Guidelines for Attorneys Providing Legal Assistance to Veterans and Military Service Members

Just received this email from the State Bar's president concering guidelines for the provision of legal assistance to veterans and members of the military. Thought I'd pass it along in case you want to share any concerns that you may have. Also, this is a field of law with which I am not particuarly familiar, so if you are, and there's something special you think I need to know to understand the issue fully, please tell me.

From the President: Matter of interest to your constituents
To: Board of Governors Members in Circuits Near Military InstallationsFrom: Lester TateDate: July 9, 2010
Because some of the lawyers in your circuit may routinely represent service members and veterans, the attached Provisional Guidelines for Attorneys Providing Legal Assistance to Veterans and Military Service Members may be of special interest to you and those lawyers (click here to view the document).
The Executive Committee will be considering these guidelines next Friday, July 16, 2010. Please e-mail president@gabar.org with any comments or advice you may wish to offer no later than Wednesday, July 14, 2010. It is probable that some form of these Guidelines will be presented to the Board at its Summer or Fall meetings.
Thank you for your service.

Sticker Shock

Let me say straight away that I am not complaining about my low income, which is the product my own choices. (My most regular income comes from splitting a law clerk’s salary of $60,000 in a job-share in DeKalb State Court, teaching Mass Communication Law part-time as an adjunct professor for $1,800 a course at Clark-Atlanta University and selling patio furniture and other garden materials for about $13.50 per hour during markets at the Merchandise Mart. Oh, and since I became a certified floral designer, I’ve made close to $100 on floral arrangements.) I can afford to live this way because I am single, I have no children, and my house, in which I have lived since 1983, is paid-for. And, I incurred no debt going to law school part-time and working full-time when I was late in life.

Nonetheless, given that I likely would be the lowest paid lawyer on the Board of Governors, I asked myself before I offered for a position on the board whether I could afford to serve.

In so doing, I looked at the schedule of upcoming meetings, reasoned that all were within driving range of my relatively fuel-efficient and paid-for 2000 Miata, and that low-cost accommodations likely were available at the out-of-town meetings sites. I concluded, particularly given that a couple of the meetings are in Atlanta, where I live, that I could afford to hit the road the few times a year the BOG meetings are away from home.

But what I didn’t figure into my calculations, and what has left me with sticker shock, is the cost of the various activities the bar offers in association with these Board of Governors meetings.

(At the moment, I’m not conjuring up a milder and/or better comparable term for “adding insult to injury.” If there is one, I would use it here.) Adding insult to injury, at least insofar as the State Bar’s annual meeting is concerned, there is a price break for being a judge—as opposed to a much lower-paid governmental lawyer. This really struck me as odd. Reason being, other organizations of which I am a member, such as the American Bar Association and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, give price breaks to certain segments of the legal community, but do so along the lines of public service/public interest employment, not simply by the robe.

I cannot fathom what the rationale is for giving judges a break on the price of events, but not doing the same for much lower-paid government employees and public interest lawyers.

Here are examples of the price differentials for the State Bar’s annual meeting. A “full package” of activities for a full-time judge registering before May 14, 2010, was $125 and $140 after that date. This included the opening night festivities, a reception with the Supreme Court, an inaugural dinner, plus a Bloody Mary reception. The price for a lawyer, such as myself, was $250 or $265, depending on the time of purchase. Either way, too rich for my salary. (The “special” resort view hotel rate at the Amelia Island Plantation where the meeting was held was $154 a night. I found a condo, right on the beach a few miles away, that I shared with friends for $50 per night.)

I thought about writing about this at the time, but feared it would be perceived as a whine.

Then, I received the registration form for the August Board of Governors meeting. The BOG meeting is held at State Bar headquarters in Atlanta, which makes it free to me. But there is an optional trip to Chicago afterwards.

I love Chicago, so before I received the price sheet, this seemed very tempting. I lived there until I was twelve. I’ve visited twice as an adult. There are bargain airfares to Chicago. I thought perhaps the State Bar might have negotiated reduced rate hotel fares for this visit and that maybe this would be worth a splurge.

Then I looked at the cost (not including airfare) of this package. For one person (and no break for judges): $1,204!!!!! This is for (at a la carte rates): lodging at the Hyatt Regency for three nights; a Thursday night reception at $168; a Friday breakfast at $46; a CLE (a bargain) at $10; a Friday night White Sox game for $218; a Saturday night dinner for $200; and, a Sunday morning breakfast of $46.

Good Grief!

I can’t even imagine why breakfast would be $46, given that I typically eat yogurt and Cheerios.

And even if I made what seems to me like a humongous judicial salary exceeding $120,000 per year at the Superior Court level or $166,000 at the state appellate court level, I’m not sure that I would pay $218 for a White Sox game. (OK, I am a Cubs fan from way back and back in the day saw Ernie Banks play at Wrigley Field.)

Or $200 for dinner? What in the world is on the menu?

So, it is, that I am going to the BOG meeting at State Bar headquarters in August. And if I decide I want to go back to my old home-town of Chicago for a baseball game, it won’t be on this package.