Unconventional Wisdom," Washington Post, Sept. 7, 2000); men are far more likely than women to receive the death penalty when all factors are equal; the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, an active treaty with 171 signatory nations including the United States, forbids forced labor but exempts "able-bodied males" between ages 18?45 (Article 11); and nightclubs frequently charge men higher prices for admission or drinks, often innocuously promoted as "Ladies Nights" or "Ladies Days" (imagine the uproar by the female members of the bar if Westlaw or Lexis charged female attorneys higher prices than their male counterparts for the same products or services).
      Gender bias adversely affects both sexes, and it should be eradicated for the benefit of both sexes.
      Marc Angelucci
      Los Angeles
     
      CLARIFICATION
      A statement in "The Wrath of Aguirre" [April] implied that no one in the San Diego City Attorney's office has civil-service protection. In fact, support staff do enjoy such protection. (Deputy city attorneys and management do not.)
     
      California Lawyer welcomes letters to the editor and publishes excerpts from as many as possible. Please include your phone number and city of residence. Write to us at 44 Montgomery St., Suite 250, San Francisco, CA 94104, fax 415/296-2482, or email letters_callaw@dailyjournal.com.
     

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