High Court Drama Grabs Attention of Lawyers in Los Angeles Offices

In their offices atop Los Angeles high-rises, attorneys in some of the city’s blue chip law firms paused at midmorning Friday to watch and listen as history unfolded before the U.S. Supreme Court.

At desktop computers and conference room TVs, they gathered alone or in small groups to hear the unprecedented broadcast of legal arguments that could go a long way toward finally determining the outcome of the election battle between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

The significance of the event was not lost on attorney Gregory A. Long, who followed the proceedings from his office in the firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. “It’s a historic moment because it is very unusual, but of course this case is very unusual,” he said. “I hope we’re not going to see a similar one any time soon.”

Long said he read the briefs filed by both sides in the case and was ready for the arguments.

Long, who has argued before the high court, recalled the feeling of decorum in the court. Apart from a fine sound system, he joked that one of the most high-tech features of the ornate courtroom is a hand crank used to raise or lower the lawyers’ lectern.

Long said he hoped the audio broadcast of the high court’s proceedings minutes after they concluded does not become standard operating procedure.

“They believe the decorum would be frustrated if they allowed themselves to be immersed in the hurly-burly of the electronic age,” he said.

At the nearby offices of Munger, Tolles & Olson, attorney Ruth E. Fisher said the audio feed from Washington was piped into a conference room where a group of 10 or so lawyers had gathered. “People are very interested in the legal arguments,” she said. “It’s a case we’re not going to see come along again in our lifetime.”

Her colleague, attorney Kelly Klaus, listened with four others in the firm’s San Francisco office on his personal computer linked to the Internet Web site. “What comes through to everyone is that it is a very serious, very sober process that is underway.”

Klaus said there was very little conversation in the office during the arguments, although occasionally someone would ask which justice was speaking.

“I suspect that more than other public officials, the justices enjoy a greater amount of anonymity,” he said. “That is certainly true of their physical appearance and their voices.”

Klaus, who worked as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in 1995-96, said he wondered about the public’s interest when the arguments got into a technical discussion about Florida election law.

In the courtyard outside the downtown Los Angeles County Courthouse, attorney Robert Benjamin offered his review. “It’s interesting to watch this happen . . . because elections are not usually this close,” he said. “I think the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its boundaries and I think it is appropriate for the U.S. Supreme Court to take charge.”

Benjamin said that lawyers seem to be interested in the case, but “the general public hasn’t focused on what’s really important, the fact that it is in the courts at all.”

Juan Ros, on jury duty, was watching a television set outside the juror assembly room. As executive director of the Libertarian Party of California, he readily acknowledged his fascination with politics and the long-running postelection legal fight over who won Florida.

“I’m already a little exhausted by the whole thing but it’s very dramatic,” he said. “We really are never going to know for certain who won the election. The process has been so tainted by political and personal bias on both sides.”

But beyond the interest of some lawyers, the showdown in the Supreme Court was certainly not uppermost in the minds of others on the streets of Los Angeles.

Andrea Cameron of Baltimore, Md., and her sister Michele Harriott of Central Islip, N.Y., spent much of Friday touring Hollywood and did not pay attention to the court hearing.

Cameron, an avid Bush supporter, and her younger sister, a Gore fan, have been at odds throughout most of the campaign. But while standing in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater, they reached a united decision. “Let them reign together,” Harriott said, with her sister egging her on. “We’re sick of this whole thing.”

John O’Connor, 77, of Los Angeles, took his grandchildren to see a movie at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, though he still received Supreme Court updates via a radio.

“This has gone on long enough,” said O’Connor, who voted for Bush. “I pity both of them right now. Whoever ultimately wins the presidency will only be able to last one term.”

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Times staff writers Jason Song and Sarah Hale contributed to this story.