In Rising Numbers, Lawyers Head for Guant�namo Bay - New York Times

In Rising Numbers, Lawyers Head for Guant�namo Bay - New York Times: "The increase in lawyers for Guant�namo detainees was set in motion last June when the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration and said the prisoners there were entitled to challenge their detentions in federal courts.
The rate at which lawyers have stepped forward for the task may be a reflection of the changing public attitudes about Guant�namo Bay and its mission.
'In the beginning, just after 9/11, we couldn't get anybody,' said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a group based in New York that is coordinating the assigning of lawyers to prisoners. The earliest volunteers, Mr. Ratner said, were those who regularly handled death-penalty clients and were accustomed to representing the reviled in near-hopeless cases.
But in recent months, some of the nation's largest and most prominent firms have enlisted in the effort and devoted considerable resources to it, including Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr; Clifford Chance; Covington & Burling; Dorsey & Whitney; and Allen & Overy.
'People are now eager to take this on,' Mr. Ratner said. The law firms are bearing all the expenses, he said.
The influx of defense lawyers at Guant�namo Bay also seems to have had some impact on the character of the detention facility. Some of the lawyers say that it was likely a factor in the authorities' decision to end most of the interrogations in recent months. In addition, some lawyers and human rights officials say that the lawyers' presence has reduced reports of abusive treatment by guards and interrogators that previously were the subject of complaints from the Red Cross and the F.B.I.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey C. Miller, who was the commander of the base for nearly three years"