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13. Who writes the Legal Center amicus briefs? Many of the amicus briefs are written by the Legal Center staff. The three attorneys presently on the staff have diverse backgrounds, which include federal appellate and Supreme Court clerkships, federal government service, a municipal attorney's office, and the private practice of law. Their combiner] experience totals more than 55 years in the practice of law, including extensive experience in the briefing and argument of appeals before the Ignited States Courts of Appeals and state appellate courts,.and_.in reading and writing Supreme. Court briefs and watching Supreme Court arguments. The remainder of the briefs are written by pro bono attorneys under staff supervision. The Legal Center has n atae to par- ticipate in an additional number of sirinificant cases by enlisting the help of distinguished attorneys, in Washington and elsewhere, who have volunteered to assist the Legal Center in attaining its goal of enhancing the lerlal presence of state and local governments in the Supreme Court. These ro bono attorneys provide a variety of services to tire Center: t� serve on the Legal Center Advisory hoard; they give advice on the selection of and approach to particular cases; and they serve on moot court panels, in addition to drafting some of. the Legal Center's amicus briefs.4/ In selecting an attorney to prepare an amicus brief in a particular case, the Legal Center seeks someone who is knowledge- able in the substantive area of law, familiar with Supreme Court practice, interested in the issue, and sympathetic to the viewpoint of state and local governments. Whether an attorney works on a particular case will depend, of course, upon the time he or she has available and on the absence of any conflict of interest. The Legal Center staff is always intensively involved in the preparation of the brief, consulting frequently with] the pro bono attorney. The Legal Center also serves as .liaison with t _e attorney representing the government on whose side we are par- ticipatinq in the case. The staff, subject to the guidance received from the trustee organizations, retains final editorial control over Lite brief, and also manarlc, the printing and filing. Although the dollar figure for the value of the services that pro bono attorneys provide to tine Legal Center is nricegs.arily inexact, a number of these attorneys Iravr! said that their amicus 4/ A list of the at.torneyr who have drafted amicus briefs for the LerlaL Center on a _proharm harts, and a description of. the Advisory Board .Ind a_ -ist. of dts members, are available on request. -9-