Posted: Feb. 28, 2003

BILL LEE GETS WORK

By Celia Cohen

Grapevine Political Writer

William Swain Lee has decided to get a job in addition to being a Republican candidate for governor.

A retired Superior Court judge, Lee will join the Wilmington law firm of Bifferato Bifferato & Gentilotti next week, working alongside Vincent A. Bifferato Sr., another ex-judge and old friend, in the growing and lucrative field of mediation where disputes are resolved before going to court.

"I'll be up in the old men's wing," quipped Lee, who is 67. "This is something that is such a perfect and easy fit."

Lee's new situation is one of those things that seem to occur only in Delaware, where there often are no degrees of separation and people who ought not to be together are -- and amicably so. While there is nothing unusual about a pair of old colleagues like Lee and Bifferato getting back together, this is Delaware, and it is much more complicated than that.

Lee and Bifferato both were respected Superior Court resident judges, the administrators of their courthouses in Sussex County and New Castle County, respectively. Lee retired in 1999 and Bifferato in 2000.

Lee is a Republican. Bifferato is a Democrat.

Lee left the bench to plunge back into politics. He lost the Republican nomination for governor in 2000 by 46 votes but kept plugging and turned himself into the party's frontrunner to take on Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, a first-term Democrat, in 2004.

Bifferato headed for the family law firm, where his sons Connor and Vincent Jr. are, and established himself immediately as a premier mediator. With Lee's arrival, the firm will have 10 lawyers, Connor Bifferato said.

As for the political arrangements at the firm, they are convoluted. Connor Bifferato is a member of Minner's campaign finance committee. Another lawyer who recently joined the firm is Carl Schnee, a Democrat who came close to unseating Republican Attorney General M. Jane Brady in the 2002 election. Lee supported Brady in that race, but there remains a possibility that Brady could challenge Lee for the gubernatorial nomination.

Got all of that? "You have very strong Democratic supporters, and you have the Republican candidate for governor, and we're all friends," Connor Bifferato said.

What has yet to be resolved is the matter of campaign donations -- with the possibility of lawyers who have contributed to Lee or Minner or to Schnee or Brady turning to the firm for mediation.

"I don't see it as a factor," Lee said. "Mediators are not assigned. They're selected by the parties [in a legal dispute], and it has to be someone that both sides agree on."

Connor Bifferato agreed, saying the situation can be resolved by disclosure and informed decision-making. Furthermore, any lawyer who is concerned could go elsewhere, say, to Vincent A. Poppiti, who is resigning next month as the Family Court chief judge for a mediation practice at Blank Rome in Wilmington.

Lee will have a flexible schedule, allowing him to make his campaign his top priority. He expects to assume the bulk of the firm's downstate caseload in mediation. He also plans to keep his Rehoboth Beach residence and commute upstate frequently, just as he has been doing for his candidacy. He also has plenty of family upstate with guest rooms for him.

Lee was wooed to the job by Bifferato Sr. "It's fun for Biff, and he's told me that over and over again," Lee said.

The money doesn't hurt, either. Mediation services at the firm go for $300 an hour, Lee said. The governor earns $114,000 a year. "My first comment was, I can't afford to be governor," Lee quipped.

That would be fine with the firm. "I hope that's the case. I hope he decides to make the Bifferato boys rich," Connor Bifferato said.

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