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Attorneys Unite to Support Government Watchdog Dismissed by Obama Administration
New York Law Journal
July 01, 2009
Nearly 150 prominent attorneys of all political stripes have banded together to support one of their own who went to Washington, D.C., to serve as a government watchdog, only to be unceremoniously dismissed by the Obama administration earlier this month.
Read the letter in support of Walpin (pdf).
Appointed by former President George W. Bush in January 2007, Gerald Walpin, the former inspector general for the board of the Corporation for National & Community Service, said that in mid-June, Norman L. Eisen, special counsel to President Barack Obama, called him, curtly thanked him for his service and gave him less than an hour to "move on."
The call came after Walpin issued two "substantial reports" raising questions about the misuse of AmeriCorps funds, Walpin said. One accused Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA basketball star who founded the nonprofit St. HOPE, of misusing an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant, and the other involved a probe into a teacher training program at the City University of New York.
Walpin said the reports were unpopular with the corporation's board for political reasons. Walpin claims that in May he "lectured" the board to take responsibility for overseeing the corporation.
In a June 16 letter to lawmakers, Eisen claimed that Walpin's dismissal was "precipitated" by his apparent confusion at the meeting where he was "disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the Board to question his capacity to serve."
Walpin's dismissal has lit up the blogosphere in recent weeks, prompting accusations of political partisanship by the Obama administration.
When his colleagues got wind of the dismissal and Eisen's letter, they jumped in to defend Walpin, a former president of the Federal Bar Council and partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman.
William F. Kuntz II of Baker Hostetler, said he and his colleagues were "outraged" when they learned about the dismissal and attacks against Walpin.
"The bottom line is that [Walpin] clearly has all his marbles. He's articulate, listens ... he doesn't wander off," said Kuntz, vice-president of the Federal Bar Council.
Walpin is the "ultimate straight shooter. This is not to say he is always right, but he's very fair and very impartial," Kuntz said.
Kuntz was among six attorneys who spearheaded the effort to defend Walpin. They sent an e-mail asking federal practitioners who had "recent and substantial interactions" with Walpin to support their colleague.
Nearly 150 attorneys, including former U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Bernard W. Nussbaum of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz signed on.
"We have known Gerald Walpin as a leading member of the New York Bar for many years. Many of us have seen him and heard him speak, including at this month's meeting of the Second Circuit Judicial Conference and last week's meeting of the Board of the Federal Council," the group wrote in a June 23 letter to top lawmakers, including Joseph Lieberman, I, Conn, and Charles Grassley R-Iowa, and Gregory B. Craig, counsel to Obama.
"We have never seen Mr. Walpin to be 'confused, disoriented [or] unable to answer questions.' While none of us was present at the meeting referred to in Mr. Eisen's letter, we can report only that such an allegation is totally inconsistent with our personal knowledge of Mr. Walpin" who has always "exhibited a quick mind," a "command of the facts" and "eloquence," the letter states.
However, while all of the attorneys are unanimous in affirming Walpin's "integrity and competence," the letter stops short of calling for hearings or formal investigations of the dismissal.
