July 23, 1999
THE WHITE HOUSE — This week President Clinton issued a call to action to the Nation's legal community to renew President Kennedy's call to American's lawyers 36 years ago that enlisted the legal profession in the fight for equal justice.
The call for action marks the 36th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's call to action on June 21, 1963.
In the spring of '63, Governor George Wallace announced that he would defy an order by a federal judge to open the University Alabama to black students. In response, President Kennedy called upon national bar leaders to issue a joint statement condemning the Governor's action. Forty-four lawyers responded by issuing a declaration deploring Wallace's stand. Soon after, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy commenced meetings with bar leaders to discuss how to mobilize the nation's lawyers to combat racism.
As a result, on June 21, 1963, over 200 lawyers assembled in the East room to meet with President Ken-nedy. It was the first time a group of the nation's top lawyers had come together to focus on civil rights. President Kennedy had set the tone for the meeting earlier in the month when he stated; "We are confronted, primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated."
Over the past year the Department of Justice and the White House on the Pre-sident's Initiative for One American have worked closely with bar associations, private sector lawyers and law schools to develop an action agenda aimed at getting the legal profession more involved in promoting diversity and closing racial opportunity gaps.
Through these efforts the President has announced the following commitments in response to his challenge:
American Bar Association will undertake a major new initiative to ensure greater racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession. Under the leadership of its incoming President William G. Paul, the initiative will involve lawyers, academics, law firms and bar associations throughout the country in activities such as providing financial assistance to law students and mentoring law students and young lawyers to help them become successful practitioners. The ABA, with membership of over 400,000 attorneys, also will expand its existing program to foster greater use of minority law firms by America's corporations and to involve lawyers in providing free legal services for the disadvantaged.
American Corporate Counsel Association will encourage its members to retain minority counsel and law firms. ACCA will work with its 11,000 members, who control billions of dollars of legal fees, to implement their initiatives. ACCA has also will promote corporate pro bono service through training and educational resources at its national local meetings and devote practical resources to enable corporate counsel to implement diversity and pro bono initiatives at the local level.
Leading law firms will adhere to the ABA's 3 percent pro bono standard. This will mean that every lawyer will spend 50 hours per year or 3 percent of billable time on pro bono work, with full credit for time spent. In so doing, members of the bar consciously will allocate a portion of that pro bono time to putting their talents to use in assisting persons of color and their neighborhoods to fully participate in our nation's prosperity and growth.
American Association of Law Schools will seek ways to inculcate the values of racial justice and public service in our nation's law students. Building on a brand new report, Learning to Serve, the AALS will call upon law schools to strengthen their commitment to the professional ethic of community service by giving every law student the opportunity to volunteer their legal skills in the communities.
Leaders will implement a nationwide plan of action. Presidents of the American Bar Association, the minority bar associations, the American Corporate Counsel Association, San Francisco and New York City Bars, and the co-chairs of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights will meet with each other and other interested parties every month to implement a nationwide plan of action to respond to this call.
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