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SPONSORS:
Marna S. Tucker (primary sponsor), Philip Anderson, Dennis
Archer, Martha Barnett, David Clark, N. Lee Cooper, Talbot
D’Alemberte, Mike Flowers, Michael Greco, Robert Grey, Robert
Hirshon, Kay Hodge, R. William Ide III, Robert Juceam, William
Paul, Deborah Perluss, William T. Robinson III, H. Thomas Wells,
Jr., Carole Worthington, and Stephen Zack.
PROPOSAL:
Amends §6.8(a) of the Constitution to provide for representation of
the National Legal Aid and Defender Association as an affiliated
organization in the House of Delegates.
Amends §6.8(a) of the Constitution to read as follows: (Legislative draft –
Additions underlined; deletions struck-through):
§6.8 Delegates from Affiliated Organizations. (a) The following
organizations are entitled to be represented in the House of Delegates as
affiliated organizations: The American Immigration Lawyers Association, The
American Judicature Society, the American Law Institute, the Association of
American Law Schools, the Association of Life Insurance Counsel, the
Conference of Chief Justices, the Energy Bar Association, the Federal Bar
Association, the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the Federal Communications
Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Judge Advocates
Association, the Maritime Law Association of the United States, the National
Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the National Association of Attorneys
General, the National Association of Bar Executives, the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National Association of Women Judges, the
National Association of Women Lawyers, the National Bar Association, the
National Conference of Bar Examiners, the National Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, the National Conference of Women’s
Bar Associations, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Legal
Aid and Defender Association, the National LGBT Bar Association, the National
Organization of Bar Counsel and the National Native American Bar Association.
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REPORT
The purpose of this amendment is to reinstate the National Legal Aid and Defender
Association (NLADA) as an affiliate organization with representation in the House of
Delegates. NLADA has been an affiliate member of the House and an active participant
and contributor to the House and to the ABA's policy development since 1956.
Due to unforeseen circumstances arising close in time to House of Delegate meetings,
NLADA's representative to the House was unable to attend three consecutive meetings.
NLADA has now put procedures in place to ensure that it will be represented in all
House of Delegates meetings going forward. Those procedures include: (1.) advance
written notification and justification for any absence from the representative submitted to
the NLADA President; (2) a presumption of replacement of the representative if two
consecutive meetings are missed; and (3.) designating an alternate for each House of
Delegates meeting who shall remain available (“on call”) in the event the representative
is unable to attend a meeting. NLADA will notify appropriate ABA leadership and staff
should a substitution become necessary.
NLADA, founded in 1911, is America's oldest and largest nonprofit association of legal
programs and professionals devoted to ensuring the delivery of legal services to those
who cannot afford counsel. NLADA's members are comprised of civil legal aid and
public defense attorneys, leaders, advocates, organizations and individuals who support
and work for equal justice in America. Over 100 years ago NLADA was charged with
two overarching goals: to work to improve and expand access to counsel for low income
people, and to do so in partnership with the private bar. Those mandates have been
achieved to a significant degree through NLADA's long and distinguished relationship
with the ABA.
In the 1940's NLADA was a part of the ABA and in 1945 the ABA appropriated funds to
promote the organization (then known as The National Association of Legal Aid
Organizations) through state and local bar associations. NLADA's mission, members
and work are directly linked to the ABA goal of “assuring meaningful access to justice
for all persons” and to four ABA legislative priorities: access to legal services; criminal
justice system improvements; eliminating discrimination; and immigration. Its members
and leadership have sat and presently sit on the ABA's Standing Committee on Legal
Aid and Indigent Defendants, the Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service,
the Criminal Justice Section's Council and the Indigent Defense Advisory Group. At the
same time, many of the ABA's current and past leaders, including former ABA
presidents, have also served in leadership positions at NLADA. The ABA and NLADA
worked together to create the Legal Services Corporation and expand public defense in
America, and have collaborated to produce the Standards for the Provision of Civil
Legal Aid, the Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System, the Standards for
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the Delivery of Public Defense Services, the Standards for Representation in Death
Penalty Cases and other critical policy resolutions adopted by the ABA House. The
ABA and NLADA continue to work closely on securing adequate funding for legal aid
and public defense.
In 1999, the ABA and NLADA partnered to produce the first Equal Justice Conference,
which convenes pro bono and legal aid advocates nationwide, and that partnership
continues to produce the profession’s largest legal aid and pro bono gathering. Our
collaboration on the State Planning Assistance Network has spawned Access to Justice
Commissions around the country. When NLADA celebrated its Centennial in 2011, the
organization highlighted the two Associations' long-term relationship by asking the ABA
President to be Honorary Chairman of the NLADA Board when his term as ABA
President had ended. In sum, the close alliance between our organizations has been
and will be beneficial not only for the ABA, NLADA and our respective members, but
also in securing access to justice in America.
NLADA's role in the House of Delegates not only brings the experience and knowledge
of the legal aid and public defender community to the deliberations of the House, it also
advances the ABA's commitment to a more diverse society and legal profession. Like
the ABA, NLADA has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. The clients
served by our member institutions are often women, people of color, the disabled, and
the elderly. Our institutional members include some of the most diverse legal staffs in
our profession.
For more than a century, NLADA and the ABA have worked together to insure fairness,
access, and justice for the most disadvantaged in our nation. It is essential that that
engagement continue, particularly in the House of Delegates.
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