July 7-11, 2009
Days 114-118 on the Road in 2009
Tuesday, July 7, brought yet another flight out of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, this time to San Francisco where I had been invited to address the Commonwealth Club. Meanwhile, that same day, Jan was taking the later Southwest flight to Chicago for final preparations for the events at the ABA Annual Meeting. Both of our flights were uneventful and pretty much on time, unfortunately a rare event.
Although my trip was primarily set up around the Commonwealth Club speech, our Media and Communications staff had set up a few other media events for me to do. Wednesday morning was the first of those, when I met with Stephanie Ortbals-Tibbs of the ABA D.C. office Media staff, and we headed over to KGO Radio for a one hour live radio call-in with Ronn Owens, a San Francisco fixture. We did about 30 minutes of interview and about 30 minutes of radio call-in with questions ranging from the ABA's position on medical malpractice suits, to the ABA accreditation of law schools.
From there, Stephanie and I walked over to the San Francisco Daily Journal for an editorial roundtable with the San Francisco Daily Journal and the California Lawyer. Although scheduled to only last for an hour over lunch, we ran well over with a wide ranging discussion of a number of issues.
Later that afternoon, it was over to the San Francisco Superior Courthouse to view the landlord/tenant project of the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco. Tiela Chalmers, Executive Director of the VLSP, met us at the courthouse, and we were able to see how VLSP is able to provide pro bono representation for every unrepresented tenant facing eviction in San Francisco. VLSP collaborates with other service providers to address the need for attorney representation and eviction in cases. All the cases are called in a single courtroom, on the Wednesday before they are set for trial the following Monday. Upon being called, pro bono lawyers are assigned to all unrepresented tenants, and landlords and tenants move to another area of the courthouse where volunteer mediators, or "judges pro tem" attempt to mediate the dispute. Typical issues of clients facing eviction include non-payment of rent, nuisance, habitual late payment, and owner move-ins. Volunteer attorneys provide representation to clients during their eviction proceedings, providing those attorneys with excellent litigation experience. Training for the volunteer lawyers is provided by the VLSP, and volunteers are asked to commit to representing two clients within a year of training. This is a great pro bono program and it was good to learn more about it.
The next morning, Thursday, July 9, I once again met with Stephanie to do another live on air interview on "The Forum" on KQED Radio with Michael Krasney. This was another combined interview/call-in show on the local NPR affiliate. Once again we received a wide range of questions from the callers including health care reform and medical malpractice litigation, the earnings of judges, prosecutorial misconduct, and the precedent set by the Nuremburg trials where lawyers were held accountable for war crimes.
That afternoon, I took a break from my ABA commitments, and went by the Embarcadero YMCA, where a computer lab was installed and dedicated to Jan and me during the 2007 San Francisco meeting, at the end of which I became President-elect of the ABA. This effort was spearheaded by my alma mater, the University of Alabama School of Law, led by Dean Ken Randall, with great assistance from Corrine Cooper. The Embarcadero YMCA actually conducts a high school called Youths Chance High School where disadvantaged youth in the San Francisco area have the possibility of getting a GED. This computer lab was a great addition to that already existing program, and this visit showed that it was also being used for younger children at the YMCA summer camp, as well as providing internet access to local residents seeking jobs.
That night, was my presentation to the Commonwealth Club. The speech to the Commonwealth Club can be found on commonweathclub.blogspot.com/2009/07/ideology-and-ethnicity-supreme-court.html.
Friday I was able to spend some time with Immediate Past President Bill Neukom, now the Managing General Partner of the San Francisco Giants. In fact, that night we were able to attend the San Francisco Giants game against the San Diego Padres and celebrate "Pro Bono Appreciation Night," sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, at AT&T Park. It was a great recognition for the pro bono work being done, not only in San Francisco, but all across the country. The night was topped off by the fact that Jonathan Sanchez pitched the first no-hitter for the Giants since 1976!
Saturday meant the trip back from San Francisco to Birmingham, which, given the time change, essentially takes all day. Nevertheless, it was good to be home Saturday night.