ABA members come to Capitol Hill to convince lawmakers to fund legal services, loan forgiveness
The American Bar Association will hold its annual effort to connect policymakers with constituents in the legal profession this week during its ABA Day 2018, April 11 and 12.
Lawyers from 48 states will come to Washington to speak to members of Congress and their staffs and inform them of the importance of funding Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which provides civil legal aid to nearly 1.7 million low-income people annually. These people desperately need help to navigate the legal process so they can get equal access to justice and yet far too many are turned away due to lack of resources. LSC serves the most vulnerable individuals and families in every congressional district. That includes children, seniors, veterans, victims of domestic violence and victims of disasters.
Efforts at ABA Day last year helped achieve a $385 million appropriation for LSC. This year, the goal is to convince Congress to restore funding to the inflation-adjusted Fiscal Year 2010 level of $482 million.
Lawyers also will be advocating for the preservation of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF). This program provides student loan forgiveness after 10 years of public service when applicants meet certain conditions. The ABA opposes efforts to repeal or end the program, such as in H.R. 4508, the PROSPER Act, and believes there should be some government incentive to help people who choose careers in public service.
The ABA will also present four members of Congress with its annual Congressional Justice Award on April 11 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to acknowledge their leadership on issues critically important to the legal profession and the ABA.
This year’s awardees are:
• Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas): The ABA honors Cornyn for his efforts to improve the American justice system, particularly for his leadership in securing funding for the Legal Services Corporation. He also is being honored for his commitment to ensuring access to justice for domestic violence and trafficking survivors and for his co-sponsorship of the Veterans Treatment Courts Improvement Act of 2017.
• Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.): Feinstein is being honored for her support of LSC, her decades-long effort to enact sensible gun safety legislation and her commitment to ensuring that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have an opportunity to consider the ABA’s peer assessments of the professional qualifications of federal judicial nominees prior to their confirmation hearings.
• Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa. 8th); The ABA honors Fitzpatrick for his efforts to increase LSC funding and his leadership in efforts to increase access to the civil justice system. Since joining Congress in 2016, he has been a staunch supporter of increased funding for LSC and has led the efforts to increase Republican support for it. In 2017, he joined with Rep. Steve Cohen (D, Tenn.) to sponsor the first-ever bipartisan amendment to increase LSC appropriations.
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif. 12th): Pelosi has spent more than 30 years in the House of Representatives serving as a powerful voice for equal justice for all and championing issues of importance to the ABA including transgender rights, marriage equality, pay equity, and immigration reform. This past year, she has strongly advocated for a path to citizenship for the so-called “Dreamers,” undocumented persons who were brought to this country as children and have grown up here. She has also been a leader in opposing legislation that would restrict access to our civil justice system.
ABA president to speak at launch of Florida’s Homeless Youth Handbook
ABA President Hilarie Bass will be a featured speaker at the launch of Florida’s Homeless Youth Handbook on Friday, April 13, at 4 p.m. at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Orlando. The handbook, the sixth in a state-by-state series, is a free legal resource designed to help Florida’s homeless youth understand their rights and get their lives back on track with practical, straightforward answers to their legal problems.
Produced by a joint effort from the nonprofit child advocacy organization Florida’s Children First, The Walt Disney Company and the law firm of Baker McKenzie, the handbook supports Bass’ Legal Needs of Homeless Youth Initiative,
established in August 2017. The initiative is training volunteer lawyers to provide legal assistance to homeless youth and matching lawyers throughout the country with shelters to provide free legal assistance.
On any given night, 7,000 young people in Florida are homeless. They are part of the estimated 700,000 homeless youth in the United States who need access to lawyers who can remove the legal barriers that prevent them from
getting the education, employment, housing, health care, identification and other services that could transform their lives. But of the more than 350 shelters in the U.S. that serve homeless youth, few have access to legal services.
So far, law firms and local bar associations have partnered with nine shelters serving homeless youth in Fort Lauderdale, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach.
“Florida’s lawyers – as well as many other attorneys across the country – are stepping up to address the legal issues burdening this vulnerable population,” Bass said. “The Florida Homeless Youth Handbook will be an invaluable resource for pro bono attorneys helping homeless youth to quickly access and understand the legal information they need to effectively advise youth on how the law can help them in their individual situations.”
Women lawyers at ABA event to discuss how cultivating ‘grit’ leads to success
Women lawyers will share their strategies for developing the grit-and-growth mindset vital to their career success April 19 at a panel discussion, “What is Grit, Why Women Lawyers Need It, and How You Can Learn It to Foster Success.” The event is sponsored by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession and co-sponsored by Jenner & Block, Chicago Bar Association Alliance for Women, Illinois State Bar Association Women in the Law Committee and the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.
Recent studies looked at the characteristics and personality traits of women who have made it to the top ranks of the legal profession, and found that these women often have a grit-and-growth mindset in common. What does this mean? In short, grit—defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”—teamed with a growth mindset—the view that one’s abilities can be developed—were found to be important tools that aided highly successful women attorneys in handling challenging situations.
These research results inspired the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession to develop the Grit Project, which educates about the science behind the grit-and-growth mindset and, through its online toolkit, provides bar associations, law firms, corporate legal departments, and women attorneys with the resources to assess, teach and learn these traits. Commission Chair Stephanie Scharf, partner at Scharf Banks Marmor, will deliver welcoming remarks and commission member and Grit Committee co-chair Maureen Mulligan, a partner at Peabody & Arnold in Boston, will present research.
The discussion will be moderated by Melissa Root, a partner at Jenner & Block LLP. Panelists include:
• Stacey Austin, partner at Wang Kobayashi Austin, LLC, Chicago
• Jennifer Handa, associate general counsel at Accenture, Chicago
• Eileen Letts, partner at Zuber, Lawler, & Del Duca LLP, Chicago
• Elysia Solomon, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Humana Inc., Chicago.
