Multi-County Clients Council

Lifting Clients Outof Poverty: By Nancy Glickman

Aug 12, 2005

Twenty-six years ago I started my legal services
career with the simple goal of changing the world; I was going to eradicate poverty. I was a Jewish, Yankee, Female, Legal Aid attorney in Columbus, Georgia. To paraphrase Sammy Davis, Jr., when I stepped out of my door they would yell, ?“Get her, she?’s all of them?”. Times were certainly different then. The legislature ignored us, the judges thought us a nuisance raising all those big Federal laws, and the private bar did not think we were real lawyers. Who would have thunk that 26 years later I would be celebrating a legislative funding victory, over lunch with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with the tab being picked up by the State Bar? Legal Services has been accepted. I daresay we have been institutionalized. But of all the things that have changed over the years, one thing haws not; our clients. They are still poor. ?Somehow along our journey to acceptance we failed to notice that the poverty population was increasing and theat the poor now comprise a larger percentage of she population then when we all first started. Certainly acceptance of lawyers for the poor should not mean acceptance of poverty.
In this new age of outcome analysis, when Virginia legal services attorneys close a case they must pick from some 127 choices in 9 substantive areas to describe the benefit realized by the client through our representation. Yet not one of them is ?“lifted out of poverty?”. Yes, I hear the response now, ?“That?’s not our job; our job is simply to provide access to justice.?” We.., where is the justice in a senior citizens having to choose between paying for food or paying for her prescriptions? Where is the justice in the average monthly rent being higher than the minimum wage? Where is the justice in poverty? Besides, if we do not address the issue, how will? A corporate lawyer does not just draft contracts, but also keeps an eye towards the successful financial future of the corporation. A doctor does not just treat the symptoms, but also diagnoses the source and then treats the underlying problem. Our clients should not deserve less.
Last night, I raised this issue with a number of newer legal aid attorneys and they stated that such a course of action had never been suggested to them. I then gave them a simple history lesson. The Legal Services Corporation originated in the Office of Economic Opportunity, a Federal agency created during the War on Poverty. We were conceived to be a weapon of war. Though we hear little about that was anymore, I do not believe it ever ended. And if it did, we certainly did not win.
I suggest to you, as I did to the people last night, that we must consider our origins and rethink what we do as legal services attorneys. Add education and employment to our list of priorities. Consider community economic development and community legal education as part of the job. Partner with community organizations who are addressing our client?’s basic needs. Take a holistic approach to solving our clients?’ problems; do not just put out fires, but build lasting firebreaks to give the forest a fighting chance. This is not just an altruistic request, but rather it is quite selfish. For if we all start trying to lift our client?’s out of poverty, just maybe, I can fulfill the goal I set for myself oh so many years ago and finally stop doing this damn job. Thank you.

[This is an excerpt from Nancy Glick man?’s Remarks upon Receiving the 2004 Virginia State Bar Legal Aid Attorney of the Year Award, June 18, 2004. ]