Johnson & Lechman-Su: Legal Update

Greetings from Mark Johnson, Oregon State Delegate, American Bar Association:

I send this brief newsletter twice a year to help keep Oregon lawyers abreast of ABA activities undertaken on behalf of the American legal profession.

The ABA held its 131st Annual Meeting in Chicago on July 30–August 4, 2009. The House of Delegates met on August 3–4. The House proceedings were webcast; a video archive of the House meeting is available online.

ABA President H. Thomas Wells, Jr., presented the ABA Medal to William H. Gates of Washington. Gates served as president of the Seattle King County Bar Association, the Washington State Bar Association, and the National Conference of Bar Presidents. His service to the ABA included 13 years as a member of the House; 12 years on the Committee on Lawyer’s Professional Liability, including 3 years as its Chair; and service as Chair of the Commission on Public Understanding of the Law, on the Committee on Federal Judiciary, and on the Board of Trustees of the National Center for State Courts.

Gates has been a lifelong champion of access to legal services. He also led in work to make the profession more inclusive, including efforts to underwrite the minority law students program at the University of Washington Law School. The William H. Gates Public Service Law program provides full scholarships to five scholars in each class who agree to practice public interest law for five years.

Gates is co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private philanthropic institution, which funds worthy causes throughout the world. In his recent book “Showing Up for Life,” Gates says the law is about caring and being enthusiastic about having a just society. President Wells told the delegates that Gates believes in the power of the law to help people and change things for the better. He said Gates is a shining star of the legal profession and a living testament to the power of public service. President Wells greeted William Gates, and the House recognized him with a standing ovation.

In moving remarks, Mr. Gates told the House he was humbled by the award of the ABA Medal and that he was is in awe of those who have won it before him—intellectual giants like Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes; pioneers who blazed the trail like Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and many of this century’s most humane legal practitioners, like Father Robert Drinan and Judge Patricia Wald.

He said he takes special pride in the ABA and has admiration for the delegates and staff of the Association who work very hard to improve the administration of justice in this country. He paid tribute to the vitality of the bar. He noted that one thing that sets lawyers apart is that they take responsibility for the institution in which they function. Attorneys consider themselves stewards for and responsible for the American judicial system. He told the House that attorneys believe in the system and always try to make it better.

The House also welcomed the Attorney General of the United States, Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr. The Attorney General spoke passionately about America’s system of criminal justice, and the need to deemphasize rhetoric and recrimination in favor of reform and identification of innovative solutions to common problems. As lawyers, he noted, we must be tough on crime, but we must also commit ourselves to being smart on crime. He said it was time to move past politics and ideology and to move forward to a criminal justice system that was predicated on the fact that we need the system to be both fair and effective. He highlighted the need to use science and data to shape policy. He advocated thinking about crime in context, not just reacting to the criminal act, but developing the government’s ability to enhance public safety before the crime is committed and after the former offender is returned to society.

Attorney General Holder promised that the Department of Justice will also focus on the crisis in indigent defense. He said that resources for public defender programs lag far behind other justice system programs. This growing crisis is troubling not just because of the government’s constitutional duty to protect the right to counsel, but because when defendants do not receive competent legal representation, their cases are vulnerable to costly and time-consuming mistakes. He has committed to a number of steps to improve the indigent defense system, including a national symposium to develop best practices and practical solutions.

The House called for a national study of the state of criminal justice in the United States, to consider ways to reduce crime, lower incarceration rates, save taxpayer money, enhance the fairness and accuracy of criminal justice outcomes, and increase public confidence in the administration of the criminal justice system. It also adopted the Eight Guidelines of Public Defense Related to Excessive Workloads, dated August 2009, which contained essential steps to be taken by those organizations and lawyers who provide criminal defense services for persons in the United States who cannot afford to hire an attorney.

In other business, the House urged that every American have access to quality health care, regardless of the person’s income. It called for the repeal of the federal law that denies federal marital benefits and protections to lawfully married same-sex spouses. It urged policymakers to establish a Coordinating Office of Civic Education in the U.S. Department of Education to enhance students’ civic learning by offering competitive grant programs at the local, state and national levels.

The House endorsed legislation authorizing the annual appropriation of federal distributive funding to the several states and their respective local governments and political subdivisions in 2011, and thereafter, in order to ensure continuity of funding of essential state and local government programs, projects, and services following appropriations from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The House called upon corporate counsel to work with their clients and outside counsel to waive certain limited positional conflicts in areas related to mortgage, bankruptcy, and consumer finance, in order to reduce the number of pro bono matters in those areas that are declined by outside counsel because of conflicts. It urged federal, state, and local governments to address the unmet legal needs of low-income residents of communities affected by major disasters, by providing additional emergency funding for not-for-profit legal services providers, bar associations, and pro bono programs.

Finally, the House passed several resolutions relating to the Association’s ongoing Youth at Risk program. The House encouraged jurisdictions to pass laws and implement policies that would secure the right of every child to a high-quality education, and it encouraged attorneys and bar associations to assist in those efforts. The House urged the passage and implementation of laws and policies that would help advance the right to remain in school, promote a safe and supportive school environment for all children, and enable all children to complete school. And it endorsed statutes and policies that would support the right of youth who have left school to return to school to complete their educations in high-quality, age appropriate programs.

The 2010 Midyear Meeting will be in Orlando, Florida, on February 3–9, 2010. A “sneak preview” of matters coming before the House can be viewed here.

Here is a roster of Oregon’s current delegation to the ABA House of Delegates:

Mark Johnson, Portland, ABA State Delegate
Marilyn Harbur, Salem, Oregon State Bar
Scott Howard, Portland, Multnomah Bar Association
Christine Meadows, Portland, Oregon State Bar
Hon. Adrienne Nelson, Portland, Oregon State Bar
Katherine O’Neil, Portland, ABA Board of Governors
Hon. Ellen Rosenblum, Salem, ABA Delegate-at-Large
Sharon Stevens, Keizer; General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Each of us will be happy to talk with you about the work of the ABA and the issues confronting the legal profession. We also encourage all lawyers to consider joining the ABA. We are the largest voluntary professional association in the world. Our mission is to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence, and respect for the law. With more than 400,000 members, we provide law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.

This mailing list is maintained by the Oregon State Bar: www.osbar.org