Lawyer

Only in the NFL. The selection of the "special master" - a lawyer designated to settle disputes over professional football's labor agreement - can come down to a coin toss, according to the fine print in the collective-bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. The union and the league must both approve the special master before he gets the job. If they can't find a candidate they both want, the president of the American Bar Association is asked to provide a list of 11 lawyers.

The historic and tragic impeachment trial of U.S. District Judge Harry E. Claiborne is over. Oscar B. Goodman, his chief legal counsel, has appeared on television from coast to coast. His name has appeared in newspapers throughout the nation, however, none of our local news media has taken note of the fact that he was born, raised and educated in the Philadelphia area. Here is a skilled lawyer who combines that scholarship of a Sam Dash, the forensic skills of F. Lee Bailey and the poise of a Melvin Belli.

For the first time in recent memory, Republicans in Radnor Township will have a primary fight in a commissioner's race. Margaret G. "Mardie" Zehner, 58, a lawyer, announced Wednesday that she had filed for the May 16 primary to run against Second Ward Commissioner Clinton A. Stuntebeck. "A lot of people in the background have encouraged me to run," said Zehner, "and I think it's time for a change. " Zehner said her volunteer work with the Parent Teachers Association, Little League, Cub Scouts and as former president of the League of Women Voters gives her broad experience to represent constituents.

The lawyers were gathering. By yesterday morning, so many of them were in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that the judge had to move them to a room twice as large. That courtroom quickly filled up, too. Packing four rows of benches and lining the back and a side of the room were nearly 100 lawyers and a discreet scattering of FBI agents. And the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy's bankruptcy case was only four days old. "My god, they're bringing them in on the Metroliner!" exclaimed one lawyer, his furled golf umbrella in tow. As the lawyers were ushered into the larger room, they hailed one another - one referring to the members of the group from Manhattan simply as "the 212s," their area code.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson or Charles Sumner Stone or one of those philosophers who told us "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. " The purported statespersons who are members of City Council are being divinely foolish these days. They also seem to be consistently confusing. Some hire their sons, daughters or wives to help in their offices. When told that this practice (which most people call nepotism)

The definition of the term Philadelphia lawyer is not quite as clear-cut as it might be. In part, it dates back to 1735 when a lawyer from the big city of Philadelphia announced that he would defend a small-town newspaper publisher against a stacked court. The town was New York, the lawyer Andrew Hamilton, the publisher John Peter Zenger - and the acquittal of Zenger helped create the principle of free expression in America. Somewhere along the line, though, the image of the Philadelphia lawyer acquired a mixture of something else.

The courtroom was packed yesterday for closing arguments in the attempted- murder trial of Mari Molasky, accused of shooting her lawyer in a Bucks County parking lot. Some of the observers were there because they were related to Molasky or to her victim, William Eastburn III. But many more were there to see a closing face-off between the two high- profile and entertaining lawyers in the case. The latter crowd wasn't disappointed. Both lawyers - one A. Charles Peruto Jr., a self-described "slick, Philadelphia lawyer," and the other, Bucks County District Attorney Alan Rubenstein, a dapper, chain-smoking prosecutor whose monogrammed cuffs stick out just the right distance from his tailored blue suit - put on good shows.

The family of Danny Rumph, the college basketball player who collapsed and died after a pickup game Sunday night on a Philadelphia playground, has retained a lawyer to investigate his death. "We intend to gather all of the facts and make a determination as to whether there were parties who must be held accountable for Danny's death," Thomas R. Kline, a prominent Center City personal-injury lawyer, said last night. The fire department responded as quickly as it was able, according to Executive Chief Daniel Williams, the department spokesman.

A Philadelphia lawyer who specialized in civil litigation was told yesterday that he could no longer practice law after he pleaded guilty to defrauding a South Jersey client of $57,000. Kenneth Gross, 40, of Thornton, Delaware County, admitted before U.S. District Judge Mary Little Parell in Trenton yesterday that he fraudulently obtained the money and transported it across state lines. Federal prosecutors said Gross settled a case without his client's permission and then forged the check and took the money for his own use. His license will be formally revoked Aug. 7. In addition to losing his license to practice law, Gross faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

While sitting for several years on a state Supreme Court board that disciplines lawyers, attorney Jerome J. Verlin was helping some clients rip off an insurance company, a prosecutor said yesterday. "His conduct was deplorable," Assistant DA Steven Hyman told Common Pleas Judge Gene D. Cohen. Cohen agreed, and sentenced the prominent civil lawyer to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison, fined him $90,000, and ordered him to pay $15,000 in restitution to the Aetna Insurance Co. The judge allowed Verlin to remain free on bail pending appeal.