We don't know what to say about this....it is certainly very unpleasant news at a crucial time and could cause too much diversion from the real issue: keeping the Barnes and the Art in Merion....

Lawyer no friend of group
Friends of the Barnes Foundation fires Schwartz as sides trade barbs
By Cheryl Allison

There's nothing friendly about the latest legal twist in the Friends of the Barnes Foundation's quest to keep the renowned art collection in Merion.In a bitter split, the organization this week fired its outspoken attorney.

He's firing back, saying that the group, some of whose members are wealthy Main Liners, have stiffed him on a bill for legal services that has mounted to $100,000.

"I signed on making it very clear that I have charitable causes of my own and this was not one of them. I represent a number of truly needy people who have experienced true hardship," Mark Schwartz wrote in an e-mail to a reporter, referring to the parting of the ways. "The Friends of the Barnes legal committee with their mansions and Ferraris don't fit the profile." He added later by phone that the comments he said in the e-mail were for publication.

In an interview, Dr. Walter Herman, a spokesman for the Friends group, said he could not comment in detail, because Schwartz has said he may sue for payment.

But Herman confirmed that the group has dismissed the lawyer. "We wrote him a note a couple of days ago," Herman said Tuesday, "and said that, because of an on-going fee dispute, we were terminating his services."

Herman said the organization is seeking a new attorney, and may be able to announce a name as soon as the end of this week.

The dismissal comes just two weeks before a deadline for the Friends and Montgomery County to file responses to briefs filed last month by the Barnes Foundation's board of trustees and board member Stephen J. Harmelin.

It was partly because of developments surrounding that deadline that Herman said the Friends group decided to discharge Schwartz. The initial deadline Ott set for filing of the briefs was Dec. 19. But Herman said that, without notifying his clients, Schwartz had asked for and received an extension to the end of the year to file the document.

On Dec. 12, Friends member Jay Raymond sent a letter to Ott, requesting a conference without Schwartz's presence. In the letter, Raymond tells the judge that "telephone calls [to Schwartz] have gone unreturned and e-mails have either been ignored or answered unresponsively." Friends were left "wondering whether he intended to file the brief in support of our petition."

Raymond wrote that the group was concerned that Schwartz's "continued participation in the case before the court is destined to have a material effect upon our fervent cause."

Schwartz said Raymond "misrepresented the facts." He said he did respond to the "constant" calls and e-mails, which he characterized as "harassment."He said he asked for the extension because he was dealing with a family medical crisis.....It's the second time in the most recent flurry of activity on the Barnes move that Schwartz has been on, then off, the case. Until shortly before the Friends group filed its petition in late August, the attorney had also represented Montgomery County in the matter. But he withdrew before the county could fire him over differences in approach.

The county solicitor's office has handled the matter since that time, submitting a petition that focused on "changed circumstances" and new information as reasons for Ott to take a new look at the case. Schwartz's petition for the Friends argues the same points, but adds accusations of a "conspiracy" among powerful supporters of the move of the Barnes's art to the city.....