16 Law School Students Picket `Union-Busting' Houston Firm

About 16 members of the Harvard Labor Law Project (HLLP) picketed outside the Charles Hotel yesterday to protest the alleged union-busting practices of one of the law firms interviewing Law School students.

The picket line was intended to inform students of the firm's "unethical practices," not to dissuade them from interviewing, said HLLP member Joe Kohanski. The picketed firm, the Houston-based Fulbright and Jaworski, is but one of eight law firms currently boycotted by the HLLP, a group of 20 Law School students.

Frank G. Jones, a representative from Fulbright and Jowalski, said that despite a high number of no-shows, he didn't think the picket line had an effect on the number of interviews. He said he thought the appointments which were not kept had been sche- duled by the boycotters in an effort to limitthe number of legitimate interviews the firm couldconduct.

But according to HLLP member Michael Dzialo,"Nobody interfered with the interviewing processon behalf of the Harvard Labor Law Project."

Yesterday's rally was the first concertedpicketing effort by the HLLP, although membershave held similar protests at the recruitingsessions of the other boycotted firms earlier thisyear.

"We're concentrating our efforts on thispicket, since more people are free on Wednesdays,but we've done a little light-weight picketing forthe other firms on our boycott list," Kohanskisaid.

Almost 250 students at the Law School havesigned a pledge not to interview with theboycotted firms. "We see ourselves as a source ofinformation. Judging from the support I'd saywe're getting our message across," Kohanski said.

One firm did not hold recruiting interviewsbecause of the boycott. Robert Kopp of Bond,Schoeneck and King in Syracuse, New York, said"several people signed up, then cancelled becauseof the boycott. Only one person was left, so wecancelled."

Five other boycotted firms conducted recruitingsessions, but representatives said fewer studentssigned up for interviews. Only one, theChicago-based Vedder, Price, Kaufman and Kamholtz,had "one of its best interviewing years,"according to representative Ed Jepson. "We sawmore people, and better people than we have in thepast five years."

"I assume the boycott has had some effect, butit's hard to say how much. It doesn't affect theoverall interviewing patterns of our students,"said June Thompson, a staff member at the LawSchool Placement Office