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. criminal justice system. This presented a important challenge facing defendants who Ogletree of Harvard University. President unique challenge for a number of reasons. have completed their jail sentences: reentry. Travis noted in his comments that night Each year in New York State, thousands of that it was unusual, and refreshing, to have First, while law firms had traditionally been individuals are released from state prison and a discussion at the New York City Bar called upon to provide pro bono civil legal face a host of problems including housing Association about reentry, recidivism, and services, they rarely had been recruited to and employment. Nine out of 10 parole unemployment of the previously incarcerated. render free legal services to those accused violators are unemployed, and unemploy- of crimes. A few firms had represented ment may in fact be the most serious of all defendants in their appeals of criminal contributors to the high rate of recidivism.

4 | 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 | 5 Bettina B. Plevan largest law firms in the City became President, 2004–2006 signatories. These principles went beyond those previously adopted by other organiza- tions and not only describe categories of pro bono work and targets for the number of hours to be performed, but outline the elements of successful pro bono programs.

The City Bar is able to have such an effective Experience, Diversity, and Leadership leadership role in pro bono by harnessing the energy, enthusiasm, and diversity of Soon after I became President of the New York City Bar in 2004, I learned its 23,000 members. Many legal services firsthand what lawyers can accomplish for the public good. Based on the City organizations are forced to focus their Bar’s experience in providing pro bono legal services for victims of 9/11, we recruiting efforts on large law firms for the sake of efficiency. But the City Bar has were well prepared to offer help in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We began the ability to develop programs for all its by bringing together representatives of law firms, corporate legal departments, members, many of whom are solo practi- and the non-profit legal services organizations within the city to discuss what tioners or work in small or mid-size firms. Being able to create programs that appeal we could do. We provided legal services organizations and volunteers with to this wide pool of lawyers allows us to extensive information about our 9/11 experience and volunteered to work assemble a virtual army of legal services on matters affecting the Gulf region. We offered space to lawyers who were providers on behalf of the public good. The Association’s leadership has endeavored to displaced, offered to help displaced children apply late for school, and helped widen this pool by encouraging corporations displaced families obtain housing, medical care, social services, and many to adopt pro bono programs of all varieties other needs. To me, the City Bar’s response to Katrina was a classic example to help New Yorkers in need. Each year now at the City Bar Justice Center Gala, we of how an organization can provide leadership for many who want to help celebrate the accomplishments of the pro but just do not know how to go about doing it on their own. bono programs of corporate law departments as well as of law firms. Highlighting the

Similar leadership was reflected in the City project, the Bankruptcy and Restructuring work of pioneers points the way for others Bar Justice Center’s pro bono bankruptcy Committee has greatly helped the bankruptcy to follow. project, which was started in 2004, long courts handle its increasing number of before the current economic crisis. We consumer bankruptcies and pro se filings. I am particularly pleased to share my facilitated the implementation of special thoughts about pro bono as a newly appoint- rules and procedures, agreed to by the I’m pleased that during my time as Presi- ed member of the ABA Standing Committee bench and bar, on conflict waivers allowing dent, the City Bar’s Committee on Pro Bono on Pro Bono and Public Service, where a financial institution’s big-firm lawyers and Public Service adopted the Pro Bono I hope to share much of what I learned to volunteer their services. Through this Principles, to which more than 20 of the through my work at the New York City Bar Association.

6 | 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 | 7 E. Leo Milonas invasion of Iraq, urging attention to human rights and the security of women and girls in President, 2002–2004 Afghanistan, and urging that we structure a credible justice system in Iraq.

When our members were not occupied in addressing these critical problems, they found the time to focus on many other important issues: same sex marriage, firearm Justice Depends on Pro Bono regulation, gender related asylum claims, cloning, inappropriate use of Liberty I came to the Presidency of the City Bar from a career mainly in public service, Bonds, campaign finance reform, judicial serving for 27 years on the trial and appellate bench and as the State’s Chief selection, human rights in Hong Kong, Sarbanes-Oxley reform issues, diversity Administrative Judge. From the vantage point of the courts I have seen the in the legal profession, and the financial invaluable contributions that our profession renders, day to day, to the indigent well-being of the City Bar. of our society and the cause of justice. This is an important avenue where our I have outlined just a smattering of the hot profession uses its special training and skills to “give back” and at the same time issues confronted by our members during to reap the very special personal satisfaction that comes with helping others. my brief tenure as president as an example of the many projects offered by the City

As President of the City Bar, I have seen the and Habib v. Bush), and we filed an amicus Bar to indulge one’s pro bono interests. I many other opportunities the City Bar offers brief in Padilla v. Rumsfeld. Well before the have found that there is no more rewarding our profession for pro bono service, depend- waterboarding conflict, the City Bar issued experience than working with your colleagues ing on one’s individual interests and motiva- a report analyzing the legal standards at the bar, and (while making new friends) tion, and the ever-changing call to service. governing the interrogation of detainees. seeing your work, training, and skills make In the immigration area, in addition to a contribution to society and a difference I have seen our members respond to the human trafficking and asylum projects, in the world. aftermath of the 9/11 crisis and the over- the City Bar established a pro bono project reaching of the “war on terror,” when our response to the INS special registration members addressed the troubling issues program targeting men from Muslim and involving our security, our liberties, and our Arab countries and provided pro bono commitment to international law. The City counsel in deportation hearings that Bar was the only general membership bar resulted. City Bar committees drafted letters association in the U.S. to file amicus to President Bush advising that we follow briefs to the Supreme Court on behalf of international law and discouraging the two Guantanamo detainees (Rasul v. Bush

8 | 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 | 9 specialties, but not wanting a victim to have It is also often outcome determinative to the to travel from lawyer to lawyer, we developed actual realization of rights provided by law. Evan A. Davis in the midst of crisis a holistic response to Without actual realization, the rule of law President, 2000–2002 legal needs. By providing pro bono counsel becomes a fraud. Finally, having a lawyer can with access to specialized legal support, just be outcome determinative to the success of as if he or she were a member of a large firm, the small business initiatives that are a key a single attorney could assist a client with all source of upward mobility and economic of his or her legal needs. justice in our country.

We should not forget that an important This gatekeeper role is the main source of First Responders for Justice part of the City Bar’s response to September our profession’s pro bono obligation. Because 11th was our work to prevent that despicable we control access, because we have exclusive It was my great privilege to serve as City Bar President during the days too attack from becoming an excuse to depart marketing rights to the legal services that terrible to dwell on, when the lawyers of New York, led by the City Bar, from the rule of law. As the lawyers for the bring justice, we have a duty to ensure that most immediate victims of the attack, our the justice system works for all. We are like responded to the civic emergency of September 11, 2001. Our city had insistence that weakening the command the fire department that controls the fire been gravely wounded, many were dead and many more displaced from of the Constitution would not strengthen hose and has no choice but to respond. their homes or places of work. Urgent and often novel legal needs abounded, our ability to fight terrorism carried great The Mayor didn’t wait for us to volunteer credibility. As City Bar President, I led the on September 11th, and he was right not requiring the creation of, and navigation through, new emergency regulations. successful fight in the ABA House of to do so. To represent the injured and displaced and the families of the dead, lawyers Delegates against the Bush Administration’s had to be found, trained, and coordinated. Even before we had a chance plan for military tribunals that would have been unconfined by the principles of the to get organized and volunteer, the Mayor announced on the morning of Code of Military Justice and would have September 12th that the City Bar would be making pro bono lawyers available operated outside of any judicial oversight. the following day. Lawyers are sometimes called gatekeepers, and we often don’t like that phrase because Fortunately, finding lawyers was no problem. chance to address all the lawyers who had of its connotation of liability and betrayal of In a remarkable staff effort of rapid response, come together to help. That outpouring client confidences. But the fact remains that, we immediately organized a training at the of pro bono will be remembered not just thanks in large part to the privilege, we are House of the Association. A great overflow because so many from the New York City most often able to keep our clients out of of lawyers showed up to be trained, with Bar wanted to help but also because our trouble and thereby promote the rule of law. the line extending through the lobby, out help as lawyers was critically needed. And there is one area where we are clearly the door, and down the block and onto gatekeepers—the gates of access to justice. Sixth Avenue. Chief Judge Kaye was in the As is typical of the City Bar, we performed Having a lawyer has time and again been building meeting with Bar leadership from our emergency legal response role in a shown to be outcome determinative when New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut groundbreaking way. Realizing that the individuals face a legal crisis such as eviction. about the crisis, and therefore had the clients’ legal problems would span many

10 | 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 | 11 Michael A. Cooper future. I learned this bitter truth when Chief seem to arise almost daily. I have defended President, 1998–2000 Judge Kaye asked me in 1997 to chair a task the Legal Aid Society in a malpractice force to seek a permanent funding stream case, pursued constitutional and statutory for civil legal services. After thoroughly claims on behalf of patients confined in exploring what other states had done or the psychiatric emergency rooms of public considered, the task force recommended that hospitals, and am currently representing the State make an annual appropriation of a detainee at the Guantánamo Bay Naval $25 million out of the roughly $300 million Station. In addition to those litigation The Imperatives and Rewards in checking and savings accounts, insurance representations, I have held office in a proceeds, and other abandoned property that number of diverse legal services organiza- of Pro Bono Work escheated each year to the State. Since by tions, including the Lawyers’ Committee definition no one asserts ownership of for Civil Rights Under Law, the Legal Aid The obligation to do pro bono legal work and to support organizations doing abandoned property, I naively expected that Society and Pro Bono Net, as well as three the proposal would receive serious consider- organizations in whose creation the New that work has been a core part of my personal professional ethic for as long as I ation by the legislative and executive leaders York City Bar Association played a leading can remember. Long before I first heard Chief Judge Cardozo’s classic statement in Albany. In fact, it was met with a fast role: Volunteers of Legal Service, New York that the practice of law is “a privilege burdened with conditions,” I had a sense shuffle, with each legislative leader assuring Lawyers for the Public Interest, and the us that if the others took the lead, he/she Cyrus R. Vance Center for International that as a well-compensated member of the Bar I ought to devote some of my would follow. In the end, the funds were Justice. professional time and talents to providing, and encouraging the provision hijacked for other purposes because there was insufficient political will. What have I received in return for my of, those services to individuals who could not afford to pay for them. The work in these various capacities? First, the New York Rules of Professional Conduct finally recognize that obligation by The organized bar must continue to support opportunity to collaborate with lawyers in “strongly encourag[ing] lawyers to provide pro bono legal services to benefit adequate funding for civil legal services while public interest organizations and in my own supporting pro bono service, and we must firm who are dedicated to protecting the poor persons” and setting forth an aspirational goal of devoting twenty hours take the long view in advocating for a “civil rights of the poor and otherwise disadvan- a year to doing so. Gideon.” The simple truth is that at this stage taged and must often work under difficult of our society, government does not accept conditions. Second, the exposure to new, Let me be clear as to the nature of the It is not only a professional ethical impera- the concept of a “civil Gideon,” and the different, and challenging areas of the law commitment called for. It includes financial tive, but also a social necessity, that lawyers public is generally unaware until their own I would not otherwise have encountered in support but is not limited to such support. in private practice provide pro bono lives are touched. But concepts of justice my corporate litigation practice. And, finally, You cannot avoid directly or indirectly representation. Governmental funding at do evolve. the satisfaction of knowing that as a result providing services by writing a check. Either all levels has never been remotely adequate of our efforts some individuals and groups direct representation of poor people or to address the legal needs of the poor, and While taking the long view, we must not are receiving the benefit of legal services that involvement in the work of organizations there is no reason to anticipate significantly squander the time we have to make a would not otherwise be available to them. assisting the poor is required. greater governmental generosity in the difference. The opportunities to engage in pro bono work are legion, and new ones

12 | 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 | 13 Michael A. Cardozo obligation – I wanted the Law Department evictions, foreclosures, consumer credit, to encourage and support our attorneys who and immigration matters. In this effort President, 1996–1998 wanted to offer pro bono legal services and we have partnered with numerous existing to serve the larger community through pro pro bono and legal services organizations, bono, nonprofit, and bar organizations. bar associations, and law schools, and have sponsored panels in all five boroughs, where After almost seven years since the inception representatives of such groups provided of the program, the verdict is in: our attorneys information about how lawyers can volun- have been enthusiastically participating in teer their help. At these meetings, City and Pro Bono Participation: a variety of activities, ranging from drafting court representatives again encouraged wills and acting as small claims court lawyers to provide pro bono legal service The Role of the Public Sector arbitrators to coaching public school debate to those unable to afford a lawyer. teams and mentoring students interested in In the two years I had the honor of serving as President of the City Bar, I tried becoming lawyers. The positive feedback New York is fortunate to have many to encourage pro bono legal service, as have all my predecessors and successors. we’ve received about such involvement has organizations that have the experience and been exhilarating, and a theme has emerged: expertise to guide volunteer lawyers. And, But it was not until I became Corporation Counsel in January 2002, shortly our government colleagues feel that partici- of course, New York is equally fortunate after the horror of 9/11, that I first understood the role government, and the pating in volunteer legal activities enriches to have among its citizens a large corps of lawyers who work for it, could play in leveraging, supplying, and encouraging their lives and provides a unique opportunity attorneys who can be counted on—just as to “give back” even beyond what they do as they were after the tragic events of 9/11— pro bono legal services. legal representatives of the City. to help their fellow New Yorkers.

I became Corporation Counsel at a time My City Bar and 9/11 experiences led me Government as an institution, like the when many of the Law Department’s to recognize that public sector lawyers, like lawyers who work for it, can also play a attorneys were working out of the Family their counterparts in the private bar, could critical role in facilitating access to pro bono Assistance Center at Pier 52, which had been also use their unique legal skills in the help. In the spring of 2009, in the midst set up immediately after 9/11 to provide service of others. Therefore, on the one-year of another crisis—this one economic— help to people affected by the tragedy. What anniversary of 9/11, I established a Volunteer Mayor Bloomberg created “NYC Service,” I witnessed in the seven months after 9/11 Legal Activities program for members of the a program designed to increase civic was an extraordinary response of both Law Law Department. Believing that this was an engagement and volunteerism in New York Department attorneys and the hundreds of appropriate time to recommit ourselves to City. As part of this initiative, we established private sector attorneys who volunteered the ideals of the legal profession and the “NYC Legal Outreach,” launched by a joint from around the city to assist at the Pier. The obligation to render “public interest and pro request from Chief Judge Lippmann and efforts devoted to coping with the aftermath bono legal service” – while acknowledging Mayor Bloomberg that attorneys contribute of 9/11 were, as former Chief Judge Kaye that by working for the City of New York their skills and time pro bono to New has written, among the Bar’s—and certainly each of us was already laboring daily in Yorkers in need of legal help in four areas the Law Department’s—finest hours. the public interest in fulfillment of that particularly worsened by the recession:

14 | 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 | 15 Barbara Paul Robinson My own definition of pro bono work while the Association weighs in on the President, 1994–1996 encompasses more than the representation evolving legislation and ongoing public of indigent individuals and disadvantaged policy debates on these issues. groups to include all volunteer efforts serving the public good. This broader definition Most recently, I represented the Appalachian would apply to virtually all the work of the College Association, a membership organiza- City Bar’s many committees as well as to tion of 37 small liberal arts colleges in the many volunteer roles lawyers take on Appalachia serving needy students who are Serving Others, and Ourselves for civic and charitable organizations in almost always the first in their family to go the community. Lawyers have always been to college. When I succeeded in protecting important leaders in this respect and for the ACA’s interest in an estate plagued by When the New York City Bar Association celebrated its 125th anniversary this reason my firm and I are establishing a theft, fraud, and worse, they thanked me during my term as President, a major focus was the construction of a proper City Bar lecture series to feature lawyers as in the best possible way by creating a home for the City Bar Justice Center at the heart of the Association’s landmark leaders. We hope to both recognize those scholarship in my name to help students from Appalachia go to law school. I had house. After we concluded a successful capital campaign, obtained difficult lawyer-leaders who have made important contributions to community service and the great pleasure of meeting the first of regulatory approvals, and resolved testy negotiations with an adjacent building, to encourage others to emulate these these impressive students when they traveled we built new space in what had been an open courtyard. This placed the City impressive role models. to New York City for the first time. Of course, I took them to the Association, Bar Justice Center visually and physically at the very core of the Association, In looking back over my own professional followed by tours of the federal and state sending a clear message about its importance. career, I can still vividly recall some of my courts, City Hall, and meetings with many own gratifying pro bono cases. As a very of New York’s distinguished lawyers and This central location is symbolic of the essen- case taken on by any of our lawyers is treated young lawyer, my first case took me to judges. I was deeply moved by their personal tial link between the City Bar’s direct service with the same care as every other matter Surrogate’s Court to terminate the rights stories of overcoming extraordinary hardship programs, which assist individuals and we handle, with the same insistence on of an abandoning parent so that the child and adversity and inspired by their passion- disadvantaged groups, with the Association’s appropriate supervision, training, and could be placed for adoption. I agonized ate commitment to bringing their legal skills public policy and advocacy work. Experience commitment to the highest professional over the difficult balance of protecting the back to serve their own needy communities. gleaned from handling individual cases helps standards. Opportunities for pro bono work mother’s rights against seeking a better It is in cases like these that we not only help inform the efforts of the Association’s many are circulated throughout the firm on a future for her child. I can also remember the clients we serve but are deeply enriched hardworking committees as they seek to regular basis and our senior lawyers set an how elated I was to obtain political asylum in our personal and professional lives. improve the laws and the administration example by their own engagement in pro for a young Ugandan woman who had of justice. bono cases. The firm’s annual report includes managed to escape from the murderous a description of that year’s important pro regime of Idi Amin. Immigration cases At my law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, bono cases alongside news of major deals continue to challenge the City Bar’s volun- we too seek to make pro bono work central and litigation for our regular clients. teers who assist in these heart-rending cases to our professional lives. Every pro bono

16 | 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 | 17 John D. Feerick William Hughes Mulligan, and the small oppression. I witnessed what others were group of teachers he had assembled, doing to address these needs and I knew I President, 1992–1994 challenged us to be good lawyers, and we had to do my part. And so, to the best of my understood that as including service to ability, I got involved in helping organiza- the profession and our country as well as a tions that serve the poor and victims of commitment to being ethical. Throughout unfair treatment or discrimination. I also law school we learned about the successes accepted representation in individual matters of graduates in both the law and public and used platforms at the Bar and Fordham life but didn’t know what lay ahead for us. to promote pro bono work. Looking Back and Giving Back After sharing our dreams, my classmates and I left with a desire to make the school Without doubt, among my strongest The expression “pro bono publico” is not one I was familiar with when I proud of our lives as lawyers. memories of being a lawyer are the pro graduated from law school. When I graduated from Fordham in 1961, a sense bono matters. My most significant public Upon graduation, I was fortunate to join opportunity was serving as a special master of obligation to my country and the profession I was entering had already been a small law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, of family homelessness in New York City. instilled in me. It was inspired by the lives of my parents and by my teachers— Meagher and Flom, which, despite its size I met on that occasion a homeless child, Ursuline sisters at St. Angela Merici grammar school, priests of the Archdiocese and uncertain future at that point, stressed Pedro, who reminded me of my own of New York, Marist Brothers (and priests) at Bishop Dubois High School, the importance of service to the profession. children and grandchildren except that Barry Garfinkel of the firm impressed on he was trapped in an institutional setting. Jesuits and lay teachers at Fordham College, and law professors at Fordham. me that the first thing I should do was join I have often wondered how many more My teachers were special role models who exemplified the spirit of giving in a bar association and become active in such like him are similarly situated, and how spite of the fact that many of them received little or no compensation for their work. He encouraged me to join the New far they could go if they had the kind of York City Bar Association and helped me support I was fortunate enough to have work. My parents, however, were my greatest influence. They sailed to America gain membership to the Committee on had as a child. as teenagers in the late 1920s and, while not having had the opportunity to State Legislation. Though it was a challenging I expect to continue to do my part as receive a formal education themselves, they stressed at home the importance experience of hard work, I learned a tremen- dous amount concerning the legislative founder and director of Fordham Law of education, civic participation, and the values of our religion. Their impact, process in New York State. I felt, as did other School’s Center for Social Justice and along with that of my teachers, opened my eyes to the larger world. committee members, that we were making an Dispute Resolution. important difference in the world. From that Law school in particular was a turning point I completed our studies, prepared for and experience I knew I wanted to remain active for me as I collaborated with classmates on passed examinations, and looked forward in Bar Association work. school projects and shared in study groups to our lives beyond law school, we were knowledge and information about the law. faced with the reality that some doors in In addition, I became exposed to parts of In particular, the opportunity to serve on the the profession at the time were closed to society with which I had not been acquaint- Fordham Law Review gave me an enlarged Fordham lawyers. Regardless, we were ed, involving people who faced difficult life perspective of the world and the important determined to make our mark in the world, circumstances, including unfair treatment role played by the law. As my classmates and as graduates before us had done. Our dean, by the legal system, discrimination, and

18 | 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 | 19 Conrad K. Harper The plaintiffs in our case were determined of whom were white, namely, assistance in to see a better day. Their courage gave us marking ballots by persons of their choice. President, 1990–1992 strength. We subpoenaed and obtained the The case is reported:James v. Humphreys federal observers’ reports. We requested and County Board of Election Commissioners, were given the poll watcher reports by the 384 F. Supp. 114 (N.D. Miss. 1974). Lawyers’ Committee. We took dozens of depositions of election officials, federal Pro bono service gives us a chance, all our observers, and poll watchers. days, to do some good in the world.

All My Days The Old South was not dead. When an illiterate black voter, who was also a Midnight, Mississippi, is a small town in the Delta. In November 1971, it and candidate for sheriff, showed up at the all of Humphreys County were the scene of a general election marred, among polls, the white election officials laughed at him. Another black voter said that at other charges, by claims that black illiterate voters had their ballots marked, home he slept with his shotgun nearby contrary to their stated requests, in favor of white candidates by white election in case the Klan came calling. officials. All of the black candidates lost their bids for office. The bench trial took two weeks in Green- ville’s federal district court. An old black

Humphreys County was identified by the three Simpson Thacher associates to accept man who had never been able to vote until Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the assignment. By early 1972, we were in 1971 took the stand. I asked him how long Law as the worst of the Mississippi counties Midnight: One black male, one white male, he had lived in Mississippi. He said, “All in denying or impairing the rights of black and one white female. We worked with my days.” voters. In the preceding half dozen years, two local lawyers, both male, one white federal registrars, acting under the Voting and one black. After the trial, the record remained open Rights Act of 1965, had registered hun- so that post-trial depositions of statistical dreds of Humphreys County black voters. For the next two years, we three New York experts could be taken. On election day 1971, FBI agents, federal lawyers crisscrossed the county, meeting observers, and volunteer poll watchers with local residents in the county seat, On October 4, 1974, the court rejected blanketed the county and the state to Belzoni, in smaller places like Louise and the claim that the ballots of black illiterate assure, insofar as outsiders could, that the Four-Mile, and in still smaller places voters had been marked, contrary to their election was conducted fairly and that without names. We figuratively walked in stated requests, in favor of white candidates infractions were recorded accurately. After the blood of a martyr when we mounted by white election officials. But the court reviewing statewide reports from the poll the steps of the county courthouse. A few further decided, among other things, that watchers, the Lawyers’ Committee deter- years earlier, a black man had been shot in future elections illiterate voters, most mined that Humphreys County should be to death on those very steps as he left the of whom were black, were to have the same sued and requested pro bono help. Cyrus building after being refused the right to right as blind and disabled voters, most Vance, then the head of my firm, asked register to vote.

20 | 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 | 21 Robert M. Kaufman The immediate trigger for our entry into Bar’s new Committee on Legal Problems the direct legal services field was the of the Homeless wrote a report calling for President, 1986–1988 Immigration Reform and Control Act of changes to reduce homelessness, and in 1986. This act created a one-year window 1989 filed an amicus curiae brief in the for several hundred thousand immigrants successful Jiggetts v. Grinker appeal challeng- in New York City to apply for status. ing the inadequacy of the public assistance Unfortunately, the process was confusing, shelter allowance. A major outgrowth of and existing organizations could not meet that report was COLP’s Legal Clinic for the need. We trained and mentored volun- the Homeless, which has sent pro bono Pro Bono Beginnings at the City Bar teer lawyers, with great assistance from our volunteers into homeless shelters for nearly Immigration and Nationality Law Commit- twenty years. My years as President of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, tee. We announced that we would host 1986-88, were among my happiest and most rewarding as a lawyer. I take clinics at the Association where undocu- The City Bar’s pro bono program has grown and developed into a major component of great pride in the City Bar, what it has stood for and what it has accomplished. mented immigrants could meet with volunteer lawyers. I recall at one clinic seeing New York’s legal services community, One of its pillars is seeking access to justice, which requires courts that can be over 100 people lined up in the lobby for supported by our membership and the larger effectively used by litigants so that basic justice can be done. This is particularly help. We helped over 600 immigrants New York legal community. Only with this support would the program have been in the important in the courts that are most used by New Yorkers, often without legal through these clinics, and took what we learned from this effort to launch COLP position to harness volunteers and coordinate counsel. As President, I made it a priority to focus on the needs of Family in 1987. COLP then assisted refugees from efforts in the aftermath of the September 11th Court, Housing Court, Criminal Court, and Small Claims Court. I visited war in El Salvador and Guatemala with attacks to help so many thousands of victims. The City Bar Justice Center’s current involve- many of them during my tenure and worked with Association committees to immigration claims and developed expertise in the immigration field. ment in helping people stave off foreclosure stimulate improvement in court facilities and procedures. and handle debt problems exemplifies how we Our model focused upon harnessing the can mobilize volunteers to meet the crucial However, even with these improvements Legal Assistance (now named Pro Bono talents of volunteer lawyers, law students, needs of the moment. the fact remains that someone going to and Legal Services) Committee was and paralegals; providing training and The City Bar, through its public service court is far better off with professional developing effective procedures for using supervision; finding ways to make the efforts, has made justice more accessible. assistance. I am proud that during my volunteer lawyers. We were a national volunteer experience attractive for lawyers I am sure the City Bar will continue to use Presidency we started the Community leader in the fight to preserve the Legal in all areas of practice; and then focusing its ability to affect public policy and mobilize Outreach Law Program (“COLP”), to Services Corporation when it was threat- on particular needs that were not being met lawyers through the City Bar Justice Center provide direct legal assistance to persons ened with extinction in the early 1980s. within the existing legal services framework to provide legal services that make a in need. COLP has grown into today’s But it became clear, despite the best efforts and that would be well suited for handling difference for the community we serve. City Bar Justice Center, which has of the existing legal services organizations – by volunteers. The concept of “community attracted thousands of volunteer lawyers including New York Lawyers for the Public outreach” was an important part of this to help tens of thousands of people. Interest and Volunteers of Legal Service, effort, as volunteers made presentations both created by the Association – that the in city neighborhoods and ran education When I became President, previous City unmet need for legal services was over- programs in city schools. Homelessness Bar programs had trained lawyers to whelming. There was clearly a hands-on emerged as a significant issue. The City provide immigration assistance, and our role for the City Bar to play.

22 | 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 | 23 who needed but could not pay for it. firms and many of the corporate law depart- And the role of such work as a hallmark ments had made the VOLS commitment. of the profession uniquely charged with With those pledges in hand and the indefati- the promotion of justice (which, as had gable Sheldon Oliensis as its President, VOLS Louis A. Craco NY Law Journal been famously noted, if rationed was launched a different approach to delivering denied) was being atrophied. pro bono services. Its slim staff sought out President, 1982–1984 particular pockets of legal needs, particularly Bar committees convened and exhorted those for which federal funds were unavailable the legal community; alternate funding

Photo: Rick Kopstein/Photo: or traditional providers were too short-handed plans like IOLA were developed; incessant to address, and matched them with law firms lobbying efforts strove to roll back federal or law departments that set about furnishing restrictions. And still the disparity grew the needed services. larger all the while. A Tale of Two Cities Even more remarkable than the commit- At the Association of the Bar a settled ments made at the start has been the By 1983 in New York City, economic adversity had swollen the already large conviction developed that a crisis so different steadfastness of the private bar in adhering in scale as to be different in kind had arisen, welfare rolls and the homeless population had grown to crisis proportions. to the VOLS challenge over the ensuing and that a new approach had to be devised years. This year, as VOLS celebrates its On top of that, the AIDS epidemic had begun to cut a fatal swath through to supplement the traditional modes of 25th anniversary, meeting its challenge has whole communities. delivering legal services to the indigent. become a given among the great firms of New York. In 2008 alone, those firms Accordingly, the Association created a Special contributed over one million hours of prime At the same time, the “takeover craze” abundance of legal services in the city for Committee on the Legal Needs of the Poor, legal services to the city’s poor through of the eighties ushered in a new era of businesses and wealthy individuals had grown headed by Sheldon Oliensis, which, within their VOLS projects. The professional and corporate prosperity, including for the to conscience-shocking proportions. In months, proposed a new pro bono design. personal satisfaction gleaned by the lawyers law firms involved in the high-stakes short, for the big law firms and corporate law Acting quickly on its recommendations, a doing the work over these years, and the corporate and litigation work that was departments of New York, it was the best of new organization, “Volunteers of Legal results they continuously produced in the involved. The times were well suited to the times. For the marginalized residents whose Service,” promptly nicknamed “VOLS,” lives of their clients, may well account for talent pool of the major New York firms access to the social safety net depended on was established and the law firms of the city the project’s staying power. and their long-standing business model. their assertion of legal rights, it was the worst were challenged to pledge to it in-person legal of times. work equivalent to 30 hours per year for each However, the demands of this business The key lesson from all of this is easy to state lawyer in their New York offices. The sheer also significantly drained the amount of This tale of two cities did not go unnoticed and hard to put into action: with clarity of size of the commitment sought was daunting, discretionary time for lawyers to provide in the legal community, where there were practical vision; with forceful, personal and it put the City Bar to a fundamental test pro bono legal help to the poor. To make also side-effects of these trends that deeply leadership from those to whom the Bar looks of its oft-claimed support of pro bono work. matters worse, new federal constraints disturbed thoughtful observers. Trying to for it; and with perseverance by a cadre of Cyrus Vance readily agreed to chair VOLS began to impair the ability of well-estab- furnish legal service to the poor was not only firm representatives, it is possible to devise and to spearhead the recruiting effort among lished full-time legal service providers to obviously good for the poor, but it had and carry out targeted, creative, economical the firms. Richard Lombard, General Counsel continue the levels of service they had proven over time to be good for the lawyers ways to deliver legal services to the poor. of Exxon, solicited a similar commitment been furnishing, much less expand them who furnished the services and for the sense And while the chasm between need and from the largest corporations headquartered to meet emerging needs. of the profession as a public occupation. A resources can never be closed, programs in the city. whole generation of younger lawyers in the of this sort can change for the better the And so, the disparity between the increas- lives of thousands of impoverished residents great New York firms was being threatened The stature and moral persuasiveness of these ingly desperate need for legal services for of the city, and, not incidentally, the lives with the loss of insight and satisfaction long two leaders proved hard to withstand. By poor New Yorkers and the flourishing derived from sharing legal talent with people Law Day, May 1, 1984, the thirty largest of thousands of lawyers, too.

24 | 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 | 25 to afford adequate legal representation or of Legal Services, chaired by now-federal to public service groups or organizations Judge Victor Marraro. That committee, in or by financial support for such activities its 1989 preliminary report and its 1990 final or legal services. A lawyer practicing with report, urged that New York State adopt a Merrell E. Clark a firm that has established a regular and mandatory pro bono requirement. The President, 1978–1980 substantial program of public interest legal Executive Committee reviewed the prelimi- services may take the activities of such nary report in October 1989 and authorized program into account in determining then-President Sheldon Oliensis to testify compliance with this rule.” that the Committee “strongly endorses the principle reflected by the recommendations” Thus the special committee’s advocacy of a of the Marrero Committee. He testified that mandatory pro bono publico obligation was there were high hopes that the legal needs not adopted by the Bar Association. Pro Bono Legal Service: of the poor could be satisfied by full-time, It seems, however, that the effort was not experienced legal services lawyers, but that Mandatory v. Voluntary a failure. Michael J. Powell’s book “From in the past decade these “hopes had been Patrician to Professional Elite” contains dashed,” and that the Executive Committee One of the major issues that arose during my term as President (1978-80) this thought: “accepts, however reluctantly,” the need for a mandatory pro bono system. The Executive centered on the obligation of lawyers to perform pro bono legal services. A “Although the pro bono proposal eventually Committee acknowledged the logistical Special Committee on Lawyers’ Pro Bono Obligations was appointed and filed failed even within the ABCNY, the special difficulties of setting up such a system and committee’s advocacy of it engendered said it should be phased in gradually. a report in early 1980 recommending (with several dissents) that the obligation considerable debate over the obligation of be made mandatory. The special committee suggested that each lawyer be lawyers to provide free service to those who While there is still great reluctance within required to devote 30 to 50 hours annually to pro bono service. The report was cannot afford to pay. In so doing it had the bar to establish such a system, it seems substantial significance in that it drew that the very presence of the idea has circulated to other committees, which responded with considerable criticism attention to the bar’s stated commitment stimulated still further activities, from of the special committee’s recommendation of mandatory pro bono. to provide representation to all, irrespective surveys by the New York State Bar Associa- of ability to pay.” tion of members’ pro bono work, to the The report was also sent to the Executive the requirement. The committee also noted American Bar Association’s call for lawyers Indeed, the special committee’s effort was Committee. At the Committee’s December that enforcing a mandatory pro bono require- to devote 50 hours per year to pro bono, a precursor to much-heightened pro bono 5, 1979, meeting, representatives were ment would be expensive and difficult, if to the American Lawyer’s rating system activity from which we are still reaping the present from the special committee and not impossible. for firms that gives heavy weight to a firm’s benefit. In 1984, the Association created from the committees that considered the pro bono activity. The final word was the Executive Committee’s Volunteers of Legal Service, which was based report. None of the committees supported position as reported in the Record of January/ on law firms pledging to commit 30 hours The legal needs of the poor are still great, the special committee’s recommendation February 1981: per lawyer per year of pro bono service. and the organized bar must continue to press of a mandatory pro bono obligation, In 2008 alone, firms that signed the pledge for both adequate public funding for legal although various committee members did. “A lawyer shall participate in providing provided over 1.1 million hours of pro services and a bar that is heavily committed public interest legal services. A lawyer may Several committees questioned the need bono service. to doing pro bono service. discharge this obligation by activities on for a mandatory pro bono obligation and behalf of the public for improving the law, The impetus for mandatory pro bono led recommended that an empirical study be the legal system or the legal profession, by then-Chief Judge Sol Wachtler to appoint made of the special committee report. providing legal services to persons unable the Committee to Improve the Availability Some questioned the constitutionality of

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