Executive Director, Bruce Iwasaki

Legal Services Myths

August, 2003

We in legal services often cling to beliefs that are simply unsupported by evidence. Not surprisingly, some of these mistaken views can undermine both our advocacy and our efforts to develop further resources.

1. Legal aid is unpopular with the public. Wrong. In fact, a national survey of 1200 American voters revealed that 89% of the public supports legal aid for low-income people. Support drops only 6% when the program is described as taxpayer funded.

Three out of four Americans support the full range of legal services work, regardless of how it is described. Support is strongest for providing legal advice to individuals (52% strongly favor and 35% somewhat favor), but a majority also supports going to court on behalf of individuals or groups (36% strongly favor and 42% somewhat favor).

2. The public knows what we at legal aid do. Also wrong. We are so close to things that we assume the general public has a clue about what we are about. While people support the principle of equal justice for all, nearly half of the public does not know that we even exist. Of the 51% who have heard of a government-funded program that provides civil legal help for low-income people, 61% are unable to identify it by name. Many people in legal services assume that people know what we do, but that we have to lower our heads because our cause is unpopular. The obverse is true. This suggests we should seize every opportunity to tell the stories of how we improve our clients' lives.

3. With respect to pro bono, private law firms are sellers. Most lawyers, and certainly most of the major law firms in town, are willing to provide pro bono legal assistance. We often mistakenly assume that that means they are selling their pro bono services as they do their other legal services, and that for us, obtaining pro bono assistance is like ordering a book from Amazon. Wrong. With respect to pro bono services, private law firms are buyers; we, the public interest programs, are the sellers. What do I mean?

In getting volunteer help from lawyers who already have plenty of paying clients, we have our client - the low-income person with a legal problem - but our customer for the "sale" is the private attorney. We need to understand what that customer wants to buy. It might be training for younger lawyers. It might be an interesting legal problem. It might be helping a vulnerable group that the law firm has a particular interest in.

We need to recognize what they are in the market for, and we need to care about making the sale. After all, pro bono assistance frees us up to do other work. It brings resources to the table that we might not otherwise have without great cost. And most important, it builds involvement by the private bar. I recently spoke to a senior partner in a law firm who remembers a pro bono case that Elena Ackel helped him with when he was a young lawyer over twenty years ago. He remembers it vividly. And he still feels a bond to LAFLA as a result.

4. The issue of government funding for civil legal services for the poor is a partisan political issue. The super-establishment American Bar Association is the strongest advocate for legal services before Congress. President Nixon signed the LSC Act. Former Senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, a conservative Republican, was the savior of LSC during the 1980s. Probably the most effective LSC president in recent years was John McKay, a Republican. House Appropriations subcommittee chair Frank Wolf (R-Va) pushed through an increase in LSC funding. Legal Services has enemies on the Republican side, no doubt, and more friends among Democrats. But it is by no means a partisan issue. There is a bipartisan consensus in favor of federal funding for legal aid - not major increases to be sure, and general support for more restrictions than we would favor - but the Gingrich era of being on the chopping block are in the past.

We can tout what we do with pride before any audience. Our work strengthening communities and supporting working families has broad appeal. We are not on the fringe. That does not mean we don't advance our clients' best interests as any other good lawyer does. But we don't have to be apologetic for a thing.

5. The more you say or write, the more information you communicate. One aspect of having passion for what we do - an essential element, I believe, for an excellent advocate - is we want to tell people everything, I mean everything. Our press releases go on for three pages. Speeches go on for fifteen minutes. And briefs take six pages before the main point is made. We somehow think that if we say it all, we are communicating it all. Wrong.

When someone gives me way, way more than I need - when what should be a two page memo goes on for eight pages - I conclude they lack sophisticated judgment, lack confidence in their position, or do not respect my time. Most judges have even less time and are properly less predisposed to be sympathetic than am I. Losing lawyers whine that the judge failed to understand the point they buried in an overlong brief. Eliminate clutter, identify the essential point, and make that point with clarity and economy.

6. The more vigorously you argue, the more persuasive you will be. Most new lawyers think that, and it's not really their fault. Law school does not teach how people reach decisions. All the time is spent on legal arguments over cases. This gives students a distorted view about how judges and juries decide on what version of facts they will accept. The paradox of persuasion is that the harder you push and the more you argue, the more likely you hit the sales resistance button of the people you are trying to persuade.

The art of advocacy is to make the fact-finder want you to win. That is not done with arguments, opinions and characterizations. Those are the enemies of persuasion. You do it with simple, honest facts that tell the story of a wrong to be set right.

The Conclusion: We all have a powerful story to tell. You just had one today with the client you spoke to. The antidote to legal services superstitions are the real life stories that we at LAFLA encounter literally sixty times a day. Everyday, as we face that reality, and convey it to others, LAFLA's effectiveness and reputation grow.

BGI