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Leaders For Justice New York City Bar Presidents on Pro Bono and Access to Justice Introduction The New York City Bar Association was established in 1870 to support a system of justice grounded in the rule of law and, in accordance with the principles on which our nation was founded and for which many had recently made great sacrifice, accessible to all, not just to those who could, or would, pay for it. As our current president, Patricia M. Hynes, writes in these pages, there is no access to justice without access to legal services. Over the last generation, the City Bar has played a leadership role in inspiring and cajoling the legal profession to acknowledge its responsi- bility, as caretakers of the legal system, to increase access to justice by providing pro bono legal services to those who can’t afford a lawyer. “If your actions inspire others to The leadership of the City Bar has been crucial in building lasting New York City institutions to match clients in need with pro bono attorneys, including Volunteers of Legal Service; dream more, learn more, do more New York Lawyers for the Public Interest; the City Bar Justice Center, which is housed at the City Bar and recruits and trains 1,000 pro bono attorneys annually; and the City Bar’s and become more, you are a leader.” Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice. As an organization made up of leaders, the City Bar has come to expect great things from —John Quincy Adams its own leaders, its successive presidents. They all have in common that they are men and women who rose to the top of their profession and used their position to increase access to justice for the disadvantaged. But they all have their own approach to leadership, their own interests, and their own voice. Pat Hynes invited our past presidents to join with her in contributing short essays expressing their thoughts about pro bono and access to justice. We offer this collection, “Leaders for Justice,” as a window into the minds of the City Bar leaders who conceived and made real the strong pro bono tradition we have in New York, and whose influence is felt across the nation and around the world. We hope their thoughts inspire others to get involved in pro bono and to speak out in support of access to justice for all. Barbara Berger Opotowsky Executive Director of the New York City Bar Lynn M. Kelly Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center Leaders For Justice: New York City Bar Presidents on Pro Bono and Access to Justice | 1 Patricia M. Hynes return to a country where their life may be as custodians of the legal system, to provide President, 2008–2010 in danger, will tell you how important legal pro bono legal services. In 2008, the Vance services have been to them. Center launched the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas, the first Americas-wide Lessons learned from the NYC Know Your statement of a lawyer’s responsibility to Rights project have contributed to a recent provide pro bono legal assistance, and so report by the City Bar’s Immigration and far over 400 lawyers, legal institutions, and Nationality Law Committee supporting non-governmental organizations have signed What a Difference a Lawyer Makes the right to counsel for indigent detainees. the Declaration, pledging to perform pro Characterizing removal proceedings as bono work. “criminal trials in all but name,” and citing If we live by the rule of law, then right to counsel should be seen as a funda- the Supreme Court’s holding in Gideon that “Legal Services” are no less than the very mental right. That’s because our justice system, which is supposed to be a level indigent defendants have a Sixth Amend- means by which the rule of law is imple- playing field, is for all practical purposes inaccessible without legal services. ment right to appointed counsel, the report mented, and an individual’s access to legal argues for this same basic right to be services is a test of whether a society lives Clients often arrive at the City Bar Justice Center after trying to go it alone, extended to immigrants. As Justice Brandeis by the rule of law. wrote more than 80 years ago, removal can and it’s amazing to see what a difference legal representation makes. The Justice result “in loss of both property and life; or Center’s Consumer Bankruptcy Project, for example, handles some 100 bank- of all that makes life worth living.” Right ruptcy filings a year with a virtual 100% success rate. By contrast, the failure to counsel must be considered an integral part of the debate on immigration reform. rate for pro se bankruptcy filings in New York State is a stunning 90%; the sad paradox, of course, is that people filing for bankruptcy usually can’t afford a Like the U.S. Constitution, international covenants and treaties like the International lawyer to help them. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the United Nations Declaration on Human The Justice Center recently teamed up with And yet by law, immigrants have no right Rights, and the International Convention The Legal Aid Society and the American to counsel. Even those with unassailable on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Immigration Lawyers Association to set up claims must leap high language and cultural Discrimination confer basic due process clinics inside the Varick Federal Detention hurdles, and without access to legal services, rights on individuals facing loss of liberty. Facility for detained immigrants through the what chance do those detainees have? Plenty The Vance Center for International Justice NYC Know Your Rights Project. Having of immigrants who have lived here for many at the City Bar has led an increasing global counseled over 150 detainees, we discovered years and who, through a lawyer’s successful awareness of the fundamental right to that over one-third of them had some basis involvement, have narrowly escaped the counsel and the moral obligation of lawyers, for relief. breaking up of their families, or their forced 2 | Leaders For Justice: New York City Bar Presidents on Pro Bono and Access to Justice Leaders For Justice: New York City Bar Presidents on Pro Bono and Access to Justice | 3 Barry M. Kamins To address these issues, I formed the Reentry Finally, I formed a Task Force on Enhancing Law Project to provide legal services to Employment Opportunities for the Previ- President, 2006–2008 persons with criminal records who are victims ously Incarcerated. This stellar group, led by of the hidden and collateral consequences former President Michael Cooper, identified of having a criminal record. The project the barriers that previously incarcerated recruited attorneys from large law firms to persons face when seeking work in the legal assist previously incarcerated individuals in sector and elsewhere and determined ways rectifying errors on their criminal history to surmount them. The Task Force concept arrest sheets. These errors had the potential was recommended by the Pipeline Initiative, Justice for All at the City Bar of preventing individuals from obtaining a consortium of individuals in the legal, meaningful employment and suitable financial services, and business communities As a new City Bar President in 2006, I was mindful of former President housing. The project later produced a Small who pool their talents to help reverse the Conrad Harper’s thoughtful and eloquent observation about our bar Business Toolkit, a 50-page publication joblessness and incarceration among young association: “If our heart as an association is in the profession, our soul providing New Yorkers with an overview of black men. The Task Force report suggests legal issues that may arise for persons with that employment barriers may be heightened is in pro bono work.” Indeed, over the last forty years, many presidents criminal convictions who want to start a by the failure of employers to understand have focused on a particular niche of civil legal services and successfully business or move forward with a business they the laws under which they operate, as well as recruited law firms to provide pro bono service to diverse communities. have already begun. The booklet also maps employers’ generalized misperceptions about out steps for planning and starting a business job applicants with conviction histories. and for obtaining the necessary licenses. As I surveyed the legal landscape in 2006, I convictions, but firms had not routinely During my presidency, I believe I took a small noted that former presidents had recruited offered to represent criminal defendants in In an effort to create a dialogue on reentry but important step to sensitize our members volunteers to render service in such areas as collateral civil matters. In addition, when within the legal community, I convened a to pro bono issues in the criminal justice housing, bankruptcy, immigration, matri- attempting to recruit volunteers, it is fair to program at which Professor Bruce Western system. Hopefully, the seeds have been monial matters, family law, and consumer say that, from a volunteer’s point of view, of Harvard University presented his evalua- planted for future presidents to expand these law. However, as a former prosecutor and defendants in criminal cases present more tion of the Prisoner Reentry Program of projects. The New York City Bar Association, criminal defense attorney, I sought to focus of a challenge than many other groups. the Kings County District Attorney. The with more than 23,000 members from all the resources of the City Bar Association for panelists included Jeremy Travis, President corners of the legal profession, is uniquely Bearing this in mind, I focused on the most the first time on pro bono activities in the of John Jay College, and Professor Charles situated to address this vital topic.

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