Devitt Award Prestigious and Unusual

Sharon Schmickle and Tom Hamburger

Close involvement of its corporate sponsor makes it unusual	It was to be the Nobel Prize for the federal judiciary, an award named for Edward Devitt, longtime chief judge of the federal courts in Minnesota. Originally $10,000 and later $15,000, it was created by West Publishing Co. in 1982. And recipients chosen over the years have been worthy of honor. They include judges who have shown courage in handling civil rights matters and creativity in improving the administration of justice. Several recipients did not accept the company's check: "I don't like to take anything of value from anybody," said Senior Judge Jack Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York, who asked West to donate the money to charity when he received the award in 1994. The award complies with all laws and ethics codes, but the close involvement of its corporate sponsor makes it unusual among commendations given to judges. And it has raised questions with some judicial ethics experts. In a letter to the Star Tribune, a West official defended the award program. "Our sponsorship of and involvement in the Devitt Award have been fully open and public from the outset," said spokesperson Ruth Stanoch. "Nominations can be made by anyone, and the recipient is selected by an independent panel comprised of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge and a U.S. District court judge. We do not select the recipient . . . ."
At expensive resorts and hotels, West executives saw to the entertainment and comfort of judges	Although West didn't choose the Devitt winners, the company was directly involved in every other part of the selection and award process, according to Devitt's papers, which are on file at the Minnesota Historical Society. As a result, the arrangement made West a benefactor to federal judges, whether they were winners or selection-committee members. West's executives played host to the committee members at expensive resorts and hotels, attending to the entertainment and comfort of the judges and their spouses. Ethics experts said West would have been better advised to donate funds for the award and separate the company from the award and the selection process. Steven Lubet, a law professor at Northwestern University, suggests an endowment, such as awards offered by law firms wishing to give money to a law school to pay for a visiting professorship. "The donor that pays for it is a law firm," he said. "But the law school runs the program completely and there is a complete separation from the firm. Once the money is donated, it becomes the law school's to spend."
Other award programs more modest	West is not alone in providing recognition for the judiciary. The company provided the Star Tribune with the names of 21 other award programs that have honored judges. But the Devitt award stands out from the others. The Star Tribune was able to contact 19 of the organizations responsible for the awards on West's list and found they are bar associations, a university or professional organization. Some of the awards are privately funded, however the funding went through professional organizations. For example, West and one of its competitors, LEXIS-NEXIS, each endow an award through the American Inns of Court Foundation. LEXIS officials said that they have a policy forbidding directly providing travel or lodging to judges. None of the other award programs had a budget that exceeded $5,000 a year, including prizes and administrative costs. And typically the committee that selected the winners conferred by telephone, piggybacked its meetings onto a bar association conference or arranged for a low-budget get-together. "They meet in our living room here," said Bonnie Sashin of the Boston Bar Association, which sponsors the Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award. "We buy them each a muffin worth maybe a dollar each and maybe we will give them coffee." By contrast, one judge reported that his transportation, food and lodging for a Devitt selection-committee meeting cost $7,700.
Judge Devitt close friend of West CEO	Until his death in 1992, Devitt invited the other members who were to serve with him on the selection committees. It was possible for Devitt to recruit the nation's most prestigious judges. After nearly 30 years on the federal bench, he had friends on the Supreme Court and throughout the federal judiciary. He was chief judge of the Minnesota District from 1957 to 1981 and he continued to hear cases as a senior judge through the 1980s. Devitt was the perfect catalyst for the sociable quality that was to characterize the committee meetings. Gregarious and courtly, he enjoyed playing golf and traveling. News clippings and his own correspondence show that he was a favorite among many other judges. The correspondence shows that Devitt and Dwight Opperman, now CEO and chairman of the board at West, were close friends. They often traveled together, sometimes visiting the nation's highest offices. On March 13, 1984, Devitt wrote to William Webster, then director of the FBI: "Just a note to thank you for your warm hospitality last week. You received Dwight Opperman and myself with your usual generous courtesy." Devitt's papers show three occasions when he alerted Opperman regarding West competitors. In 1988, for example, a court official circulated a memo telling court librarians that government contracts required them to do more of their computer-assisted legal research on a system that competes with West. Devitt's correspondence indicates that he sent a copy to Opperman. Each year, West put out the call for nominations for the award that was named after Devitt and the nation's most esteemed judges and legal scholars submitted nominations. Nominations were to be sent to a West post office box. But at least one nominator bypassed that formality and went directly to Opperman. Devitt's papers include a copy of a letter then-Chief Justice Warren Burger sent to Opperman in 1984 to submit a nomination. And, on at least one occasion, Opperman was consulted on naming the selection committee and on the pool of nominees. Devitt's papers also include a June 22, 1989, draft letter to Opperman saying, in part: "As we figured out in our conversation, the Sixth and Tenth Circuits are the only ones which have not had a recipient or a panel member . . . After we figure out the next appointee from the Supreme Court (I think we agreed that John Paul Stevens would logically be the next one), we might settle on a name from the five circuit judges listed above." Devitt usually corresponded with the selection-committee members to set up meetings to consider the nominations, indicating that Opperman was handling the details and expenses. But Opperman often stepped into the chain of correspondence, writing the panelists to remind them West expected them to fly first class or to invite them for extra activities.