Charged to affect change
INTERVIEW Laurel Bellows, president, American Bar Association:LAUREL BELLOWS, president of the American Bar Association (ABA), and with her husband, head of a Chicago law firm, would seem to have nothing to fear. But she is afraid on two fronts: for American democratic institutions and of the danger of cyber-crime and terrorism.
“We are frightened and we think every country in the world should be frightened about the implications of the underfunding of our legal system,” she said. “The starvation by legislative and budgetary entities allocating funds is such that we cannot possibly maintain a justice system.“I hope this is just inappropriate prioritisation. But in dictatorships the first thing dictators do is take over the justice system. They starve it first.” She gave a few examples: in Los Angeles county 180 courts have been closed. The Federal District Court in Illinois has just announced that the court will close every Wednesday due to lack of resources. There are courts around the country that have announced they will hear no civil cases for a year.
This is combined with a crisis in judges’ pay. “A federal trial judge is paid at the same level as a first-year associate (employed lawyer) in a large law firm. Top quality people are not going to be judges, because it means they can’t put their children through college and some are leaving. Applicants for federal judge positions now often don’t have the requisite trial experience.”
She acknowledged the difficulties in public finances, but asked: “If something has to go, can it be our justice system? It is meant to be a co-equal part of our system of government, with its checks and balances and the separation of powers. If you take that away from judges and lawyers you get a dictatorship.”
Bellows is also concerned about the capacity of the political and legislative system to combat cyber crime. “You and I go through all this security at airports now, but that is not where the real threat lies. can shut down power grids or take out the stock exchange.
“To what extent are we prepared to give up our right to privacy and individual liberty for security? What role does government play and what role does private industry play?”
These are issues on which the ABA is working, along with President Obama, she said, and this is an example of how the association seeks to contribute to policymaking and to grappling with difficult legal issues.
Bellows came into the association from the presidency of the Chicago Bar Association via the ABA’s Commission on Women, which she chaired.
