I thought that I should update you on the behind the scenes activity
which has taken place in reponse to the misguided, inaccurate article
about firm law librarians that appeared in "Of Counsel." We do plan a
response to it and one that will be crafted so as to be as effective
as possible. This response in now in preparation.
I talled with Executive Board member Tory Trotta shortly after the
article appeared. She had already spoken to leaders in the Private
Law Libraries Special Interest Section and to others and they had
begun to decide what we should do. Tory Trotta and I discussed various
options. And these are all under active consideration at the present
time. You should know that at this moment quite a number of our
colleagues are working on this matter. These include leaders from
AALL, leaders in the PLL SIS and the Task Force that is
chaired by Patricia Patterson who herself is a former Executive Board
member. ThIs is the task force that was appointed by then AALL
President Carol Billings, in full consultation with me, last Spring
following the decision of the Chicago office of Baker and McKenzie to
terminate their staff librarians and contract out the library operations.
This Task Force was charged with preparing a paper which we can and
will use to educate others about what it is that professional law librarians
have to offer in law firm settings. I assure you that the "first team" is on
this matter. We will respond to this very inaccurate but hurtful article.
Our response will only come, however, when we have fully
determined how best to do so. Too much is at stake for all of us to
do this any other way. It is my belief that the underlying
theses of the article and others that have appeared of
late is invalid. Much of what is stated as fact in the article is not
fact. It is opinion and it is flat out wrong! Still articles of this
type can do considerable harm because some of those who read them
believe that what is said is accurate. This misinformation must be
corrected and as effectively as possible. What is happening here
affects all of us in law librarianship not just those who happen to
work in law firm settings. I thus expect that our "first team" will go
about their work on this matter as expeditiously as possible.
Patrick E. Kehoe, President, American Association of Law Libraries.
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