State Planning for the Future of Legal Services

Recommitting to Access to Justice

February 1, 2002

Author: Anne Erickson

As part of New York’s ongoing planning process for reviewing and potentially restructuring the State’s legal services delivery system, over 100 project directors, staff attorneys, paralegals, community groups, pro bono programs, members of the judiciary, members of the private bar, and leaders from the New York State Bar Association gathered recently to “Help Create the Vision, Build the Reality of Equal Access to Justice.”
 
The group was welcomed by the President-elect of the Bar Association, Lorraine Power Tharp, who noted: “The theme of this forum must be fresh approaches, new ideas, full collaboration and unwavering dedication—dedication to the true search for equal access to justice and doing the public good.  If full access to justice is going to be more than mere words we each need to make sure we are fully engaged and participating—this means letting our voices be heard and heard strongly on access to justice concerns.”
 
In keeping with the State Bar’s theme of rededicating itself to Access to Justice, Ms. Tharp noted: “The plight of the individuals, families and children can no longer wait in limbo for long overdue adequate federal and state funding.  I am sure that you share with me the conviction that critically needed legal assistance for poor and low income New Yorkers must be sustained.  Accordingly, I urge us to be strong together and to do so in a way that does the most for those who have the least—impoverished New Yorkers.”
 
Ms. Tharp then had the distinct pleasure of introducing the day’s keynote speaker, Sargent Shriver, whose “personal commitment and work has left an indelible mark on the history of our country,” she said.  “His wise words ‘Serve, serve, serve, because in the end it will be the servants who save us’ challenges us to honor America by personally striving to promote the ideals of a just and humane society—the full and equal access to justice.”
 
Sargent Shriver to Legal Services:
Never Forsake the Work You Do
 
“In the preamble to the United States Constitution, before that document refers to domestic tranquility or providing for the common defense, or promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity – before all of that – the Constitution says ‘We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice!!’”  
 
With that, Mr. Shriver, a vibrant 86 years old and one of the driving forces behind the creation of our nation’s system of civil legal services, reminded those gathered of the pivotal role justice plays in the core principles of our country.
 
In his keynote address, Mr. Shriver spoke of the early days in legal services, when he was called upon to create a “War Against Poverty,” and, he said, “I knew nothing about poverty in the USA.”  But he read an article in the Yale University Law Journal called “The War on Poverty: A Civilian Perspective” by Edgar Cahn and was convinced that these issues were “profound and extremely important.”
 
He was amazed at how quickly things happened.  “To help us, came lawyers – young, inexperienced, idealistic, but bright, bright, bright young lawyers in their 20s and 30s eager to take on huge established bureaucracies.  There was no doubt about the importance of what they were doing…”
 
Mr. Shriver shared stories of how legal services prevailed against incredible odds and at times opened the eyes of those running these bureaucracies to the injustices in their own backyard: “No matter how well-motivated persons may be, how eager to do the right thing for the poor, we can have our senses dulled over the years,” he said.  “Sometimes we don’t really see the unfairness we are involved in – we need to be shown.”
 
He asked, “Where do we as citizens of the USA stand today?  Have our early efforts in the 1960s achieved nationwide success?  Does Justice with a capital J reign everywhere in our land?  Sadly, the answer to those questions is ‘No.’” He spoke of the 1980’s, the extraordinary opposition to Legal Services, and the program’s survival.  And, he noted, with all the struggle – and the survival – legal services still is not reaching even 50% of the population in need.
 
“As a lawyer,” he said, “I believe that our government, my government and your government, and my profession and your profession, have a positive, moral and legal duty to make sure that legal services are available to the poor on an accessible, affordable, regular, dignified basis,” adding later that, “as a professional lawyer, (I) have the obligation to join with other professionals and fellow citizens to struggle against poverty caused by unconscionable laws, or even legalized greed; against pollution of the physical and mental environment; against inequities in education, health and housing…I must serve with groups organized to attack community problems – homelessness, hunger. teenage pregnancy, dissolute conditions, joblessness, loneliness, especially of the old and forgotten populations.  Legal services by lawyers is essential to solve community problems in our legalistic society…”
 
Finally, he urged: “All of you who struggle for Justice, please never forsake the work you do.  You are the best guardians of Liberty and builders of quality life for all Americans…The Bible itself says: ‘The learned will shine like the brilliance of the firmament…Those who train many in the ways of justice will sparkle like stars for all eternity.’ You,” Mr. Shriver said, “are those ‘stars.’  Please, never lose your sparkle.”