Lawyers defend Patrick's legal work

They are the pinstriped professionals the public loves to hate, the butt of cocktail party jokes, the easy targets who rank near car salesmen and telemarketers on most people's lovability scale.

And in this year's gubernatorial campaign, their calling -- defending the accused -- has become fodder for a fusillade of Republican attacks against the Democratic nominee, Deval L. Patrick , who wrote letters on behalf of a convicted rapist and defended an admitted cop killer.

Now, the lawyers of Massachusetts are fighting back.

Horrified to see Patrick, a fellow member of the bar, pilloried for the convicts he has defended, litigators, prosecutors, and defense lawyers are rushing to defend the candidate -- and the nobility of their profession.

The Massachusetts Association of Court Appointed Attorneys is circulating a memo calling Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey's attacks an assault on the Constitution. The presidents of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association have penned an opinion piece noting that John Adams defended the British troops accused of murdering patriots at the Boston Massacre. And tomorrow , Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, the leading trade publication in the state, will endorse Patrick for governor, the first time it has backed a candidate for political office in its 34-year history.

Lawyers say that Healey's targeting of their profession has become the main topic of conversation in wood-paneled offices and district court lobbies from Pittsfield to Provincetown.

``There are a lot of angry lawyers out there," said David L. Yas , editor and publisher of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

The source of the ire: two ads from the Healey campaign that highlight Patrick's legal work. One takes aim at Patrick's defense of Carl Ray Songer , an escaped convict who murdered a state trooper on a Florida highway in 1973. As a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1985, Patrick argued successfully that Songer was not able to present evidence of his character and education in court, and Songer's death sentence was reduced to life in prison.

``While lawyers have a right to defend admitted cop killers, do we really want one as our governor?" the ad asks.

The other ad spotlights Patrick's efforts, as a lawyer in private practice, to support the parole petition of Benjamin LaGuer , who was convicted in 1984 of binding his 59-year-old neighbor with a telephone cord and raping her.

``What kind of person defends a brutal rapist?" the ad asks.

Yas said lawyers ``regard these ads as misinformed, distasteful, and insulting and in some ways they might even be disingenuous."

``Kerry Healey certainly knows a thing or two about the legal system and she should really know better: that to respect the right to counsel is one of the tenets of the Constitution," he said.

The piece written by the presidents of the Boston Bar Association, Jack Cinquegrana , and the state bar association, Mark D. Mason , praises lawyers who defend unpopular clients.

``Lawyers who take these cases serve everyone, by ensuring that the justice system will not be dominated by government power," the article states.

Tim O'Brien , Healey's spokesman, defended the ads.

``Deval Patrick has one of the worst records on crime of any of the candidates to run for governor," he said. ``He made a pattern of taking the side of the offender rather than protecting the victims and we think those are the wrong priorities for the next governor."

Patrick was the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration, and general counsel for Texaco and Coca-Cola. Timothy P. Murray, his running mate, is also a lawyer. Healey is not a lawyer. Reed Hillman , her running mate, is a lawyer and the former colonel of the State Police.

Springfield lawyer Mark L. Hare , a lifelong Republican and vice president of the court-appointed attorneys association, said the ads convinced him to vote for Patrick.

``We are appalled that the Republican candidate for governor would stoop to those kind of ads, when presumably she knows full well the role of the defense," Hare said. ``She portrays herself a criminologist, and to say there is something radically wrong with the defense bar, defending the constitutional rights of anybody, that crosses the line."

He said he is not the only one who feels insulted.

``It is the topic of conversation with every bar association -- the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Hampden County Bar Association -- everyone is talking about this unwarranted attack against the bar," Hare said.

The Boston Bar and the Massachusetts Bar have not endorsed Patrick or Healey, but felt they could not let Healey's attacks go unanswered, Mason said.

``Our members were deeply offended by some of the recent attacks we've seen, as were our clients, our families, and all those who understand the important work that lawyers perform," Mason said. ``The work we do is critically important and should never, ever be denigrated or underestimated."

The ads attack lawyers ``for doing precisely what the Constitution calls for, precisely what the founders of our country designed to be a democracy," said Boston lawyer Michael S. Greco , former president of the American Bar Association.

``It is an attack on our whole justice system," Greco said. ``And I would say it's irresponsible for anyone, for political gain, to trash our entire justice system to get some votes."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.