Legal Aid Steps Up Effort To Enlist Services of Soon-to-Retire Attorneys
Friday, October 27
- Organization: New York Law Journal
According to a recent Wisconsin Law Review article with the unfortunate title "Old and in the Way," some 400,000 attorneys throughout the United States - or roughly 40 percent of America's 1 million lawyers - will retire over the next several years.
These lawyers of the baby boom generation, aged 55 to early 60-something, are sound of mind and body for the most part. They are also experienced and financially secure.
But if they are, say, uninterested in spending their so-called golden years playing shuffleboard in Coconuts, Fla., they can be panicked about the future.
Or as Allen Joslyn put it during a talk he gave Monday to graying attorneys still on the payroll, "What in God's name am I going to do?"
Mr. Joslyn, retired from the partnership at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, found an answer.
Nowadays, he plies his corporate litigation experience on behalf of the poor seeking counsel through the Legal Aid Society when their landlords want to send them packing.
"Doing good is fine," an ebullient Mr. Joslyn told the 50 or so boomers assembled at the midtown offices of Kaye Scholer by Legal Aid officials eager to recruit veterans on the cusp of retirement. "But litigation-now that's sport. I love sport."
Sport minus the distractions of the demands of large-firm life, Mr. Joslyn added.
"There's no pressure about going out and getting new clients, and you don't have to worry about billing them," he said.
Of his new colleagues, staff attorneys at Legal Aid, Mr. Joslyn added, "I've never had a conflict with anybody there, and that's something I can't say about private firms."
Mr. Joslyn's message-along with those of other Legal Aid volunteers old enough to remember watching Elvis Presley's maiden appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"-resonated with senior attorneys from several large firms around the city gathered for Monday's meal of sandwiches, salad and reassurance.
Host for the recruiting event was David Klingsberg, special counsel and former chairman of Kaye Scholer and a member of Legal Aid's board of directors, who reminded the assembly, "This is a senior project, not a senile project."
For several years, Legal Aid has quietly welcomed lawyers to its Buttenwieser Senior Attorney Project, offering pro bono opportunities for those who have "reached a stage in their careers where they are willing and able to devote time on a sustained basis to assist those unable to pay," according to sign-up literature.
Named for the attorney and philanthropist Helen Lehman Buttenwieser (1905-1989), who in the late 1940s investigated and helped reform New York state's adoption system, the project recently has been given added emphasis by Legal Aid officials in view of what Mr. Klingsberg called the "staggering" number of lawyers aged 55 to 60 looking toward a "season for second service."
Mutual Opportunity
Theodore A. Levine, incoming president of the Legal Aid Society and of counsel at Wachtel, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, sees mutual opportunity behind the high numbers.
"No matter what you did in your career, there is opportunity to use that wisdom and experience at Legal Aid," he told the audience at Kaye Scholer.
"What Legal Aid does is what your firms do," said Steven Banks, Legal Aid's attorney-in-chief. "We're a law firm for poor people with a whole range of problems."
The Buttenwieser project is flexible, said Mr. Klingsberg, enough so that volunteers may work as little as one day a week-from home or from a Legal Aid office.
In particular, said Mr. Banks, Legal Aid staff attorneys need back-up in civil matters from volunteer lawyers. He explained that while government pays the tab for indigent defendants in criminal matters, the poor are on their own on the civil side.
"We face a justice gap," said Mr. Banks. "The hardest thing we do is turn people away-to certain eviction, to certain deportation."
The heads of 10 Legal Aid bureaus-family law, community development, HIV/AIDS, elder law, juvenile rights, disability advocacy, immigration, employment, affirmative litigation and general neighborhood practice-were on hand at the luncheon to explain their practice needs to potential volunteers.
"Not only do we try to match [volunteer] lawyers to assignments, but also to locations," said April Newbauer, attorney-in-charge of the civil division of Legal Aid's neighborhood office in Kew Gardens, Queens, which she noted was convenient for Long Island and Westchester commuters.
Unfamiliar Territory
A number of potential volunteers among the attendees were transactional attorneys who expressed interest in a second career inside the unfamiliar territory of courtrooms.
"We offer on-the-job training by a dedicated staff," said David Weschler, attorney-in-charge of Legal Aid's pro bono program. "We're very good at being teachers."
John Young, 71, was an on-the-job trainee a decade ago. Retired as a partner at Whitman, Breed, Abbott & Morgan and as counsel for the Chubb Insurance Group, it was not until he became a Buttenwieser lawyer that he saw the inside of the New York City Family Court.
"I might as well have been in Kabul," said Mr. Young, who said his Legal Aid assignment as law guardian to abused and neglected children required his undergoing a "steep learning curve," which included cooperating with staff social workers.
"I don't know how I would have gotten through my first years of retirement without a desk at Legal Aid and a good caseload," he told his younger but soon-to-be-idle colleagues.
Mr. Young then asked, "How many of you have grandchildren?" Many hands shot up.
When lawyers go to court in the cause of poor youngsters the age of their own grandchildren, said Mr. Young, "the payoff is indescribable."
He added, "If you've got the guts, we've got the job."
- Thomas Adcock can be reached at tadcock@alm.com.
These lawyers of the baby boom generation, aged 55 to early 60-something, are sound of mind and body for the most part. They are also experienced and financially secure.
But if they are, say, uninterested in spending their so-called golden years playing shuffleboard in Coconuts, Fla., they can be panicked about the future.
Or as Allen Joslyn put it during a talk he gave Monday to graying attorneys still on the payroll, "What in God's name am I going to do?"
Mr. Joslyn, retired from the partnership at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, found an answer.
Nowadays, he plies his corporate litigation experience on behalf of the poor seeking counsel through the Legal Aid Society when their landlords want to send them packing.
"Doing good is fine," an ebullient Mr. Joslyn told the 50 or so boomers assembled at the midtown offices of Kaye Scholer by Legal Aid officials eager to recruit veterans on the cusp of retirement. "But litigation-now that's sport. I love sport."
Sport minus the distractions of the demands of large-firm life, Mr. Joslyn added.
"There's no pressure about going out and getting new clients, and you don't have to worry about billing them," he said.
Of his new colleagues, staff attorneys at Legal Aid, Mr. Joslyn added, "I've never had a conflict with anybody there, and that's something I can't say about private firms."
Mr. Joslyn's message-along with those of other Legal Aid volunteers old enough to remember watching Elvis Presley's maiden appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"-resonated with senior attorneys from several large firms around the city gathered for Monday's meal of sandwiches, salad and reassurance.
Host for the recruiting event was David Klingsberg, special counsel and former chairman of Kaye Scholer and a member of Legal Aid's board of directors, who reminded the assembly, "This is a senior project, not a senile project."
For several years, Legal Aid has quietly welcomed lawyers to its Buttenwieser Senior Attorney Project, offering pro bono opportunities for those who have "reached a stage in their careers where they are willing and able to devote time on a sustained basis to assist those unable to pay," according to sign-up literature.
Named for the attorney and philanthropist Helen Lehman Buttenwieser (1905-1989), who in the late 1940s investigated and helped reform New York state's adoption system, the project recently has been given added emphasis by Legal Aid officials in view of what Mr. Klingsberg called the "staggering" number of lawyers aged 55 to 60 looking toward a "season for second service."
Mutual Opportunity
Theodore A. Levine, incoming president of the Legal Aid Society and of counsel at Wachtel, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, sees mutual opportunity behind the high numbers.
"No matter what you did in your career, there is opportunity to use that wisdom and experience at Legal Aid," he told the audience at Kaye Scholer.
"What Legal Aid does is what your firms do," said Steven Banks, Legal Aid's attorney-in-chief. "We're a law firm for poor people with a whole range of problems."
The Buttenwieser project is flexible, said Mr. Klingsberg, enough so that volunteers may work as little as one day a week-from home or from a Legal Aid office.
In particular, said Mr. Banks, Legal Aid staff attorneys need back-up in civil matters from volunteer lawyers. He explained that while government pays the tab for indigent defendants in criminal matters, the poor are on their own on the civil side.
"We face a justice gap," said Mr. Banks. "The hardest thing we do is turn people away-to certain eviction, to certain deportation."
The heads of 10 Legal Aid bureaus-family law, community development, HIV/AIDS, elder law, juvenile rights, disability advocacy, immigration, employment, affirmative litigation and general neighborhood practice-were on hand at the luncheon to explain their practice needs to potential volunteers.
"Not only do we try to match [volunteer] lawyers to assignments, but also to locations," said April Newbauer, attorney-in-charge of the civil division of Legal Aid's neighborhood office in Kew Gardens, Queens, which she noted was convenient for Long Island and Westchester commuters.
Unfamiliar Territory
A number of potential volunteers among the attendees were transactional attorneys who expressed interest in a second career inside the unfamiliar territory of courtrooms.
"We offer on-the-job training by a dedicated staff," said David Weschler, attorney-in-charge of Legal Aid's pro bono program. "We're very good at being teachers."
John Young, 71, was an on-the-job trainee a decade ago. Retired as a partner at Whitman, Breed, Abbott & Morgan and as counsel for the Chubb Insurance Group, it was not until he became a Buttenwieser lawyer that he saw the inside of the New York City Family Court.
"I might as well have been in Kabul," said Mr. Young, who said his Legal Aid assignment as law guardian to abused and neglected children required his undergoing a "steep learning curve," which included cooperating with staff social workers.
"I don't know how I would have gotten through my first years of retirement without a desk at Legal Aid and a good caseload," he told his younger but soon-to-be-idle colleagues.
Mr. Young then asked, "How many of you have grandchildren?" Many hands shot up.
When lawyers go to court in the cause of poor youngsters the age of their own grandchildren, said Mr. Young, "the payoff is indescribable."
He added, "If you've got the guts, we've got the job."
- Thomas Adcock can be reached at tadcock@alm.com.
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