BUSH HOLDS EVENT TO BACK CURBS ON CLASS-ACTION
February 10, 2005 13:56

In what was billed as a conversation with experts and victims, President Bush urged the Senate on to pass a bill to limit class-action lawsuits as he sat alongside Walter E. Dellinger III, an acting solicitor general in the Clinton administration and a longtime supporter of the legislation. Two other supporters, both Democrats, joined them on stage. "He represents the spirit needed to have good legal 'reform,' and that is the bipartisan spirit." What neither Mr. Bush nor Mr. Dellinger mentioned was that Mr. Dellinger and his law firm, O'Melveny & Myers, were paid $780,000 since 1999 - including $580,000 in the last two years - by two of the major lobbying groups set up by companies to try to push the legislation through Congress. The figures, available in Senate lobbying reports, list Mr. Dellinger as one of three lawyers at the firm who lobbied on its behalf. They show that the group that gave Mr. Dellinger and his firm the most money was the Institute for Legal Reform, which was set up by the United States Chamber of Commerce and has been a major force behind the bill. "When Walter Dellinger appears on this, it has nothing to do with his academic credentials and everything to do with being a paid lobbyist," said Pamela Gilbert, a lawyer at Cuneo, Waldman & Gilbert, which specializes in class-action cases and has lobbied against the legislation.
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