Michael S. Greco
President, American Bar Association
Association of American Law Schools
Annual Meeting
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
January 4, 2006
President Hines, members of the AALS House of Representatives, friends and
colleagues thank you for inviting me to address this gathering and bring greetings from the
American Bar Association.
I am pleased that the relationship between the ABA and the AALS continues to be a
strong and productive one.
Our organizations work together on several issues of critical importance to the legal
profession and legal academy. For instance, our cooperative efforts to improve the diversity of
law school student bodies and to address loan repayment and forgiveness issues for law
graduates are bearing fruit.
Although Congress did not complete its work on higher education before adjourning for
the holiday break, the temporary authorization of education programs through March 31, 2006,
gives us an opportunity to advocate further for measures such as student loan repayment
assistance programs for law school graduates who accept low-paying, public interest
employment.
The Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program has received funding
through fiscal year 2006 as a direct result of the cooperative work between ABA and AALS to
bring attention to the tremendous value of this program.
We continue to struggle to maintain and improve the diversity of law school student
bodies. While total enrollment of students of color has increased along with total enrollments in
recent years, the percentage of minority enrollment has remained stable at about 20 - 21%, and
the percentage of African American and Hispanic JD students has actually declined somewhat.
The ABA has embarked on an ambitious new collaborative effort to promote diversity in
legal education, beginning with an outstanding conference that was held at Rice University in
Houston this past November to expand the pipeline of diverse students entering law school.
To address the dramatic under-representation of people with disabilities in the legal
profession, the ABA is sponsoring the first-ever National Conference on the Employment of
Lawyers with Disabilities in Washington, DC this May.
Clearly, our work to promote diversity in the legal profession and public interest careers
is not completed. We have an opportunity to continue to make our voices heard in Congress
during ABA Day in Washington, which will be held on May 3-4 this year.
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ABA Day provides an opportunity for leaders in the profession to meet with members of
Congress and advocate on issues such as student loan repayment programs, which was a top
priority at ABA Day last year and promises to be high on the agenda again this year. These
measures are so important because they directly affect the ability of new lawyers to fulfill the
public service mission of the profession.
One of my primary initiatives as president of the ABA is to spark a Renaissance of
Idealism in the legal profession: a reaffirmation of the core values and commitment to public
service that has guided our profession from the beginning of this nation.
I want to help reinvigorate and reenergize this commitment to pro bono and public
service work and with your help to nurture and expand it for generations of lawyers to come.
I believe that law students and young lawyers are among the most effective advocates
for changes that we must make as a profession and as a society to ensure that lawyers can
continue to pursue careers, and volunteer opportunities, in public service.
In order to realize this goal, lawyers must strike a balance in their lives and practices.
One of the keys to that balance is time freeing up time for lawyers to pursue public service
careers and volunteer opportunities in law firms, in government offices, in any setting where a
lawyer practices law.
I am committing the resources of the ABA to make the case with decision-makers in
America s law offices that it is in the best interest of the lawyer, the lawyers place of
employment, the profession, and the American people, that we free up time to help people in
need, to participate more fully in our communities, and to give lawyers greater fulfillment in their
professional lives.
Another key to achieving balance is ensuring that financial obstacles do not discourage
talented law students and graduates from pursuing careers in public interest and public sector
law. With the average educational debt load approaching $50,000 for public law school
graduates and $80,000 for private law school graduates, the majority of new lawyers are not
able to pursue public interest or public sector jobs, or if they do, they are forced to leave after
just a few years to take higher-paying jobs that allow them to repay their loans.
What can the legal academy and the practicing bar do to help address these
challenges?
The joint legislative advocacy efforts of the ABA and the AALS are an excellent start, but
we all must do more to encourage and enable law students to pursue public interest and pro
bono work. The practicing bar has an ethical responsibility to devote more time to pro bono
work, and law schools can place more emphasis on professionalism issues while continuing to
provide substantial pro bono opportunities to students.
We all recognize the enormous pressures placed on new lawyers, and I am not
suggesting that we adopt a naïve view of the realities of the modern practice of law. But we
must also embrace the opportunity and obligation -- to make changes that will maintain the
integrity and commitment to public service of the legal profession.
This commitment to public service and caring for others was demonstrated by the
response of the legal community to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of lawyers
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have signed up to volunteer their services to help victims, and the ABA Task Force on Hurricane
Katrina that I appointed even as that storm was still ravaging the Gulf Coast states, has been
coordinating the profession s commendable response to the largest legal services crisis in our
nation s history.
More than 170 law schools responded to an invitation from the AALS and the ABA
Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to post offers to host displaced students
from Tulane and Loyola New Orleans as visiting students for the fall 2005 semester. Almost
1,000 students from the two schools were so hosted, and almost all without being charged
tuition by host schools.
On behalf of the ABA, I extend thanks and congratulations to the host schools and best
wishes to Tulane and Loyola New Orleans as they prepare to reopen at their home campuses
next week.
Finally, I take this opportunity to commend the legal academy for dramatically expanding
the amount and variety of skills training experiences offered in U.S. law schools.
A study by the ABA s Curriculum Committee published earlier this year found that skills
training opportunities have experienced tremendous growth over the past decade. The
expansion of live client clinical offerings and simulation skills courses in trial and appellate
advocacy, pre-trial advocacy, planning and drafting, interviewing, counseling, and alternative
dispute resolution is helping to prepare law students to be better lawyers.
Thank you for your kind attention, and for your tremendous work to prepare the lawyers
of tomorrow.
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