Public service in a time of crisis: a report and retrospective on the legal community's response to the events of September 11, 2001.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. The New York Legal Community's Response to 9/11

   Adversity almost always has a counterpoint. From scandal comes reform; from disease comes medical advance .... The tragedy with which we are coping has revealed the bar's deepest character, and that character is admirable.

   --Evan Davis, Past President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

   A. Introduction

   The attacks on September 11, 2001 were unprecedented in scope, and the legal needs that grew out of the attacks were varied and far-reaching. This report summarizes the response of the legal community to these needs. The response was fast, thoughtful, comprehensive, and creative. And as a result, thousands of people were helped and thousands of lawyers were able to use their professional talents and skills in a manner that both led to important services being provided to people in need and resulted in great personal satisfaction.

   More than 4,000 individuals and families who were affected by the disaster were represented on a pro bono basis by volunteer lawyers. Approximately 3,000 lawyers received 9/11 training through the City Bar and in-house law firm programs using City Bar resources and more than 2,800 lawyers registered on the ProBono.net 9/11 website to gain information and resources. The individuals and families who suffered loss had significant needs.

   Survivors had to adjust to the unexpected loss of their loved ones. They also had to oversee numerous other depressingly practical details including arranging funerals and burials, balancing financial obligations, applying for aid, administering estates, applying for death certificates, etc. Other victims (1) had more basic financial needs--between 3,000 and 6,000 individuals and families were displaced from their homes, hundreds of businesses were destroyed, and more than 100,0000 people, by some estimates, lost their jobs. Still other victims had immigration, deportation, and discrimination fears. In response to 9/11, the institutions that make up the New York area legal community collaborated in ways never previously imagined. Where turf battles once existed, cooperation prevailed.

   The City Bar took the lead in organizing and coordinating the relief effort, serving as the central coordination point for a large majority of the legal community's individual relief initiatives. Individual lawyers from all practice areas and all firm sizes poured forth in unprecedented numbers to provide day-to-day counseling and legal advice. A "Facilitator" concept was developed to provide comprehensive service to each client, eliminating the need for the client to find multiple sources of legal expertise. Technology was utilized in the intake and referral of new clients and to share information among lawyers providing 9/11 services. You will find in this report a summary of these efforts. In Part I, we describe what we considered to be the overarching keys to the efforts--what we call the Foundations. These included the collaborative efforts of many legal service providers, the City Bar serving as a central hub to provide overall coordination, the creation of the Facilitator Project, the training that was developed, and the key role of technology.

   In Part II we discuss some of the specific projects that were implemented to assist clients, and in Part III we summarize the ongoing efforts and some of the unmet needs. These sections constitute the bulk of the report. The projects that were created were interesting, thoughtfully structured and ultimately very useful to the victims. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the reality is that not all needs were identified early enough and not all needs identified were met. Lawyers are, however, continuing to work on providing additional assistance to meet ongoing needs.

   Parts IV and V describe the results of surveys we undertook of lawyers and law firms. A total of 293 lawyers completed an online survey, and twenty law firms and corporations answered questions about their 9/11 efforts. While the survey respondents were only a small sample of the total universe of lawyers and law firms that provided pro bono services, the data does provide insight about the volunteer lawyers and their experiences.

   Finally, in Part VI we have attempted to distill and identify some of the lessons that the experience of responding to 9/11 has taught us as a legal community. Eighteen such lessons are identified in three broad categories: the community aspects of the response, the more practical aspects of responding to a disaster, and finally, ways in which the 9/11 relief effort could have been improved. Common themes running through the report and the lessons learned include the usefulness of coordination and collaboration, the vital importance of nonprofit legal services organizations, the value of innovation and flexibility, and the willingness of large groups of lawyers to volunteer to help those in need. Suggestions for improving future legal relief efforts include expanding the efforts to obtain feedback from clients and working continually to build relationships with social services agencies like the United Way and the Red Cross.

   B. Summary

   We were not able to survey individual clients to directly document the impact of lawyers' work, but our limited feedback shows tremendous gratitude from people who were assisted in dealing with difficult issues. They received crucial assistance at a time of unique vulnerability, and with the passage of time and the cementing of relationships, those few we contacted expressed their appreciation of this. Likewise, the lawyers found their own lives enriched both by their new relationships with their 9/11 clients and by their satisfaction in having been able to help people in need.

   The legal community organized its relief effort for the benefit of those affected by 9/11, but in the end there were many beneficiaries, including those directly affected, the lawyers and other volunteers who helped, and the legal community as a community, not to mention New York City itself. There can be little doubt that 9/ 11 was the catalyst for what can aptly be characterized as a "defining moment" for the legal profession. The pages that follow validate that claim by describing the services provided, profiling the lawyers who delivered them, and illustrating the results.

   One of our volunteers was called by the brother of someone who ... was killed on the 104th floor of World Trade Center. The brother asked her to meet him for lunch ... and she went. It was September 11th, 2002 and the brother said to her, 'My tribute to my brother is to meet the person who is helping his family and say "Thank you." That's what I wanted to do today, on September 11th.' --Christopher Placitella, Past President, Association of Trial Lawyers of America--New Jersey PART I. FOUNDATIONS OF THE LEGAL COMMUNITY'S RESPONSE

   A. Coordinated, Collaborative Response

   The legal community's response to 9/11 was coordinated and collaborative among all its elements, including the courts, bar associations, legal service organizations, the private bar, in-house counsel, government attorneys, and law schools. Of these, the bar associations, legal service organizations, and private law firms played the key roles in organizing and executing a comprehensive program to aid those affected by 9/11, but each segment of the legal community made special contributions to the effort.

   1. From Planning to Action

      Judges from the New York state court system, led by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, played various roles in the legal relief effort, including spearheading an early effort to encourage the private bar to work together in responding to the tragic events and, as will be discussed in greater detail later, playing a central role in formulating a plan to provide survivors with expedited death certificates. But even before the events of September 11, 2001, the courts were advancing a collaborative effort by the legal community to respond to the tremendous need for legal services by the poor and disadvantaged. In fact, on the very day of the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., New York's first ever Access to Justice Conference was being convened in Albany for the purpose of bringing together members of the civil justice community to exchange ideas and develop partnerships to increase access to the legal system by the poor and others who are disadvantaged.

      The more than 250 participants expected at the conference included a plethora of state court judges, court administrators, leaders from organizations in New York City and throughout the state whose organizations provide free legal services to the indigent, executive staff from the major bar associations, law professors, government lawyers, and numerous others from across the country who regularly concern themselves with how America's most vulnerable citizens obtain basic legal services.

      The two-day conference was scheduled to open at 11:00 a.m. with a panel discussion that would frame the issues confronting the legal community in its effort to expand access to legal services throughout New York State. The conference had been organized under the leadership of Judge Juanita Bing Newton, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Justice Initiatives, and she was thrilled when her staff informed her at 8:30 that morning that everything was in place and ready for the conference.

      Shortly thereafter, though, the situation changed radically when the conference planners learned of the terrorist attacks in New York City and participants learned of the tragic events while en route to the conference or as they arrived in Albany. Judge Bing Newton decided the conference should go forward, and while some of the participants decided to return home rather than remain at the conference, approximately two-thirds of the scheduled participants remained in Albany and convened the Access to Justice Conference.

      Within hours of the attack and in...