LSC BOARD OF DIRECTORS VISITS LOUISVILLE
The problems of legal services delivery in rural areas, the challenges facing legal aid lawyers in the Gulf Coast states following the oil drilling disaster, and the new Access to Justice Commission in Kentucky were among the presentations to the LSC Board of Directors at its fourth quarterly meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 18th and 19th. It was the first meeting of the full Board as nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Louisville attorney Victor Maddox, partner at Fultz, Maddox, Hovious & Dickens, is a recently confirmed member of the LSC Board.
Board members began their activities with a visit to the offices of the Legal Aid Society and were briefed on civil legal assistance in Kentucky by the executive directors of the four LSC-funded programs in the state: Jeffrey A. Been of the Legal Aid Society, Scott K. Crocker of Kentucky Legal Aid, Richard A. Cullison of Legal Aid of the Bluegrass, and Cynthia Elliott of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky. Michael Brooks, a client representative on the Legal Aid Society board, told the LSC directors that without LSC support “our lives would be meaningless.”
At a reception honoring the LSC Board to Louisville later that evening, six Kentucky attorneys and two law firms were presented with certificates of appreciation from LSC for their extraordinary commitment and pro bono service to low-income Kentuckians. Frost Brown Todd attorney Marshall Eldred and law firm Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs were among those honored.
Laurel S. Doheny, president of the Louisville Bar Association, welcomed the honorees and LSC to the reception, and Cynthia W. Young, the Legal Aid Society board chair, introduced the keynote speaker, Justice Lisabeth Abramson of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
"As economists and pundits debate recessions, economic downturns and rebounding economies, all around us life goes on,” said Justice Abramson. “For many Kentucky citizens, life goes on without full-time employment, with excessive consumer debt, with fear of foreclosure and in all too many homes, with domestic violence fueled by some or all of the above."
After discussing Kentucky’s continuing high unemployment rate, she noted that "it is scarcely surprising that the four legal aid organizations in Kentucky received an average of 4,000 calls per month last year from people who qualified for legal services. I would like to be able to tell you that everyone who placed a call received the needed legal service, but of course I cannot say that, and those who are present in this room know why: the need is so great that it exceeds our current ability to respond."
Thanking the honorees for their service, she said, “These individuals and firms have devoted their time and expertise so our fellow citizens who otherwise could not afford legal services will have the benefit of a skilled attorney's advice, may achieve necessary access to the courts and can acquire some peace of mind in the ordering of their personal legal affairs."
LSC Board Chairman John Levi introduced members of the LSC Board at the reception and noted that recently released Census Bureau poverty statistics show nearly 57 million Americans qualify for civil legal assistance. “That means that pro bono volunteers are more important than ever before,” he said.