Nexsen Pruet, Memminger, and Buttered Bread

Hooray for Memminger Elementary School! It has been discovered by the Nexsen Pruet Law Firm. [See Law Firm Discovers School Neighbor.] According to the May 12th article in the P & C,

"Memminger Elementary needed 280 sharpened pencils, 140 water bottles, yogurt and peppermints for the upcoming PACT test. The school wanted to put on a science fair later this month and needed display boards and ribbons for the winners. The administration wanted to recognize its volunteers for their hard work this year with a picnic. And there was something else Memminger was in dire need of.

"One thing we were in desperate need of is a (public addess) system, because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," said Principal Diane Ross.

"The answer to their prayers was right down the street, less than half a mile away.

"Ric Tapp, one of the litigation partners at Nexsen Pruet, told student support specialist Leah Hambright and Memminger's parent educator Maurice Johnson that he thought people who worked at his firm would be interested in helping the elementary school reach some of its educational goals. Johnson and Hambright put together a successful presentation for several lawyers, and about a week later, they had everything on the wish list.

"When these two gave their presentation... we had seasoned lawyers in tears," said Chris Ogiba, a lawyer at the firm.

[snip]

"Ogiba said many of his co-workers didn't know that Memminger was such a close neighbor, but now he feels the relationship between the school and the firm will only strengthen.

"Everyone [at the firm] wanted to make sure this is just the beginning," he said. "We're in it for the long haul. ... We're neighbors."

Everyone has a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling now, right?? That was on May 12th.

Five days later, CCSD announced that it had finally hired its promised in-house lawyer. The cynical among us know what's coming next, don't we?

"John Emerson has been hired as the district's new staff attorney. Emerson practices in Nexsen Pruet's Columbia office as a part of the employment and labor law group and the business litigation group."

Frankly, I'm glad to see that someone at Nexsen Pruet knew which side its bread was buttered on and thought it wise to help Memminger out.

Coincidence, you say? Sure, just about as much of a coincidence as the resignation of Rusty Thomas the day before the fire report came out.

Note: Thanks to a sharp-eyed reader for putting two and two together for me. As this person has said so succinctly,

One would think that a law firm as rich and powerful as this one and with designs on taking over the CCSD contract would have been (a.) less obvious in the choice of its beneficiary; (b.) more generous so as not to look "niggardly;" (c.) careful to avoid the appearance that it has been oblivious to Memminger's plight for over forty years; and (d.) gone the extra step of setting up a Non-profit to provide for continuing donations to and fund-raising for this school.

Of course, the money could have been donated to the school anonymously through http://www.donorschoose.org rather than directly to the school in a public manner. But then Nexen, Pruet would not have received the free publicity.