Critic of Lawyer Jokes Gets Guard

California State Bar President Harvey Saferstein said Monday that his denunciation of lawyer-bashing has generated so many threats that his firm has stationed a bodyguard outside his Century City law office.

“The calls are in the dozens, and the letters have got to be in the dozens too,” said Saferstein, who spoke out this month after a gunman killed eight people at a San Francisco law firm and then committed suicide.

“Most of them say . . . ‘San Francisco was a good start’ and things like that.”

In a series of news conferences, Saferstein contended that the vilification of lawyers in the media and in society overall has placed members of his profession in danger. Calling for a moratorium on lawyer jokes and other forms of disparagement, Saferstein said attacks on lawyers should be punished as hate crimes.

The proposals were widely criticized by the public as overreaction and received little visible support within the legal profession. But at Irell & Manella, where Saferstein works, the reaction was more menacing, he and others said.

Lawrence Goldenhersh, a member of the firm’s executive committee, said that in the days after Saferstein’s comment, the firm was besieged with voice mail messages and letters that “were sufficiently mean-spirited that we thought it appropriate to take precautions.”

Goldenhersh would not elaborate, but Saferstein said the firm had, among other things, hired an extra security guard, who is stationed outside his office.