ASUC Lawyer Doesn't Like Money

Or so I can only assume. The Daily Cal is reporting what most of us already suspected, which is that the bill to give Oren legal fees was written by Oren Gabriel and Mark Himelstein, the ASUC's attorney. One has to wonder why Oren isn't listed as an author. The rest of the "authors" were contacted about slapping their name on the bill. Himelstein pushed the bill in a closed session, despite there being no litigation to justify closing that session. An anonymous senator reports:

"He said the legal costs were necessary in order to intimidate the Judicial Council so they would change their minds," the official said.

That's fairly impressive. What I want to know is, how does Himelstein know this? Is it because he heard from the Judicial Council about their deliberations? If so, his mole needs to be impeached. Why aren't the senators pushing for an investigation into the disclosure of deliberations, since they seem to know what went on during them? My guess is that they're full of shit. Some other interesting issues:

Gabriel said the lawyer, who billed at a 50 percent discount, was selected at the recommendation of his father's colleague.

Wait a second. Oren managed to spend $45,358 of lawyer time on this case? I want to note that, as of yet, we have no explanation of where the number came from. We don't have the bills. Maybe the ASUC should get ahold of them and check them a bit more closely before supporting this.

Overall, though, this is the punchline: The ASUC's attorney, Mark Himelstein, is supporting the payment of $22,679 to an external legal firm, despite there being no obligation or litigation to justify it. Who is he working for?

posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 10/17/2006 10:37:00 AM #
Comments (4)

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Comments:

Unrelated note: did John Waste stop blogging, and someone who types in Asian characters take over?

# posted by  Anonymous : 3:14 PM, October 17, 2006

 

Yeah, he stopped.

# posted by  Beetle Aurora Drake : 3:48 PM, October 17, 2006

 

Himmelstein should be fired. This is way, way out of his purview, and all his actions this summer showed intense disregard for the ASUC as an independent body. The ASUC didn't retain a lawyer just so that he could tell them to ignore their own constitution everytime a problem arises.

# posted by  Anonymous : 4:45 PM, October 17, 2006

 

Has anyone else noticed that the fee being quoted just so magically pays for about a year at CAL? As someone who had to take out government loans to attend CAL and has to watch every penney that I spend, I find it AMAZING that Oren's legal fees just so happen to cover one year at CAL (fees, room, board).

# posted by  Anonymous : 7:34 PM, October 17, 2006

 

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