Black lawyers rare at Supreme Court

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Black lawyers rare at Supreme Court

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 53 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Coming soon to the Supreme Court: a rare appearance by a black lawyer. More than a year has passed since a black lawyer in private practice stood at the lectern in the elegant courtroom and spoke the traditional opening line, "Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the court."

Drew Days III, solicitor general in the Clinton administration, planned on Monday to argue a case on behalf of a shuttered brokerage firm that is seeking to recover $4.5 million in losses. Days, who splits his time between the Morrison & Foerster firm and Yale Law School, is one of the few black lawyers who regularly represent clients at the high court.

"Not many lawyers of color end up in the Supreme Court and most of those who do are in the area of civil rights litigation," said Robert Harris, who argued once before the court in his career as a lawyer for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

"We don't have as many of those cases as we used to so clearly that opportunity is not there for many African-American lawyers," said Harris, who is black.

Entire article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071028/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_black_lawyers;_ylt=AhmQDi8d82AvSXROBobMPbus0NUE