Michael S. Greco
President, American Bar Association
2006 ABA Midyear Meeting
National Association of Bar Executives
Business Meeting
Chicago, Illinois
February 9, 2006
I thank President Tom Edmonds for inviting me to say a few words today.
I commend Tom, President-Elect Allan Head, and all of the Board members and general
members of NABE for the outstanding work that you do with and for the bar associations of
America. Strong bar executives make all the difference in the world for volunteer leaders.
Without your leadership, and the dedication of your great staff members, we could accomplish
only a fraction of what we are able to do for the legal profession and the public.
I want to focus my remarks today on the magnificent work that bar associations across
the country are doing to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina and other recent natural disasters.
I understand that your plenary session this morning focused on disaster planning, and I’d like to
touch on that subject, as well.
In the six months since Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and left more than a million
Americans without homes, jobs or businesses, bar associations have answered the call to
service. I wish I had time to acknowledge all of the efforts that state and local bar associations
across the country have undertaken to help the people affected by Katrina and other hurricanes,
but if I did, we would be here a very long time. Let me simply say, on behalf of the entire
American Bar Association, thank you for your remarkable work.
And I thank the ABA Task Force on Hurricane Katrina, led by past ABA president N. Lee
Cooper of Alabama, which I appointed as Katrina was still raging, for leading the ABA’s
response to this disaster. The organized bar has shown tremendous character and strength of
spirit in stepping forward to help hurricane victims.
But we still have to do much more.
As hundreds of thousands of residents return to devastated areas, they will need help
with every conceivable legal need, from estate and tax issues to insurance and business-related
legal problems. More than 2,000 lawyers have already volunteered through the ABA Hurricane
Katrina website alone, and many more have offered to provide pro bono legal services for
hurricane victims through state and local legal services programs and bar association pro bono
programs.
The ABA Young Lawyers Division has once again provided much-needed help through
its Disaster Legal Services program, and the ABA Center for Pro Bono has matched volunteers
with needs on the ground. But until recently, a number of procedural and logistical roadblocks
have kept many volunteers from being able to provide help to those in need.
I am very pleased to report that those roadblocks are being lifted, state by state, to allow
volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono legal representation to hurricane victims. To date, 18
state supreme courts have adopted court orders allowing displaced lawyers from the Gulf region
to practice away from home. Working closely with the Presidents of the Louisiana, Mississippi
and Alabama state bars, we have helped secure temporary waivers of Unauthorized Practice of
Law rules to allow out-of-state lawyers to provide pro bono services to victims in the Gulf region.
With the Louisiana State Bar Association, the ABA recently asked the Louisiana
Supreme Court to amend its Emergency Pro Bono Civil Legal Assistance Rule to allow a
consortium of pro bono and legal services programs in Louisiana to supervise out-of-state
attorneys coming to the state to help hurricane victims.
The Louisiana Supreme Court responded to our request on January 20 with a revised
court order, which will allow for many more volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono services to
residents of Louisiana.
I acknowledge Loretta Larsen, Executive Director of the Louisiana State Bar Association,
and thank her for the state bar’s partnership with the ABA on this and other important issues
relating to the needs of hurricane victims.
I also want to recognize Larry Houchins, Executive Director of the Mississippi Bar, for his
tremendous efforts to respond to Hurricane Katrina and work with the ABA and other bar
associations to get help to lawyers and residents in need in Mississippi.
I had the pleasure of attending the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Midyear Meeting in
Baton Rouge three weeks ago and speaking with President Frank Neuner and other bar leaders
about how the ABA and bar associations across the country can help with recovery efforts.
State and local bar associations in Gulf States will also continue to need help and support in the
coming years to ensure that they can continue to serve lawyers and the public as hurricane
recovery proceeds through each stage.
I encourage your bar associations to continue to provide that assistance to your
colleagues in the Gulf States over the long term.
You can also learn from their experiences to prepare for potential future legal services
crises in your communities. One of the most difficult challenges that bar associations and legal
services providers in the Gulf States have faced has been effective coordination of emergency
legal assistance for disaster victims.
The court rules had to be revised, and new working partnerships between different
organizations had to be forged.
In light of the recently-revised Supreme Court order in Louisiana, legal services
organizations are coming together to coordinate their efforts more effectively and may even
seek to establish a statewide pro bono coordinator.
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Hurricane Katrina is not only the most destructive and costly disaster in our nation’s
history – it has also precipitated the biggest legal services crisis we have ever witnessed. The
response of the American legal profession must match the scale of the need.
It means that more lawyers must perform more pro bono work for people affected by this
disaster, and for all Americans needing help with basic legal needs. Even before the
destruction of the hurricanes, we already faced a situation where 70-80% of the legal needs of
lower-income Americans go unmet year after year. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
Hurricane Rita, and other storms that also struck in Florida and elsewhere last year are greatly
compounding this legal services crisis.
The ABA and state and local bar associations will continue help, and to provide pro bono
legal services to those in need, for as long as it takes people in the Gulf States to get back on
their feet.
We are one profession, and one people, and we are bound together in good times and
bad times, especially the bad times.
Working together, I know that we will get through this crisis. The ABA will be there for as
long as it takes, and I know your bar associations will be, too. Thank you for your kind attention
and hospitality, and best wishes for a productive and enjoyable meeting in Chicago.
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