This is the story of a tireless advocate who shaped America's commitment to provide basic civil legal services to its low-income population. It is a memoir, written for family, friends and people interested in justice for those without means. It is about a young man's quest to do good in the world; about preventing injustice by assuring poor people have lawyers; and about how a successful social movement for justice is built, re-built, protected, defended and strives always to do better.
Gerry came of age when the War on Poverty created local legal services programs to provide civil (non-criminal) legal aid where essentially none had been provided before. His professional life centered around the quest for justice as it came to be embodied in the federal Legal Services Corporation and the local legal aid programs that it spawned in every corner of the country. Gerry shaped national policies guiding federal initiatives, and when our country's commitment to these legal services was severely attacked, Gerry was at the center of fights to save the federal program, first as an insider at the Legal Services Corporation and later as a leader of a small band of advocates on the outside. He also shaped the local delivery of legal services in the hundreds of local legal aid programs established across the country, first as a neighborhood attorney and as a leader of one of the nation's biggest legal aid programs, and decades later as a preeminent go-to consultant for community programs around the country in need of expert advice and guidance or simply seeking to provide better and better legal services to those in need.
This memoir can be seen as being about the inner workings of any movement striving for more justice with limited resources. Gerry was all about asking tough questions about goals, needs and purpose, and about the nitty gritty of measuring progress. About the mechanics needed to advance the cause of justice and about ways to identify shortcomings and success. About what outcomes are desired and then what can be expected; how to achieve those ends; how to know and measure what has been achieved; how to start the process again and do better. At every stage of Gerry's career, he asked hard questions that made the legal services movement stronger and that identified shortfalls in order to do better.
The very successful creation of a nationally-funded, locally-delivered, legal aid program opened the door to experiments with other means of delivering critical legal services to the vast majority of people without realistic access to lawyers. The reader will hear about how the movement changed law school teaching, gained the support of the organized bar, resulted in state funding where once there was only federal funding; about legal clinics, prepaid legal services insurance plans, law firm pro bono work and the provision of legal services by non-lawyers.
This memoir is inspirational; surely Gerry hoped that his telling would inspire others in the quest for legal justice for low-income individuals.
