|
One factor that sets the traditional professions apart from other businesses is that professionals are expected to contribute their expertise at no charge to the poor and disadvantaged. From this
tradition, the modern concept of pro bono legal services has been "codified" as Rule 6.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
A recent survey2 conducted by United Way of Salt Lake and funded by The George S. and Delores DorŽ Eccles Foundation catalogued the greatest community problems in Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele
Counties.3 Among the most serious problems identified were family violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and gangs. Other problems identified are racial and ethnic discrimination, substandard housing, and
unsafe school environments. These problems are usually accompanied by problems with the law or with legal relationships. Many of these needs require the assistance of experienced attorneys who can
help those affected wade through the difficulties in which they find themselves.
Lawyers have unique experience and knowledge. Some problems can only be solved by those with this knowledge and experience. If someone with the required abilities does not step forward, many of these
needs will not be met. Problems will grow in severity. The problems may be passed on to the next generation and domino throughout our society.
Rule 6.1(a) provides in part that "[a] lawyer should render public interest legal services." Much can be said about the meaning of "public interest legal service." There are many
differing opinions as to what this might mean. When we speak about "pro bono legal services," we usually associate with the phrase the representation of indigents accused of crimes, or the
representation of the impecunious in domestic matters. Certainly there can be no debate that the need to assist people in these matters is great.
The purpose of this discussion is not to minimize the significance of these needs, nor to divert the time and talents of attorneys from these kinds of cases. If anything, I hope to tug a little on a
heart string someplace in the souls of Utah attorneys so that we will each have a greater desire to assist people in these trying circumstances. But I do hope to shine a brighter light, to open a
wider door to a bigger picture of pro bono legal services.
Many attorneys do not feel comfortable representing someone in a contested divorce or in a criminal proceeding. Many do not know how to help an abused woman obtain a restraining order. Attorneys can
learn how to do these things, and probably they should. But there are many things that even corporate counsel, estate planners and transactional attorneys with no litigation experience can do now to
provide pro bono legal services.
Rule 6.1(b)(2)(iii) of the Rules of Professional Conduct provides in part:
Guidelines for fulfilling the responsibility [for pro bono legal services] include:
* * *
(2) providing any additional services through:
* * *
(iii) participating in activities for improving the law, the legal system or the legal profession.
Comment 8 to this Rule states:
Paragraph (b)(2)(iii) recognizes the value of lawyers engaging in activities that improve the law, the legal system or the legal profession. Serving on boards of pro bono or legal services programs,
taking part in Law Day activities, taking part in law related education activities, acting as a continuing education instructor, a mediator or an arbitrator and engaging in legislative lobbying to
improve the law, the legal system or the profession are a few examples of the many activities that may fall within this paragraph.
What are some examples of current needs that can be met by attorneys in these areas? There is the need now for screeners on the Bar Ethics & Discipline Committee, as well as for volunteers to
serve in twenty different Bar committees. The Better Business Bureau is looking for qualified arbitrators [you can be trained] for its dispute resolution program. There is a great need for attorneys
who can teach and counsel members of the legal profession, the judiciary and others in third world countries in legal matters. It is this last subject on which I desire to concentrate my remarks.
Norbest, Inc. is a farmers' cooperative ultimately owned by the farmers who grow the turkeys marketed under the NORBEST¨ label. As Norbest's counsel, I have had much experience working on cooperative
matters both here in Utah and nationally.
During a meeting of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, I became aware of ACDI/VOCA (Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance).
ACDI/VOCA is funded through USAID, a federal government program to provide foreign aid to third world countries. ACDI/VOCA assists farmers in various third world countries to be more productive and
efficient in growing and marketing their products so that they can better feed their people and increase their standard of living.
I asked whether ACDI/VOCA ever had a need for attorney volunteers. I was told that there was no need for attorneys. Unless I had experience running farms or processing plants or feed mills, I probably
would not be used. But I signed up anyway, in case the opportunity to use my experiences ever came up.
Last year I received a phone call asking me to go to Ethiopia and teach a class to government cooperative promoters on how to organize and manage farmer cooperatives. "This is something I can
do," I thought, and accepted the request. I flew to Addis Ababa for orientation, and then up to the northern part of the country to Mekele, the seat of government in the Tigray Region.
Before I flew to Ethiopia, I tried to imagine a very depressing situation in my mind so that when I arrived in the country I would not face too much of a culture shock. It was worse than I had
imagined. I was told that the Tigray Region was the poorest section of the poorest country in the world. Whether or not that is true, I do not know. But it is clear that the region's population is
suffering greatly from drought, war, disease and other problems related to poverty.
I worked with people who have no cars, no telephones, no televisions and no radios. They have no electricity in their homes. They must walk a substantial distance, even in the cities, to obtain
drinking water. In the rural areas, they may need to walk as far as five miles each direction to get drinking water. The average annual income in Ethiopia is about $450.
To illustrate the poverty of these people, I'll share an experience I had in Mekele. I took several teaching materials and resources with me to help me teach my class. I did everything I could to cut
back on weight so I could take these training materials. I purchased a small travel deodorant can, thinking it would last the three weeks I would be in the country. Unfortunately, after one and
one-half weeks it was gone, and I was only half way through my assignment. I went to the front desk of the hotel where I stayed and asked where I could find some deodorant to buy. They did not even
know what I was talking about. So I started visiting stores in a search for something we take for granted here. I went to five different stores before I was able to find a small can of deodorant. I
was very relieved that I finally found what I needed.
I thought about this experience, and realized that something we take for granted in this country was a luxury to the people of Ethiopia. Their concern was not with what they smelled like, but with
where their next meal would come from.
Earlier volunteers had already started the process of teaching the legal requirements for organizing farmer cooperatives. Through these cooperatives, many farmers have seen great improvements in their
lifestyles. Here are a few examples:
1.Ethiopia has virtually no petroleum resources. As a result, all of the fertilizer needed by the Ethiopian farmers must be imported, usually from Syria or Jordan. By pooling their resources through
cooperatives, farmers can bulk purchase the fertilizer they need at a cost which is about 50% of the amount they used to pay. The savings stays with the farmers and improves their lives tremendously.
2.Many farmers live several miles from the markets for their products. When they need money, they load their 100-kg sacks of grain on their donkeys and walk the distance to market. They sell the grain
for the going price, often making very little profit. They really have no other choice. But with cooperatives, the farmers can pool their resources and build a grain storage facility where the grain
can be stored for a season. The cooperative buys the grain from the farmers at a fair price at harvest time. The cooperative monitors grain prices, and knows when they are good for the farmers. The
grain is stored in the facility until the market price improves. Then the cooperative takes the grain to market and sells it at the higher price. The profits are returned to the farmers.
3.In most areas of the country, there is no electricity. In the Tigray Region, there are very few trees because of several years of drought. So there is very little cooking fuel available. To solve
this problem, the children go out into the fields each afternoon and gather dung from the cows, goats and donkeys. They carry the dung home, and the women stomp straw in the dung, mold it into
patties, and dry the patties on their rock walls or on the straw roofs of their houses. They use these dung patties as cooking fuel. With the savings on fertilizer costs and increased profits from
sales of their farm products through the cooperatives, farmers can purchase kerosene stoves, kerosene lamps and the kerosene they need for cooking and for use in the lamps.
4.Farmers still plow their fields with wooden plows and a team of cattle. Some cooperative unions (we call them "federated cooperatives" in this country; they have several local farmers'
cooperatives as their members) have been able to pool sufficient resources to purchase tractors that can plow in a day as much ground as many farmers can plow in a week.
5.Cooperatives set up cooperative stores where their farmer-members can purchase needed supplies such as matches, soap, and foodstuffs instead of having to walk many miles into town to purchase them.
6.Some cooperatives have purchased grain mills run by diesel generators so the farmers can grind their grain with the mill rather than by hand on a grinding stone.
7.Most of the farmers in Ethiopia are illiterate. There are no libraries in the rural areas of Ethiopia. Some cooperative unions have established libraries so the farmers and their children can borrow
books and learn to read.
8.There are no banks in most of the rural areas of Ethiopia. Farmers have organized savings and credit cooperatives (they function much like credit unions in this country) where they can accumulate
their meager savings and borrow for needed items such as fertilizer.
Without cooperatives, these small changes in Ethiopia would never have taken place. The farmers would still be struggling with farming methods that date back thousands of years. Poverty and the
resulting disease and famine would cause countless people to die. But people with the knowledge and experience to teach others how to establish farmer cooperatives can change this history of poverty
and move the people closer to self-sufficiency and much improved lives.
My project took three weeks of time and appeared to be successful. The students were very appreciative of the information taught. Hopefully these promoters can assist the farmers in the Tigray Region
to organize cooperatives to pool their resources and allow them to advance economically.
As the first attorney to teach this class, I was the first teacher to carefully review the Ethiopian cooperative laws, and noticed that many of the established cooperatives were not following the laws
as they should. There were also some gaps and inconsistencies in the laws that created confusion and uncertainties. These concerns were brought to the attention of the Ethiopian cooperative leaders.
Consequently, I was asked to return to Ethiopia in February of this year on a follow-up project.
This time I was asked to meet with cooperative leaders from around the country to develop model bylaws that comply with the laws governing cooperatives. There are three kinds of cooperatives in
Ethiopia, and models bylaws for each kind of cooperative were prepared. These new bylaws will be distributed to the cooperatives so they can amend their current bylaws to conform to the country's
laws. The project ended up being more of a training session on the laws as it became clear early on that even the people who were supposed to enforce the laws had no clear understanding of them.
The second part of the assignment was to make recommendations to the federal cooperative leaders on how they can amend the laws to eliminate inconsistencies and to fill in crucial gaps in the law. In
conjunction with Ethiopian legal counsel, suggested provisions were drafted and presented to the national leaders, and the process has now been started to change the laws through Parliament.
A third assignment arose during the meeting with the federal cooperative leaders, including representatives from the Prime Minister's office. It became apparent that a draft of regulations has been
submitted to the federal cooperative office to assist in implementing the cooperative laws. I was asked to review these proposed regulations and to make suggestions for their improvement.
A few years ago, I never would have imagined that I would be using my legal experience to help poverty-stricken people half way around the world. I never imagined that I would be providing pro bono
legal services to charitable, community, governmental and educational organizations which are designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means4 in Ethiopia. Nor did I imagine that
I would be participating in activities for improving the law, the legal system or the legal profession5 in Ethiopia.
With advances in communication and transportation, and with increased trade with all parts of the world, our "community" is bigger than the Wasatch Front. It is more than the State of Utah.
It is more than the United States. It is the entire world. As attorneys, we should be sensitive to those poor people who desperately need our legal services and experiences and wisdom no matter where
they may be. I do not intend to imply that the needs of persons of limited means here in Utah are not important. We need more attorney volunteers who are willing to help our own neighbors who are
desperate for help. However, we need to recognize that there are persons of limited means everywhere, and if we can help them, we should.
The experiences I had in Ethiopia are not unique. There are opportunities (and great needs) throughout the world for attorneys to use their knowledge to help the poor. Volunteers have drafted model
legislation for development of the Albanian wine industry; assisted the first Albanian trade organization for agricultural inputs in member responsibilities and reviewed legal documents; assisted the
Grabovo, Bulgaria municipality in including farmers in their environmental strategy and advised farmers on conflict resolution practices; advised the Czech Ministry of Agriculture on economic and
legal matters related to key forestry issues; trained local cooperative banks in Poland in strategic planning, credit granting and monitoring and financial performance; assisted in developing a new
structure for cooperative law that accurately reflects the requirements of private agricultural cooperatives in Romania; provided an analysis of bankruptcy legislation as it relates to agriculture in
Slovakia; worked with farm managers on the basics of cooperative development and business plan writing to assist in the privatization process in Belarus; wrote sample agricultural legislation in
Moldova; advised former collective farms on organizational restructuring of production and service units for privatization in Lithuania; conducted an assessment of the organizational structure and
made recommendations for improvement of administration and management of the CORELPAZ Electric Cooperative in Bolivia; provided training in the establishment of cooperative associations among farmers
in Egypt; and assisted a new cooperative in implementing improved management systems in Tonga.
These are only a few of the hundreds of VOCA/ACDI projects that have been completed by volunteers who are or who should have been attorneys. There is a significant need in developing countries that
are struggling to implement a free market economy after living under a socialist government for many decades. The people have no experience in writing free market legislation. They have no experience
in establishing businesses that operate under free market principles. The people who are best qualified to help in these areas are attorneys. By helping on these projects, the volunteers are blessing
the lives of people of limited means through their legal experience and knowledge.
Many organizations besides ACDI/VOCA use attorneys to help people and countries of limited means. The Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI) works with labor groups in Belarus to establish
workers' rights. Attorneys teach courses on the commercial law in Bhutan. The ABA/UNDP Legal Resource Unit places lawyers in Third World countries to assist in judicial reform, strengthen the
organized bar, train in human rights and in the commercial law, and in drafting legal reform statutes.6
Even the poorest of the poor in Salt Lake County have access to more money and goods than most of the people in this world (and would be considered rich by the standards in most countries). We should
begin to see that the bigger picture of pro bono legal services to people of limited means extends far beyond the Wasatch Front and the State of Utah. We do not see many barefoot, diseased children
wearing rags begging in the streets of Salt Lake City. However, there are millions of such children around the world. Attorneys can and should assist in the effort to provide legal and other
assistance to these people.
In thanking the volunteers for their assistance on a volunteer project in Palos Blancos, Bolivia, a Franciscan priest said, "When you stand at the gates of heaven you can say that once you did
something for the poor."7 It would be good if attorneys from Utah could also say that they have done something for the poor.
Footnotes
1 This article is adapted (and updated) from a discussion led by Mr. Johnson at the Utah State Bar's Corporate Counsel Section Seminar on October 25, 2001.
2 "A Study of Human Needs in Salt Lake, Summit, & Tooele Counties", 2002.
3 Although the survey only reviewed problems in Salt Lake, Summit and Tooele Counties, to one degree or
another, these problems are common throughout the State of Utah and the entire country.
4 Rules of Professional Conduct 6.1(b)(1)(ii).
5 Rules of Professional Conduct 6.1(b)(2)(iii).
6 Garret Ordower, "Third World for Us, New World for Them Ð U.S. Lawyers Take Their Expertise Abroad", Business Law Today, May/June 2001, p. 37.
7 ACDI/VOCA World Report, Winter
2002, p. 12. Organizations such as ACDI/VOCA, CEELI, and the ABA/UNDP Legal Resource Unit and the volunteers who serve with them are able to help millions of people throughout the world, both
directly and indirectly. But one cannot overlook the great blessings that come through this service to the individual volunteers in knowledge and experience gained, in an increased appreciation of
other peoples and cultures, and in the lasting friendships made.
|
