Seattle lawyers defend bin Laden's driver

SEATTLE, May 27 (UPI) -- An A-list Seattle law firm with a list of big corporations as clients will represent Osama bin Laden's former driver at his trial this summer, the firm said.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday that the Seattle firm of Perkins Coie will defend Salim Ahmed Hamdan against war crimes at his July trial. He is held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Perkins partners Harry Schneider and Joe McMillan decided to take the case pro-bono four years ago after receiving a call from Georgetown Law Professor Neal Katyal and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who allegedly was asked by a supervisor to get Hamdan to plead guilty.

They asked McMillan to take the case.

McMillan said he felt he had "to stand up and participate in an effort to rein in" President Bush. "I thought he was ... running roughshod" over U.S. and international law.

"I count it as a privilege to work on a case that in my view will redeem the United States as a country committed to the rule of law," said McMillan, who earns $575 an hour and estimates spending 1,430 hours on the case.

Perkins Coie "stepped up" when no other law firm would, Swift said. "Now everyone in New York has a detainee."