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AGENCIES MAKING ATTORNEY NOMINATIONS

Mr. CASE. I do not want to get the record too cumbersome, but keeping in mind what we had last year, bring that down to date.

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Mr. FAHY. Yes. You will see from that data there is a very wide distributioin geographically; that there is an opportunity now for lawyers to come into the Government service through this method of handling the problem which was unavailable to them before.

Mr. CASE. These appointments you have made: Are they on a temporary basis, or permanent?

Mr. FAHY. They were on a permanent basis up to the time the Civil Service Commission, by reason of the war, made a rule applicable to Government employees generally, and this the Board applied to lawyers; namely, that appointment from then on should be made for the duration of the war and 6 months thereafter.

Mr. CASE. Do these men who have these temporary employments have any priority or do they get any credit in their rating when the register is made up?

Mr. FAHY. No, sir; the register is to be effective for appointments made after the register is set up. Those who have already been appointed have their positions now; but all those who have been appointed since the Board was set up have been subject to the processes of the Board as to their qualifications. That has been, necessarily, on a noncompetitive basis.

Mr. CASE. But their appointment is limited to 6 months after the duration?

Mr. FAHY. That is right.

Mr. FLEMMING. On the same basis as all of the rest of the civilservice employees.

COVERING ATTORNEYS INTO SERVICE UNDER THE RAMSPECK ACT

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Do I understand the Board is confining itself to the $3,200 limit?

Mr. FAHY. No; we are not. We pass on all appointments, but the register only applies to the $3,200; because it has been felt, when you get in the higher grades, there is not such a need for a competitive examination; that through years of experience, age, occupations, and practice in which a man has been engaged, you have from that a better opportunity of judging his qualifications, as has been done in the past, than those recently out of law school, or just out of law school.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. The Board passes on them on a noncompetitive basis?

Mr. FAHY. On a noncompetitive basis.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. To what extent do you pass on the attorneys already in the Federal service?

Mr. FAHY. Since the Board was set up, on a noncompetitive basis. That brings us, if I understand Mr. Wigglesworth's question, to one of the other projects in which the Board has been engaged, that is, the covering in under the Ramspeck Act. The Civil Service Commission, as to the lawyers in the Government service, turned that over to the Board of Legal Examiners. Now they are brought into the classified civil service on the recommendation of the agency with which they have been employed and on the basis of satisfactory work in the agency, subject to noncompetitive examination prescribed by the Civil Service Commission and the Board. Of course, those are the employees pre

viously in the Government service who are eligible to receive permanent civil service status under the Ramspeck Act provisions.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. How many have been covered in and how many have been denied?

Mr. FAHY. That process is not yet complete. The act provided that the reports from the agencies should be in the hands of the Civil Service Commission January 1, 1943.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Šo none of them have been covered in yet?

Mr. FAHY. They are in process of being covered in now; yes, sir. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Could you furnish, on the basis of the work to date, how many you have covered in and how many you have found were not qualified?

Mr. FAHY. Yes.

Mr. FUCHS. I may say approximately 2,800 have been recommended. There may be a few additional recommendations among the nonattorney recommendations received by the Commission, which we have not discovered. We are in the process of working out the noncompetitive examination to which they are to be subjected. Only a handful has been covered in as yet.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Only a handful has been covered in as yet? Mr. FUCHS. Yes.

OPERATION OF REGISTER SYSTEM

Mr. WOODRUM. Now, I am a little confused as to the practical operation of continuing this eligible register as it applies to the $3.200 position. If we were going to assume that all lawyers who were given responsible positions, positions in the brackets above $3,200, were men with years of experience and practice, then I could see that; but what is going to happen to some of our young Harvard friends who, immediately upon graduation, are made general counsel of some department at $9,000? It looks to me like they are going to be in bad shape.

In other words, does it not resolve itself to this, that if a lawyer wants to work for $3,200, or under, he ought to get on this register; but, if he really wants to be a big shot, he should not get on that register, because, if he does, he will probably be classed as one of the lower element?

You know a great many men in the highest legal positions are men who have had practically no practical experience. Now, I am not particularly quarreling with that, because some of those are outstanding men; but it has frequently happened that we have had come before this committee men who were very young and totally inexperienced in practice, who have key positions.

Mr. FAHY. Well, we have made this regulation which we are rigidly establishing, that no one can obtain more than $3,800, which is the top of P-3, without having had at least 3 years' experience. We have at least that much of a check on it. I do think the question of how many grades and how high we should go in the register is an arguable one. We started out with the first register as going up to P-3. It may be we should have, or that we should in the future, extend the register system to a greater percentage of the lawyers.

Mr. WOODRUM. Why not make a register of every lawyer who wants to work for the Federal Government and put him on, regardless of what his experience and qualification has been?

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