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Watch Senior Partner at Law Firm Threatens Boston With ‘Biggest Demonstration Ever’ Boston Globe Jumps to Report His Views
By
Atty. J. Edward Pawlick A senior partner at Hale and
Dorr, one of the largest and most prestigious law
firms in the state, has threatened the city of
Boston with the “biggest demonstration ever”
if the Massachusetts Bar Association does not bow
to his wishes. The lawyer, Joseph P. Barri
of Milton, a homosexual who graduated from
Harvard Law School in 1972, is upset because the
MBA will be honoring Rep. John Rogers as “Legislator
of the Year” next month. The Boston Globe reports
that Barri is “furious” because Rep.
Rogers supports the Protection of Marriage
amendment. The Globe used the threat to
mount yet another attack of its own on the
amendment yesterday, thus revealing that it is
now desperate to defeat the measure which has
received the endorsement of the voters. The Globe turned Barri’s
statements into its major story on the front page
of Section B. “If they go ahead with
this award,” Barri told the paper, “unless
there’s some sort of compensation to the
homosexual community for this psychic injury, we’re
going to have the biggest demonstration that the
city of Boston has ever seen outside that dinner
that night.” The threat startled many
observers who were surprised that a prominent law
firm which is supposedly behind our legal system
would allow the use of its name to threaten the
use of force in this manner. The Globe headline was,
“Gays Furious over Lawmaker Award.” Globe Is Threatening Legislature Obviously the paper was
warning all the other legislators what the Globe
will do to them if they support the amendment.
Now that the measure has received the support of
the voters with over 110,000 signatures being
gathered and almost 80,000 being certified, it
must be approved by 25% of the legislature in
2002 and 2004 before going on the ballot in
November 2004. Many observers note that the
Globe does not have the power it used to have,
but it is still a serious concern for any
politician. It suffered a serious defeat last
fall when it was unable to hurt Stephen Lynch in
any way during his run for Congress even though
it unleashed a tremendous barrage against
him. The main reason it failed in
its attacks on Lynch was because he did not
waffle on his beliefs despite the fusillade from
the paper. Bar
Is Threatened The Globe reported that out
of the approximate 40,000 lawyers in the state,
representatives of the 300-member Lesbian and Gay
Bar Association are “expressing outrage over
Rogers’ selection.” Atty. Barri told the Globe
further down in the story that he has “organized
a group of 39 openly gay and lesbian attorneys
who are considering staging a demonstration
outside next month’s reception.” That
would mean that a group of 39 protesters would be
the “biggest demonstration that the city of
Boston has ever seen.” The threats were also aimed
at the Massachusetts Bar Association itself. The
Globe reported that “angry partners at some
of Boston’s biggest law firms are seeking to
hit the state association where it hurts - in its
membership and its bank account.” It also reported, “Some
gay attorneys have already contacted leaders of
their firms about halting policies that provide
automatic bar association membership for all
partners.” But the Globe did not say that
homosexual employees of the firms will be able to
coerce the law firms because if their demands are not met, the activists will
be able to have homosexual employees harass them with baseless
charges of employment discrimination under
Massachusetts law. Barri’s
Homosexuality Not Revealed The Globe told its readers
that Barri is “a senior partner at Hale and
Dorr” but it did not reveal that he is a
homosexual himself. He is a director of the
Massachusetts Lesbian & Gay Bar Association.
His biography at the law firm’s website
says, “Among his pro bono activities,
Mr. Barri is the responsible partner for AIDS
Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc. for which
Hale and Dorr serves as general counsel. Mr.
Barri is the founder and chair of The Partner
Group, which includes more than thirty-five
openly gay or lesbian lawyers who are partners of
law firms or senior executives in business or
government.” After the Globe reported
that Rogers was a terrible person, it tried to
give the appearance of neutrality by giving him
the impossible task, at the very end of the
story, to rebut all of the charges. All they
reported from him was, “In an interview with
the Globe, Rogers called the criticism ‘unfortunate.’
He said his support for a defense-of-marriage
style bill stems from a desire to define marriage
and clear up legal ambiguities. And he maintains
that the budget he prepared this year was more
than fair to areas important to the gay
community. ‘It’s easy to call me
antigay, which I’m not. I’m
promarriage, if anything,’ he said. ‘I’m
not bigoted; I’m not antigay.’” The Executive Director of
the MBA, Abigail Shaine, was given two paragraphs
to defend her organization. She told the paper
that Rogers was chosen for his years of
dedication to issues important to the legal
community. She noted he was chairman of the Joint
Committee on the Judiciary in the late 1990s,
where he supported a courthouse construction bill
and pay raises for judges. Shaine would not
discuss the homosexual complaint beside noting
that the MBA “has a long history of
supporting issues that are close to the gay
community. That will continue.” The Globe also reported,
“Attorneys who are active on issues
affecting gays and lesbians know [Rogers’]
record well - and they have few good things to
say about him.” What they really were saying
was, “Attorneys who are active on issues
affecting gays and lesbians and are homosexual
themselves ...” Which makes many wonder
why the Globe didn’t report the comments of
any of the many attorneys who do have good things
to say about Rogers. More about Atty. Joseph P. Barri can be found at: http://www.haledorr.com/attorney/biodetail.asp?ID=B760311306
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