Lawyer sues State Bar over PR

Greg Tuttle

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

A public relations campaign sponsored by the State Bar of Nevada to improve the image of attorneys is illegal and a waste of money, according to a federal lawsuit filed by a Las Vegas attorney.

Chuck Gardner filed a motion Thursday in U.S. District Court seeking an injunction against the bar association to force a stop to the public relations campaign. Gardner said the campaign built around a catch phrase is misguided and unconstitutional.

"The slogan, 'Nevada lawyers, making the law work for everyone'... is not designed to correct any misunderstandings," according to the lawsuit. "Nor is it conceived in the public interest. By the bar's own admission, it is designed and conceived in the parochial self-interest of the bar."

A spokesman for Swamp Rhino Advertising and SRPR, which put together the billboard campaign and distributed the public service-type television and radio spots, said today the ads have not run for several months.

"We barely got the campaign off the ground when the gentleman protested and the State Bar put a halt to everything," said SRPR Director George McCabe. "They did everything he asked them to do months ago and now he is suing."

Gardner, a former deputy attorney general, said the media campaign violates the U.S. Constitution because it uses mandatory dues paid by bar members to promote a political agenda.

"This stuff is highly politically charged," Gardner said in an interview Thursday. "I have no doubt the (U.S.) Supreme Court would go against it."

The lawsuit also names the Board of Bar Governors and its 16 members as defendants.

Nevada bar association President Ann Bersi was out of town Thursday and today and unavailable for comment. Attempts to reach State Bar Executive Director Wayne Blevins today were not successful.

Las Vegas attorney John Mowbray, the board's vice president, said Thursday the board had not yet been served with the lawsuit and he could not comment.

Gardner said he first heard of the advertising campaign about six months ago in an association newsletter announcing the placement of large billboards displaying the bar's slogan. When he next heard that the bar had hired a Las Vegas public relations firm, Gardner said he wrote a letter to the board hoping to convince them to end the campaign.

After some internal debate, the bar association took down the billboards and changed the slogan to read, "striving to make the law work for everyone," Gardner said.

But the bar association also signed a $200,000 contract with the public relations firm to continue the media campaign this year with television and radio ads, he said.

Attorneys who work in Nevada must be members of the bar association, and Gardner said he pays $350 a year in membership fees.

The bar association exists to regulate and discipline attorneys who break the law or violate legal ethics, Gardner said, not to promote the image of attorneys.

Gardner also said the campaign slogan is flawed because it gives the impression attorneys work for all parties involved in a dispute or legal action.

"Lawyers are not objective," he said.

Greg Tuttle covers federal offices for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-8813 or 380-8433 or e-mail him at tuttle@lasvegassun.com.