FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             97-56



             Lawyers Organize to Fight "Pay to Play"



     Washington, D.C., July 3, 1997 -- Securities and Exchange
Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt today hailed the actions of The
Lawyers Committee to End "Pay-to-Play," formed under the Honorary
Chairmanship of Judge William T. Webster.

     Chairman Levitt said: "Our nation's lawyers now face the
task of ending pay-to-play. Joining these leading lawyers in
calling for an end to the practice is a good place to begin. I
trust and hope they will heed our call."

     The Committee has organized to call upon the American Bar
Association and local bar groups across the country to take
measures to end the practice known as "pay-to-play."  Pay to play
by lawyers is the making of political contributions to elected
officials of local governments to influence the award of
contracts for legal services in connection with the offering of
local government debt.

     Judge Webster is joined on the Committee by the Honorable
William T. Allen, James R. Doty, Stephen J. Friedman, Michael J.
Halloran, John M. Liftin, John F. Olson and Elliot L. Richardson.

     Judge Webster said, in connection with the announcement:
"The practice known as `pay-to-play' brings discredit upon the
legal profession.  We are asking lawyers across the country to
join us in calling upon the American Bar Association and state
bar associations to promptly address the need to develop and
adopt rules prohibiting the practice of lawyers making political
contributions in order to obtain municipal securities business.
Such practices have already been effectively prohibited in the
brokerage and investment banking professions."

     The Committee is writing to lawyers inviting them to join in
signing a resolution. Over thirty of the country's leading
lawyers have signed the resolution calling upon the various
national, state and local bar organizations and authorities to
recognize the impropriety of lawyers and law firms engaging in
such practices, and to endorse in principle the condemnation of
pay to play.

     The American Bar Association is scheduled to take up the
matter this August at their annual meeting in San Francisco.


Contact at the SEC:
Paul Maco (202) 942-7300
Director, Office of Municipal Securities