A meeting earlier this month in New York City at the law firm Clifford Chance drew dozens of new volunteer lawyers who attended lectures from other lawyers who have been through the rigorous process of getting the government to allow them access to Guantánamo.

..."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 lawyers reportedly has had a favorable effect on conditions at Guantanamo: interrogations have become less frequent and there are fewer complaints of abuse. It's not all pie and ice cream though:

Some lawyers have said that interrogators at Guantánamo Bay have tried to discourage prisoners from trusting them. They have said that some inmates have been sharply questioned after their lawyers depart and that others have been told they should not trust lawyers who are Jewish.

And lawyers still are unable to accompany their clients to their tribubal hearings. While none of these lawyers' clients have been released, I suspect it's only a matter of time. Kudos to them for making the effort. [link via Raw Story.]