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Essays
Free:: The Good We Do: Access to Justice
Monday, October 26, 2009
Michael E. Getnick, the president of the New York State Bar Association, writes: Increased need and diminished funding brought about, in part, by the economic downturn will translate into the denial of legal representation for millions of poor people this year alone. Hundreds of thousands of those people are New Yorkers. And these numbers reflect only those who have sought legal services. Many never ask for help. Millions of people simply try to represent themselves. Together with bar associations and good government groups all across the country working to shore up funding for civil legal services, thousands of attorneys in towns and cities all across New York and our nation are doing their part to narrow the justice gap by providing pro bono service.
Free: Lawyer Epiphanies
Friday, October 16, 2009
William J. Dean, executive director of Volunteers of Legal Service, writes: Through recent interviews with lawyers, both partners and associates, undertaken in connection with the 25th anniversary of Volunteers of Legal Service, I have come to appreciate the epiphanies lawyers experience from their pro bono work, the most important being immense personal and professional satisfaction and a deepening awareness of the vicissitudes and courage of poor people.
Welcome NYPD Terror Revisions Should Be Widely Distributed
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
The Power of Judges To Encourage Pro Bono
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Stephen M. Hudspeth, clinical lecturer at Yale Law School and a lecturer and Becton Fellow at Yale Graduate School of Management, writes: "Encouraging attorneys to do pro bono work is a perennial subject at law firms and among the bar. I know firsthand because for the last dozen years before my retirement five years ago from a large international law firm, I chaired its pro bono committee and had the opportunity to work on a number of pro bono cases myself."
Divorce, New York Style
Monday, June 29, 2009
Jeffrey D. Lebowitz, a judge of the Court of Claims and Acting Supreme Court Justice in Queens County assigned to the matrimonial term, writes: "While New York is a glamorous place to get married, it is a tough place to get divorced. We have created such elaborate laws and concepts that only the most collegial of divorcing couples and attorneys can navigate the morass we now know as matrimonial practice. Unfortunately, if one or both sides insists on litigating, or one or both lawyers do not see the benefit of early mediation or settlement, we are off to the races."
Gary Cone and the Death Penalty
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Paul Shechtman, a partner at Stillman, Friedman & Shechtman and an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School where he teaches Evidence, writes that it has been 27 years since Gary Cone was sentenced to death for murdering an elderly couple. In those years, Mr. Shechtman notes, Cone's case has been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court three times - a saga that speaks loudly (and poorly) about our criminal justice system.
Father
Thursday, June 18, 2009
William J. Dean, executive director of Volunteers of Legal Service, writes: David Copperfield begins, "I was a posthumous child. My father's eyes had closed upon the light of this world six months, when mine opened on it." Five weeks before my eyes opened, father's eyes closed forever. Sharing as I do this experience, I feel close to David, as did Dickens, who wrote in the preface to the novel, "I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child. And his name is David Copperfield."
The Quality of 'Empathy'
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Jack Edward Bronston, a retired partner with Davidoff Malito & Hutcher, writes: Oliver Wendell Holmes commented in his book "the Common Law," that judicial decisions often originate outside the law in the "inarticulate premises" which judges bring from their life experience to their decisions. Few cases demonstrate this more vividly than this year's Wyeth v. Levine, in which both "liberal" and "conservative" judges abandoned deeply held constitutional views to reach a result which, one may surmise, reflected their underlying "inarticulate" view of the facts, their "empathy" as it were, rather than a strict application of the law.
Uniform 'Imprudent' Management Of Institutional Funds Act
Thursday, June 11, 2009
William Josephson, a retired partner of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson who headed Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's Charities Bureau from 1999 to 2004, writes that Senator Liz Krueger and Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing have introduced in the State Legislature S4778 and A7907, respectively, the so-called Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, as a new article of the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law. These bills, he cautions, continue an unfortunate trend that must be stopped if we are to avoid future Madoff scandals in the philanthropic world.
Free: Misconceptions About Suicides
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Andrew Sparkler, president and a founding director of The Dave Nee Foundation, a non-profit corporation that seeks to support and encourage organizations devoted to preventing suicide among adolescents and young adults, writes: In the wake of several attorneys' recent deaths by suicide, a number of articles in the national media have suggested that each of those deaths resulted from a particular disappointment or loss. But it is misguided to frame suicide as the direct result of a single stressful event.
Free: How We Operate: An Inside Look at the Appellate Division, First Department
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Justice David B. Saxe understands that the appellate process in the Appellate Division, First Department, can be opaque and confusing to lawyers appearing before if for the first time and that even seasoned appellate practitioners have only a limited understanding of the internal workings of the court. So, in an effort to make these mysterious ways more transparent, the judge offers the following commentary on the practices of the court.
Free: Wrongful Convictions And the Right to Counsel
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Southern District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, in remarks deliever at his acceptance of the Learned Hand Medal of the Federal Bar Council on April 30, 2009, urged his audience to "remember always that the practice of law is a profession, not simply a business. Professional life involves more than billable hours, profits per partner, and rankings on the American Lawyer charts. It involves more than providing free legal work to a charity or cause in which one happens to believe, important as that can be. The defense of the indigent is a crying need, and it is the responsibility of the bar to see that this need is satisfied."
Avoidable Brain Damage And Medical Liability
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Robert L. Conason, the senior partner of Gair, Gair, Conason, Steigman & Mackauf, Steven E. Pegalis, the senior partner of Pegalis & Erickson, summarize position of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association in opposition to proposed legislation that would establish immunity for obstetricians to liabilty over certain perinatal brain injuries.
Proposal for Criminal Discovery Reform in New York
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Steven Banks, attorney-in-chief of The Legal Aid Society, Seymour W. James Jr., the attorney-in-charge of the society's criminal defense practice, and John Schoeffel, an attorney with the society's special litigation unit, write: Large states with big cities that ordinarily are considered akin to New York - including California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey - have utilized broad criminal discovery provisions for years. It is high time for New York to rectify its antiquated criminal discovery statute and join them.
Level the ERISA Playing Field
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Michael Quiat, managing partner of Uscher, Quiat, Uscher & Russo, writes: It is now almost three years since the New York State Insurance Department issued Circular Letter No. 14 claiming it " . . . is drafting regulations that would prohibit the use of discretionary clauses in all new and existing accident and health insurance policies, life insurance policies, annuity contracts and subscriber contracts upon renewal, modification, alteration or amendment . . . " But as yet there is no hint of a regulation which would give New York citizens the force of law they need to level the legal playing field.
Free: In Defense of AIG Employees
Friday, April 10, 2009
Kenneth P. Thompson and Andrew S. Goodstadt, partners at Thompson Wigdor & Gilly who represent almost 20 AIG employees in the financial products division who received the retention payments that have sparked a national furor write that it has been nearly impossible to open a newspaper, turn on the television or even attend a social function without being exposed to the public anger over AIG employees who recently received a total of $165 million in "bonuses." However, they say, the public's uproar over these payments, which has been fueled by the media and elected officials, is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of these payments, namely, that they are "bonuses" in the conventional sense and money rewarding employees for the failure of a bankrupt company.
Racial Impact of Quality of Life Policing
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Steven Zeidman, a professor of law at CUNY School of Law, writes: Imagine a place where the local police annually stop and frisk about 530,000 people, arrest 360,000, and issue summonses to another 600,000, for a staggering total of over 1.5 million such law-enforcement encounters. Imagine as well that close to 90 percent of those arrested, stopped and frisked, or issued a summons are people of color. You need not imagine; that is the reality in New York City.
The Deferred Associate: A Proposal
Monday, March 30, 2009
James M. McGuire, an associate justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, writes: The adverse impact of the financial crisis on law firms presents an opportunity for the soon-to-be lawyers whose promising careers have been put on hold, for the firms, for the court on which I'm privileged to serve and, I think, for the public. Why not invite these new attorneys to work with the justices of this court as law clerks? We certainly could use their help, and I'm confident they would be greatly enriched by the writing and analytic skills they would hone and by the knowledge, both substantive and procedural, they would acquire.
The DA: Not Ready When You Are
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Thomas M. O'Brien, an attorney with the special litigation unit of the Criminal Defense Practice of The Legal Aid Society, writes: There is a scenario that occurs in New York City Criminal Court in numerous cases. A case is scheduled for a trial to begin on a particular date. The accused appears in court. The defense attorney is there. The judge is there. Court personnel are there . . . At that point, the prosecutor on the case, or the designated courtroom assistant district attorney, announces that the prosecution is "not ready" for the trial. An adjournment is requested. The judge sets a new date for trial, some two or three months into the future, and the parties disperse. Presumably, the defendant's statutory right to a speedy trial - 90 days for a misdemeanor, will prevent the prosecutor from causing similar delay again. That might have been the intent of the Legislature, but the reality of the administration of criminal justice in New York City is radically different.
Reforms Would Reduce Wrongful Convictions
Monday, March 23, 2009
End Election of Judges
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Victor A. Kovner, the chair of the Fund and Committee for Modern Courts, writes: It is not enough only to provide for a commission-based appointive system for the selection of judges of our highest court. We need to end judicial elections now for all our courts, get the money and politics out of judicial selection in all courts, or at a bare minimum provide for public financing of judicial elections.
The 17th Amendment And Vacant Senate Seats
Friday, February 27, 2009
Jerry H. Goldfeder, special counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, writes: The vacancy provision in the 17th Amendment appears simple enough: if a state has opted to allow for a temporary appointee to the Senate, she may serve until an election is required pursuant to that jurisdiction's election code. In New York, in the circumstances of Ms. Clinton's vacancy, newly appointed Senator Kirsten Gillibrand does not face the voters until November 2010, almost two full years after assuming office. This revelation may have come as a surprise to most voters, indeed, to most lawyers who do not specialize in the area. The news is especially startling after an election year in which so many people were actively engaged.
Chekhov by My Desk
Thursday, February 19, 2009
William J. Dean, executive director of Volunteers of Legal Service, writes: Those of us who have a professional or official relation to the suffering of others - lawyers, judges, police, doctors, social workers, can benefit from reading Chekhov. He deepens our understanding of the human condition; a parlous condition, in his view.
Nomination Process Scants Diversity
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, writes: In a state as diverse as New York, the judiciary should not miss out on the contributions of female and minority jurists. A few structural changes would ensure that next time the governor will receive a more diverse short list.
Collegiality on an Appellate Court
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
David B. Saxe, an associate justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, offers some remarks and personal observations on the topic of judicial collegiality in the context of his participation in an intermediate appellate court.
Tribute to Justice Silbermann
Friday, December 26, 2008
John F. Werner, chief clerk and executive officer of New York County's Supreme Court, Civil Branch, and Robert C. Meade Jr., special counsel to the administrative judge, write that since becoming a judge in 1984, Justice Silbermann has sought to make a contribution to the public welfare because that is the kind of person she is - someone more interested in the well-being of others than in her own. She will leave behind a court system that is notably better for her having been here.
The Arrival of Henry Hudson
Monday, December 22, 2008
William J. Dean, executive director of Volunteers of Legal Service, writes: Next year marks the 400th anniversary of the 1609 arrival of Henry Hudson.
Free With Registration: Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Program
Friday, December 19, 2008
Ann Pfau, chief administrative judge of the New York state courts, writes: Early this Summer, as foreclosure filings in New York hit record levels, the New York State court system announced a Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Program, one of the first court-initiated programs in the country to address the residential foreclosure crisis. That program, piloted initially in Queens County, now serves as a model for our statewide efforts. It took on special importance in August with the enactment of the new foreclosure legislation, chapter 472 of the Laws of 2008.
Institutional Independence Of the Judiciary
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
In remarks given upon receipt of the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, Jonathan Lippman, presiding justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, said: So much of the criticism directed at judges and courts these days is predicated on a distorted concept of accountability. Well-funded and organized interest groups are campaigning to convince Americans that the judiciary is no different from the political branches of government. With the judiciary no longer sitting on a public pedestal or enjoying the kind of societal esteem that sustained us in the past, there is no greater challenge for court systems today than to prevent these efforts from metastasizing into broader attacks on the judiciary's capacity to govern itself as a co-equal branch of government.
