Hats off to Claire Flom: education and the importance of being involved.

AuthorKaye, Judith S.

I begin the Claire Flom Memorial Lecture with an expression of regret that I did not have the privilege of working alongside our honoree, whose vision and energy continue to this day to inspire us. When choosing a title I knew immediately that "Hats Off to Claire Flom" would be part of it, capturing both her love of hats and the honor we pay her.

Where should I begin among the many causes she supported--cancer research at the New York University Medical Center; health law policy, biotechnology, and bioethics at Harvard; the Food Allergy Initiative; the Innocence Project; City College; the extraordinary Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham University School of Law--indeed Fordham University itself, which she proudly served as a Trustee.

Each is enormously important, but for me the choice of topic easily is her deep commitment to educational equity for all schoolchildren. I think most especially of the Gateway School, dedicated to students with learning differences, and pause to mention my own former Law Clerk, Audra Zuckerman, who left a brilliant career in the law to co-found the Ideal School of Manhattan, dedicated to integrating children with special needs into an inclusive environment. (1) Both of these extraordinary women underscore my message tonight, which is that caring, concerned individuals undeniably can make a vital difference for our nation's children. My fellow Barnard alum Margaret Mead said it best: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Throughout her life, Claire Flom brought her wisdom and drive to public schools and education, ultimately founding and presiding over the New York Alliance for Public Schools, a comprehensive public-private network of educators and other professionals dedicated to everything from research, to mentor programs, to career-related courses, to the improvement of our public school system. Whether paving the way for children with learning differences, or otherwise helping to assure a first-rate New York City public school system, Claire Flom lived and breathed the truth that education is a fundamental right that enables people to participate in our democracy. To my mind that was never more true than today, given our Internetted, highly technological world. We simply cannot afford to squander our nation's most precious resource: our children.

This lecture deservedly honors Claire Flora, and of course Joe and Judi Flom, and the entire Flom family. Thank you for the innumerable ongoing projects you nurture that enable people of all ages to realize their dreams--students in our schools and colleges; Skadden Fellows (2) and Skadden Scholars; (3) as well as other young lawyers advancing the public interest around the globe; even this older lawyer proud and delighted to be at one of the world's pre-eminent law firms, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flora--and that give true meaning every single day to our professional values, including the importance of pro bono service.

Two invariable truths are immediately established beyond all doubt: that education matters, or put another way, that kids--particularly at-risk kids--lacking or denied an education have a distinctly diminished chance of making it in today's world; and that every single one of us can and must help to make a difference for them.

In preparing this lecture, I ran across the following New York Times quote from a great educator and administrator, John Brademas: "Claire Flom and people like her will determine the future of New York's schools. ... She embodies the spirit of private citizens who care deeply about the city's public schools." (4)

And are we not--every single one of us--those private citizens who care deeply about New York City's public schools? For every child, for every one of our City's more than 1.1 million schoolchildren, (5) we care because it's their future. But we care as well because we know that their future is our future too. It's the future of our City, our nation, our world.

Recognizing that my subject is vast, I would like to offer as a guidepost the concept of early intervention. As with so many things in life, a little attention to a problem at the outset can avoid incalculable cost later on. This is nowhere more true than with respect to children.

I happen to have spent my own "growing up" lawyer years in an entirely different universe, as a commercial litigator, determined to penetrate the white-shoe law firm universe, which seemed most unattainable for women back in the early 1960s. I thoroughly enjoyed two great decades in that universe, leading in 1983 to my appointment to the Court of Appeals, New York State's high court, where I served for the next twenty-five-plus years, until reaching mandatory retirement on December 31, 2008.

Given my commercial litigation background, you can understand that, in 1990, when then-Chief Judge Sol Wachtler invited me to chair his newly formed Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, I thought it was a preposterous idea--too zany to be taken seriously. And I told him precisely that. But the Chief Judge persisted (as Chief Judges are wont to do), and ultimately I caved. To this day, twenty-one years later, I continue to chair the Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children. It was a transformative event in my life.

I only wish I had been sensitive to children's issues far earlier. What held me back may be true for a lot of us: how to advance, let alone secure, justice for children was a complete mystery to me. The subject was hardly a focus of law school attention, law firm attention, or public attention back in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, or even today. Kids, after all, don't vote and they don't have political clout. Individually and systemically, they depend on caring parents and families. And many...

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