Access to Justice: After 'Gideon' (video)

Fifty years after the Supreme Court determined in Gideon v. Wainwright that criminal defendants must be provided with counsel, scholars and practitioners from around the country grappled with continued limits on access to justice during an Harvard Law School conference in April titled “Toward a Civil Gideon: The Future of Legal Services.”

The keynote speech, given by Professor Gene Nichol of the University of North Carolina School of Law, explored how the Gideon case came about and what it has meant for access to justice. “Gideon sparks celebration, the way it should, but mainly it mocks us,” he said. “Between its marginalization on the criminal side and its brutal rejection on the civil side, it is at best the glass one-third full. And the two-thirds it leaves unsatisfied says more than any other stark reality about what sort of people we actually have become.”

Watch Gene Nichol's keynote, "Lessons from Gideon, and The Struggle for Access to Justice (requires QuickTime)

Martha Stewart

Gene Nichol, professor of law and director of the Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity at the UNC School of Law, delivered the keynote address

The conference, which included HLS faculty and alumni, also considered the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Turner v. Rogers, in which a narrow majority decided that civil litigants who face incarceration for contempt do not automatically have a right to counsel. Participants also explored the unmet needs of civil litigants, including in foreclosure cases. Another panel addressed the effectiveness of pro bono efforts, both in America and globally, as well as offering an analysis of legal aid cases. The conference also presented a panel on the future of legal services.

Dean Martha Minow, who serves on the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation, noted in her opening remarks that connecting low-income people with legal assistance enables them to maintain their housing, jobs, family and physical safety. Yet Americans who can’t afford legal help routinely forfeit their basic rights, she said.

“And when people forfeit their rights simply due to absence of counsel, we all suffer,” said Minow.

—Lewis I. Rice

Watch additional conference video (requires QuickTime):

Welcome Remarks by Dean Minow and Panel 1: "The Crisis: Turner, and The Unmet Needs of Civil Litigants"

• Russell Engler, professor of law and director of clinical programs, New England Law: "The Story of Turner, and What it Means for Vulnerable Parties"
• Rebecca Sandefur, assistant professor of sociology and law, University of Illinois College of Law: "Pervasive Civil Justice Problems, Why People Lack Aid, What’s Done Without It"
• Mark Ladov, counsel, Justice Program, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law: "(Practice Perspective) The Importance of Legal Counsel in Preventing Foreclosure"
• James Greiner, professor, Harvard Law School: "The State of Our Knowledge About Unmet Needs and the Legal Services Crisis"
• Moderator: Deborah Rhode, professor of law and director of the Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School

Panel 2: "Today’s Pro Bono Efforts: What’s Working, What Isn’t"

• Jeanne Charn, senior lecturer on law and director of the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project, Harvard Law School: "Pro Bono in America, its Development, and Global Comparisons"
• Scott Cummings, professor of law, UCLA: "Researching Pro Bono, and Where our Knowledge Falls Short"
• David Grossman, clinical professor and director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, Harvard Law School: "Common Legal Aid Cases, and Where Legal Need is Most Dire"
• Kathrine Hudgins, assistant appellate defender, South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense: "(Practice Perspective) Legal Obstacles to Pro Bono Indigent Criminal Defense"
• Moderator: Richard Zorza, director of the national Self Represented Litigation Network

Panel 3: "The Future of Legal Services: Improving Law and Policy"

• Richard Zorza, director of the national Self Represented Litigation Network: "Self-Help, and Innovations from the Bar, Legal Aid, and Communities"
• Jacqui Bowman, executive director, Greater Boston Legal Services: (Practice Perspective) What Legal Aid Organizations Need to Better Tackle Crisis 
• John Farmer Jr, dean, Rutgers Law School: "Thinking Outside the Box, Apprenticeship and the Future of the Legal Professio"n 
• Deborah Rhode, professor of law and director of the Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School: "Connecting Talent to Need and Increasing Pro Bono Work in Law Schools"
• Moderator: Rebecca Sandefur, assistant professor of sociology and law, University of Illinois College of Law