President's Message
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Pages | 04 |
WELCOME
The Noble Profession
BY NATHANIEL BACA
Today, I want you to consider the unique tapestry of your world—the unique skills, opportunities, and interactions that led to this exact moment in time. Perhaps you are at home on the weekend, with a dog nearby, opening your pristine copy of Colorado Lawyer. Or maybe, you are at a cafe, waiting in line and reading Colorado Lawyer on your phone. Maybe still, you are sitting in your office, in the middle of a Zoom meeting, having reached into your briefcase, handbag, or messenger bag to pull out a crinkly edged copy of Colorado Lawyer (not that you would ever shift your focus away from the muted chorus of faces on the screen).
And while you are taking this moment, I invite you to look around, relax, and stretch your toes. If there is a small table in front of you, rest your feet and get comfortable. Ultimately, why not get comfortable? Why not enjoy this moment? Because, on this day, in this place, after all, this article is written for you.
With the end of summer upon us and a new school year rapidly approaching, let us think of the things that we have accomplished together. We have a lot to celebrate as lawyers.
We stand on the cusp of the 50th anniversary of the passage of bipartisan enabling legislation for the Legal Services Corporation.[1] President Nixon—a lawyer—upon signing the legislation, described legal services as "a workhorse" in the effort to secure equal rights in America.[2] And as Senator Robert Taft Jr.—a lawyer—stated in support of the legislation, "I feel that our society today has come to recognize, on a far broader basis than ever before, the desirability and necessity of providing adequate legal remedies to all our citizens . . . ."[3]
We stand at the 60th anniversary of the unanimous decision in Gideon, where the Court proclaimed under the pen of Justice Black that "[t]he right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours."[4]
We stand on the cusp of the 70th anniversary of the groundbreaking decision in Brown v. Board of Education,[5] a case that has come to epitomize the capacity of our legal system to enact profound change. Its significance cannot be overstated, for it was a clarion call that ushered in a new era for our great nation. The case marked a fundamental turning...
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