Historic Roundtable With Supreme Court Clerks From Brown v. Board to Take Place at Jackson Center

    JAMESTOWN, N.Y., April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For the first time
 since the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of
 Education, four of the Supreme Court clerks whose justices played significant
 roles in the historic court case will participate in a roundtable discussion
 on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 at the Carl Cappa Theater of the Robert H.
 Jackson Center in Jamestown, N.Y.  The roundtable discussion is part of a
 series of events and activities taking place at the Jackson Center and other
 venues in Chautauqua County in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the
 historic Supreme Court decision.
     "While judges ultimately make decisions, the clerks that assist them are
 the ones behind the scenes collecting and disseminating the information
 firsthand," Morgan G. Graham, Managing Partner, Phillips Lytle said.  "In this
 instance, we will hear from the clerks that served some of the most
 recognizable and influential members in the history of the United States
 Supreme Court as well as one of the High Court's most important rulings that
 forever changed our nation."
     Scheduled to participate in the roundtable discussion are former United
 States Supreme Court clerks Earl E. Pollack (Law Clerk to Chief Justice Earl
 Warren), Frank E.A. Sander (Law Clerk to Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter),
 E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. (Law Clerk to Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson)
 and John D. Fassett (Law Clerk to Associate Justice Stanley Foreman Reed).
     Earl E. Pollack Esq., a native of Sioux City, Iowa, is a graduate of the
 University of Minnesota and Northwestern University School of Law.  He became
 law clerk to Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson in the summer of 1953 and remained
 in that capacity following the Chief Justice's sudden death that September
 under Chief Justice Earl Warren for the Supreme Court's October Terms 1953 and
 1954.  Pollack subsequently was an attorney in the Antitrust Division of the
 U.S. Department of Justice and then an Assistant to the Solicitor General of
 the United States.
     Frank E. A. Sander, Esq., who was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1927, came
 to the United States in 1940 and later served in the U.S. Army.  He graduated
 from Brookline (MA) High School, Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where
 he was treasurer of the Harvard Law Review.  From 1952 to 1953, he was clerk
 to Chief Judge Calvert Magruder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First
 Circuit and, during the Supreme Court's October Term 1953, he was a law clerk
 to Associate Judge Felix Frankfurter.  Mr. Sander subsequently was an attorney
 in the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and then in private law
 practice in Boston.  He currently is Director of the Harvard Law School
 Program on Dispute Resolution.
     E. Barrett Prettyman Jr., Esq., a Washington D.C. native, is a graduate of
 Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was
 Decisions Editor of the Virginia Law Review, Moot Court winner and best Law
 Review Note winner.  He served as law clerk for Associate Justice Robert H.
 Jackson during the Supreme Court's October Terms 1953 and 1954 and, upon the
 Justice's death in October 1954, clerked for Associate Justices Felix
 Frankfurter and John M. Harlan, successively.  Mr. Prettyman subsequently
 joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson in Washington and left
 the firm for a short time to serve as Special Assistant to the Attorney
 General and to the White House during the Kennedy Administration.
     John D. Fassett, Esq., a native of East Hampton, New York, left college in
 1943 to serve in the U.S. Army Corps.  After graduating from the University of
 Rochester in 1948, Fassett went to work for the Aetna Casualty and Surety
 Company in Buffalo.  In 1949, Mr. Fassett began studies at Yale Law School,
 but in June 1950 he was recalled to military service at the outset of the
 Korean War.  He returned to Yale in September 1951, became an editor of the
 Yale Law Journal, and upon graduation in 1953, was awarded the Robbins Prize
 for attaining the highest grades.  In June 1953, he became law clerk to
 Associate Justice Stanley Foreman Reed and served through the Supreme Court's
 October 1953 Term.
     "This is truly history in the making," Gregory L. Peterson, Board
 President, Robert H. Jackson Center and a partner at Phillips Lytle LLP said.
 "Similar to the visit last year by United States Supreme Court Justice William
 Rehnquist, the Jackson Center continues to bring together the best and
 brightest from the American legal system."
     The roundtable begins at 10:30 a.m. and is free to the public.  However,
 anyone attending the discussion is asked to be inside the Carl Cappa Theater
 by 10:00 a.m.
     The Robert H. Jackson Center Inc. is a non-profit organization formed in
 2001 to celebrate the life and legacy of Jamestown resident and United States
 Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. The mission of the Center is to
 advance the legacy of Justice Jackson through education, exhibitory, and by
 pursuing the relevance of his ideas for our present generation.
     For more information about the 50th anniversary events and activities or
 to learn more about The Robert H. Jackson Center please visit
 www.roberthjackson.org or call 716-483-6646.  Event sponsors include Phillips
 Lytle, HSBC Bank, National Fuel Gas and the Northern Chautauqua Community
 Foundation.
 
      CONTACT:  Rebecca E. Farbo
                Phillips Lytle
                716-847-8307
                Gregory L. Peterson
                716-483-5172
 
 

SOURCE  Phillips Lytle LLP