“This is embarrassing,” Rep. Brandon Gill said, as Michelle A. Behnke ( from Madison, Wisconsin—of course she is), the president of the American Bar Association (ABA) repeatedly refused to answer direct questions, was infuriatingly evasive and displayed nauseating hypocrisy and dishonesty as Rep. Brandon Gill questioned her regarding DEI, bias and discrimination. It was embarrassing, for Democrats, progressives, fans of permanent anti-white discrimination, members of the ABA (the largest American bar association, which I refuse to join expressly because of the organization’s lack of integrity ) so flamingly displayed by Behnke, and especially all lawyers. How can the public trust a “profession” that allows such a shifty, pusillanimous, dishonest individual to represent it by leading its members’ largest and most prestigious organization?
I say this as a legal ethicist: It can’t.
Ethics Alarms 
This reminds me of the people at the college I work at. They are like cartoon levels of absurdity.
In the midst of the filebustering we hear “I am a real estate attorney.” I regard RE attorneys as an entry level position in the profession. For the most part they provide boiler plate forms to be signed at the closure of a real estate purchase, while sitting at a big table. My question is how does she become president of the ABA?
She seems to be the very product of DEI policy this organization aspires to. Which mean promoting someone to a position of authority when they do not have any actual proven skills required. It means promtion based on color or ethnicity only, not substantial merit.
Retired real estate and real esdate finace attorney here. Ouch!
Commercial, though. In Arizona, title companies do the work residential real estate lawyers do in many states, such as title searches and issuing and selling title insurance policies and conducting closings for residential transactions.
Respectfully disagree. Minnesota bar has a certification for Real Property Specialist. I think it is an 8-hour test. As I recall, the test covers residential and commercial sales and leases, contracts for deed and cancellations, eminent domain, Land use regulations and zoning, environmental issues, mortgages and foreclosures, Torrens property, Title Examination, Common Interest Communities and Mechanic’s Liens.
Definitely not just filling out forms.
-Jut
Proponents of the ABA’s stance argue that encouraging representation and enforcing quotas are two fundamentally distinct concepts — one is about broadening the pipeline, while the other is about fixing the result. That argument has legs. If their model is the Detroit Symphony Orchestra model: auditions behind a partition, candidates selected by musicianship alone — then encouraging the widest community to be inspired to apply is a good upstream intervention. If the model is the “Dingel model,” then the DSO needs to hire X people of Y background, that is discrimination against individual applicants and also the consumer (the community as a whole) and the music itself. The ABA leader and the ABA as a whole I suppose is doing the latter while trying to hide behind the former. I don’t think either of the two “opponents” in the video were that effective. The ABA leader’s hedging and obfuscation came across to many (not me) as a reasonable response to a bully. This is not the way to win the optics war in my view. I’m not sure if it’s winnable — I’m wading in pessimism up to my knees at this point. Part of that pessimism is rooted in the Republicans I vote for…
She’s a lawyer. She is supposed to have the training to explain and defend complex concepts. “The ABA leader’s hedging and obfuscation came across to many (not me) as a reasonable response to a bully.” In court, a tough cross examination may seem like bullying, but the witness is still required to answer the question. Anyone who regarded that as anything but disgraceful obfuscation supports the discrimination she was unable to defend…that’s not an optics issue. That’s a blind bias issue. Chuck Schumer used the same tactic when he was asked if he endorsed Graham Platner.
If the Left thinks the exchange between ABA Dolt and the Congressman was such good optics, why is it being quarantined by the news media other than Fox?
Good question. The mainstream (liberal) news is biased in its content and its presentation. Why they’re not using that in their favor is curious, or maybe it’s not just newsworthy in general. You are my only source for that story, which is another reason why I appreciate this blog. Jack, I think you could have done a better job than that congressman in interrogating her true stance. I’m not defending her — but if I were a campaign manager for a conservative candidate, I don’t think I’d be able to use that televised exchange for any useful purpose. I’m not trying to be a contrarian for the sake of it — I don’t think he did his side much good. And I think she wiggled out of it without too much self damage. Time will tell I suppose.
Oh, you are certainly right. And the public doesn’t care much or pay much attention to the ABA, if they even know what it is. I would hope that lawyers would care, but that profession is so politicized and corrupt today that even that may be a pipe dream.
Where’s that wood-chipper?
Repeating a non-responsive answer ad infinitum can get a person held in contempt in a trial court or even a deposition.
A concert pianist in our midst?
No! Just remembering nonsense by Dingel — I think it was — that the DSO was not “representative” and suggested racism. The DSO responded that all auditions are blind — only the music is evaluated. Dingel didn’t budge. That was a long time ago and I got it third hand — before I had internet! So details may be off…
I posted on it at the time.
Rookie lawyers don’t need to interview for jobs behind a screen. They have their resumes and transcripts.
A concert pianist in our midst?
Jack,
I am with you. I stopped my membership in the ABA during the Clinton presidency debacle.
Here’s an unsolicited suggestion regarding a name for your new organization: I am a trademark lawyer so I am inclined to suggest the name be something a little less descriptive, and perhaps a little more memorable and distinctive. Using your first two terms, Ethical Lawyers, I have been trying to brainstorm a clever name that would make a useful acronym, for convenient shorthand in distinguishing it from the ABA. With just a few minutes reflection, the e l words that you started with led me to think of ELBOW. Among other things, that could be short for Ethical Lawyers and Barristers Of the World? Clever marketers could come up with concepts and slogans about elbowing the ABA to the side or even out of existence.
I feel confident that you or other people might come up with additional and better and more clever names, but regardless of the name, I support your effort.
Mark Holland 949-228-6750
Evasiveness during direct questioning—especially from legal leadership—always damages professional credibility far faster than making a clear, honest defense. Regardless of where anyone stands on bar policies, transparent communication should be the baseline expected of any legal representative. On a separate note regarding online research and reading dense legal threads like this on desktop, using the best ad blocker extension helps eliminate visual distractions and tracking scripts while navigating heavy comment sections. Great analysis on the ethical standards surrounding congressional testimony!
Tangential issue but if you really want the best ad blocker, you should switch to Firefox and use uBlockOrigin (which Chrome banned because it’s too effective). Brave is still good, I think, but (unlike Firefox) it’s Chromium based and will always have a Sword of Damocles hanging over it.
That looked really, really bad for a lawyer. If she’d been smart enough to have her lawyer next to her, perhaps such counsel could have helped her come up with some other answers and she might not have embarrassed herself so completely. Not a good look for the University of Wisconsin.
“Not a good look for the University of Wisconsin.”
This Class of ’79 alumnus (GO BADGERS!!!) begs your indulgence…
PWS