View and download in searchable PDF format: 2002.11.21 – ALAA Candidate Statements.OCR
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ALAA Solidarity & Democracy Slate: Joint Statement
President: Michael Letwin (Incumbent)
Trustees: Peter Blum (CDD-Bklyn), Antonia Codling (Volunteer/CLO), John Geida (CDD-Manhattan)
Attorneys of Color of Legal Aid (ACLA) Representative: Angel Soto (CDD-Manhattan)
Junior Attorney Representative: Rachel Jones (CDD-Bklyn)
Senior Attorney Representative: Azalia Torres (Incumbent; CDD-Bklyn)
Summary
Despite an increasingly hostile climate, ALAA has
successfully defended existing attorney jobs, restored city
criminal funding used to hire scores of new CDD lawyers, won
dramatic compensation increases, and fulfilled many other goals.
These achievements are not coincidental, but rather result
from two essential ingredients: ( 1) Active, highly-democratic
membership participation; and (2) Leadership with the proven
ability to forge and implement consensus among our Union’s
diverse ranks.
We ask your support for our slate so that the Union can
continue to consolidate and extend these gains-through loan
forgiveness and other compensation increases in upcoming
contract negotiations, additional restoration ofLAS city criminal
funding, defense of essential quality representation principles,
greater attorney diversity, and other improvements.
Above all, we ask you to judge us-and all candidates for
Union office-not on mere campaign promises, but on our
respective track records of promoting the solidarity and mutual
respect amongst members without which ALAA cannot survive.
Indeed, this election is a referendum on the Union’s fundamental
direction. and achievements.
The record on which we stand, accompanied by our brief
individual biographies, is outlined below.
The Record
LAS Funding
In response to a $5-6 billion municipal budget deficit, the
Bloomberg administration has inflicted ever-deepening budget
cuts, and even layoffs, on virtually every city-funded
agency—–“except ·ours.
This reflects not city largess, but rather electoral lobbying
and federal litigation · strategies with which ALAA,
notwithstanding its small size, has successfully leveraged the
strength ofthe UAW, Working Families Party, 1199/SEIU and
our own membership. These coordinated efforts not only stopped
the city from cutting LAS criminal funding by $5.6 million (or
100 attorney jobs), but won an $8.6 million net increase that has
enabled the Society to hire scores of new lawyers.
At the same time, ALAA stood its ground against the city’s
demand for an arraignment bureau, and directed a greater portion
of LAS resources to COD-Manhattan, while at the same time
protecting attorneys in CAB and other CDD offices from
demands by management-and even some Union members-for
involuntary transfers.
Similar efforts have successfully defended Civil and CLO
funding against proposed RFPs and budget cuts.
Compensation
Over the past four years, each.member has benefitted from
ALAA contracts that increase compensation rates by an average
of 6%/yr.-a higher rate than contracts for NYC teachers, police,
or firefighters. When combined with annual step promotion, the
increases are far greater.
•Salary. Combined rate/step salary raises include 47%
($17,000) at step 2, and 20% ($14,000) for senior attorneys who
benefitted from creation of new steps 14-25. No individual
attorney has received a combined rate/step salary increase ofless
than 14% ($10,000).
•Institutional Assienments. $175/shift lobster increase;
taxi & meal allowance.
•Tax-free Income. TransitCheks ($720/yr. or taxable cash
equivalent) & pre-tax supplement option; biannual bar
registration fee ($300); $500/yr. foreign language allowance.
•Paid Time Off. Ten new discretionary bereavement
days/career in all divisions; 5 new personal days/yr. and 5 new
vacation days/yr. buy-back in non-CDD units.
•Parental Leave. Eight paid weeks for all new parents,
including adoptive, step-, and each in 2-LAS households; unpaid
parental leave expanded to fathers, step-parents, adoptive
parents, domestic partners
•Health · & Pension. Retiree health benefits and oral
contraceptive coverage; upgraded dental, vision and long-term
disability; and earlier LAS pension contributions.
• Part-timers. Annual salary increases, fewer hours required
for employer-paid insurance; increased number of slots, more
option for paid hours, elimination of job-sharing and child care
requirements, and greater right to return to full-time.
•Work Hours. Flex-time & telecommuting.
•Private Practice. Non-conflict private practice option
while on unpaid leave.
Policy & Practice
•Diversitv. Improved affirmative action standards and
procedures.
•Junior Attorneys. One-year recall right after third-time bar
passage; simplified probation period with stronger grievance
rights; greater felony certification rights; and training for all new
attorneys in their divisions’ basic practice areas.
•ffirine & Promotion .. Right to attorney participation in all
divisions.
•Pr-actice. Process for development of divisional workload
standards; stronger continuity rights in non-CDD divisions;
computerization of all offices.
Contract Enforcement & Member Service
Despite a sharp membership decrease caused by Giuliani’s
retaliatory LAS funding cuts, ALAA dues are lower than that of
any other union ofNYC professional workers, and have not risen
for more than four years.
The leadership has accomplished this by obtaining:
•Paid LAS release time for a Union officer ($100,000/yr.).
•Replacement of both vacant Union support staff lines with
a large volunteer student intern program ($70,000/yr.).
•UAW assumption of all costs of ALAA litigation against
the city ($200,000-$300,000)
•Sharp reduction in other legal fees ($30,000/yr.).
Despite these sharp spending reductions, ALAA has fully
maintained prompt, dependable and skilled Union
administration, as reflected in:
• Protection from unsafe reoccupation of90 Church St., while
ensuring attorney access to displaced case files.
•Attorneys saved from threatened termination for cause.
•Outside counsel for staff attorneys attacked by judges.
•Preservation of CDD comp. days-. without self-defeating
steps that would have jeopardized city funding.
•Successful grievance of blanket JRD probation extension.
•Groundwork laid, per counsel’s advice, for arbitration of
JRD workload.
•Defense of individual attorneys of color under attack in
Civil Division and CDD.
•Establishment and defense of attorney free speech on
ALAA e-list.
•Frequent visits to, dialogue with, and support for members
in LAS offices.
Social Justice & Labor Solidarity
While never losing focus on immediate job-related issues,
ALAA has spoken out on such critical issues as:
•Rockefeller drug law repeal.
•Transit workers’ right to strike.
•Police abuse of Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo and Patrick
Dorismond.
• Death penalty moratorium.
• Pacifica Radio.
•Civil liberties and immigration rights since 9/11.
•Vieques.
•NYU adjunct union organizing campaign.
The Future
These and other achievements are not laurels on which to
rest, but rather a strong foundation with which to address such
major challenges as:
•Contract Negotiations. Upcoming contract negotiations
must ensure maximum allocation of LAS funds not only to new
hiring, but to higher senior step· rates, loan forgiveness for
heavily-indebted junior and mid-level attorneys, and numerm~s
2
other needs.
• Funding. This year’s transfer of 18-b resources to LAS
represented significant progress. But the city’s threat to “go
elsewhere” demonstrates the continuing need for a renewed
political campaign to eliminate the nonunion RFP runaway shops
used by the city to corrode quality representation.
•Workload. The Union must continue to support CDD
attorneys, particularly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, in fairly,
rationally and ethically handling the city contract’s 86%
requirement.
This includes maintaining our commitment to sufficient
staffing, vertical continuity of representation and resistance to an
arraignment bureau, ethical conflict policy, and 1 :00 a.m. end to
night court.
In JRD, management’s clear refusal to address longstanding
workload issues has set the stage for invoking outside
arbitration.
•Diversity. Despite improved contract language and Union
participation in hiring, greater attorney diversity must be
promoted, particularly through earlier job offers and reactivation
of the JointAffrrmative Action Committee.
• Union Solidarity and Democracy. However controversial
a particular issue~ it is indisputable that each and every ALAA
decision is m11de democratically by the membership as a whole,
and/or by directly.,accountable elected representatives. In
recently conforming ALAA bylaws to UA W requirements, the
Union has further expanded opportunities for members to
participate in leadership roles.
Atthe same time, productive Union participation, debate and
solidarity are severely undermined when even a small number of
members misuse ALAA meetings ·and e-mail to harangue,
denounce or otherwise heap abuse on those with whom they
disagree. Alienated by such destructive behavior, many
members understandably chose not to participate in the Union.
This will change only when the vast majority insist on their
right to an internal Union culture characterized by:
•Inter-office dialogue-not “us v. them” recriminations.
•Mutually respectful, participatory discussion-not angry
tantrums and personal attacks.
•Respect for democratic decision-making-not threats to
withdraw from the Union, or attempts to cut separate backdoor
deals with Management.
• Accurate factual reports-not reckless mis- or
dis information.
•Responsibility for collective decisions in whichwe have
participated (or failed to participate }-not blame-shifting.
Conclusion
We ask for your support to reinforce ALAA’s tradition of
democracy, solidarity and mutual respect-all of which are
essential to defend and extend the Union’s achievements.
ALAA Solidarity & Democracy Slate: Individual Statements
President: Micbael.Letwin (Incumbent)
I have been a political and labor activist since 1969.
For nearly 20 years, I have been associated with The Legal Aid
Society, first as a law intern in the Prisoners Rights Project and Federal
Defender Division, and then as a Staff Attorney in Brooklyn COD,
where I was an ALAA delegate and the union-wide Vice-President.
Since 1990, I have led the Union through five consecutive contract
negotiations (including the current landmark collective bargaining
agreement), the 1994 strike and its aftermath, UAW affiliation, and
recent new hiring due to significant restoration of the Society’s criminal
funding.
Throughout, I have sought to.promote broad membership diversity
and participation, to build collective leadership, to provide each Staff
Attorney with highly-professional union services, and to fight for highquality
legal representation of our clients.
I have spoken out on such broader issues as police abuse, the
Rockefeller drug laws, trade unionism solidarity, and defense of civil
liberties and immigrant rights since 9111. Inwy personal capacity,·!
have expressed the views· of many ALAA members, and a growing
number of other trade unionists, by spe~ing out strongly against the
war.
I believe the record shows that my 3 0+ years of political, labor and
legal experience-twelve of them as ALAA president-have proven a
valuable asset that will continue to strengthen our Union in the critical
years ahead.
I appreciate, and once again request, your continuing support.
Trustee: L. Antonia Codling (CLO)
I have been at LAS for almost 7 years. Previously I have served
our Union in the following capacities:
•Delegate & Alt. Delegate for the Volunteer Division for
approximately 3 years
•Volunteer Division Rep. on the Joint AA Committee (since its
inception in 1998)
•ACLA Union-wide Rep.
In addition to the above, I have sat on many hiring committees in
the Volunteer Division (including, ALAA, 1199, Management) and
with central LAS for our current Affrrmative Action Officer. I also
participated in the bargaining process for our existing contract.
I have been informed that the role ofthe Trustee on the Executive
Board is to oversee the Union’s books and records. Additionally, I
believe that all of the positions on the Executive Board are ultimately
to serve the entire membership, individually and collectively. I am
deeply committed to working with the all of our members and the
leadership in strengthening our contractual rights and benefits.
Trustee: Peter Blum (CDD-Brooklyn)
Statement forthcoming on e-mail.
Trustee: John Geida (CDD-Manh)
Statement forthcoming on e-mail.
Attys of Color: Angel Soto (CDD-Manhattan)
Statement forthcoming on e-mail.
Jr. Attys: Rachel Jones (CDD-Bk)
My name is Rachel Jones. I am a part of the training class that
started on August 26, 2002 and I am running for Junior Attorney
Representative. I was an intern at Brooklyn JRD last year through a
clinic at law school (graduated May 2002). I took 5 years off between
college and law school-! worked at the New York Civil Rights
Coalition and taught third grade in Harlem for two years.
I am now working at COD in Brooklyn and am thrilled to be at the
Legal Aid Society. It is both a contentious and exciting time to be at
Legal Aid-and while I’m glad to have missed the Giuliani years, the
effects of that time are obviously still very present.
As the biggest class the Society has hired since Giuliani took
office, it is especially important that this new class come together to
support the issues that affect all of us. As I see it, the most important
issues facing junior attorneys are crippling law school debt,
certification, probation, and ensuring that absolutely no one is laid off.
Sr. Attys: Azalia Torres (Incumbent; CDD-Bk)
I began my 16th year in the Criminal Defense Division, Brooklyn
Office in September, 2002. I was Senior Attorney representative
during the past contract and I would like the opportunity to continue
fighting for more money for senior attorneys as well as improving the
quality of life for this constituency.
I understand very well the reality of working hard for so many
years without just compensation in both pay and benefits. In addition,
I know first hand the great difficulty in juggling a Supreme and
Criminal Court practice between buildings without proper consideration
or concern from management.
We’ve made major strides for senior attorneys through the creation
of salary steps 14-25 as well as retiree health benefits. For attorneys
who went from step 13 to 25, this meant an immediate increase of
$14,250 (20% ). I want to continue to advocate for the particular needs
and concerns of senior attorneys to insure that we continue to retain
committed and experienced individuals.
I will fight for those interests within the context of the needs of the
entire union. I have been active in this union for the last 15 years as
delegate, alternate vice-president in Brooklyn, co-founder of Attorneys
of Color of Legal Aid Caucus, bargaining committee (over five years),
and COD recruitment coordinator.
I understand that the Executive Board must represent the interests
of the whole union and ensure that the distribution of any resource is
done in a fair and balanced way. Fighting for the concerns of senior
attorneys is in everyone’s interests as the process will improve
conditions for all and provide more incentives to continue doing the
work we all love.
I am a fighter. I respect my colleagues opinions and listen to
everyone with a complaint/concern regardless of my opinion on a given
issue. Voting for me ensures that the Executive Board continues to
work to make ALAA a stronger union with the power to make
qualitative inroads in our fight for just compensation and a quality of
life in our offices reflective of the hard work we do in our respective
divisions.
Thank you.
End of ALAA Solidarity & Democracy Slate Statement
3
Jim Rogers for Union President
Dear Members:
Our union is entering some tough times with new contract
obligations, quotas, fmancial penalties and the possibility of LAS
giving control over how we do our jobs and how to best represent our
clients to the city. As a union, we· need to work hard to get the best
contract possible and ensure the greatest quality of representation. It is
vital that a staff attorney lead the union through this process.
To meet the union’s goals I intend to increase member
participation, improve our bargaining strategy and heighten our
organization’s visibility. Below I describe these ideas in some detail.
Biography
I have worked as a staff attorney with Bronx CDD for nine years.
I handle a large felony case load and try a lot of cases. I am committed
to representing clients and have no intention of serving more than one
term as union president. I believe the union should be led by someone
who actually does the work of the Society. The members’ best
advocate is an active attorney.
I have been a delegate for six years. I participated in all reorganization
and staffmg decisions made by management in the Bronx
office. I represented individual attorneys as situations arose. I was at
all times an effective advocate for members and clients alike. I
negotiated double comp time when management asked our members to
pick up additional arraignments when RFP groups pulled out of their
shifts.
Further, I participated in union-wide debates and decisions on key
issues. Most recently, I advocated in the Delegates Council to overturn
an earlier Executive Board decision to limit the amount of new hires.
In addition, I have participated in a number of outreach projects
that addressed client issues. I helped organize attorneys to offer legal
observer services to various grass roots political groups. I have spoken
at high school and college workshops including a lecture at CUNY on
the fourth amendment. I established a connection with a local
assemblyman’s office to deliver direct legal service to his constituents.
His appreciation helped LAS in various negotiations for funding.
Recently, I drafted an outreach plan for one of the mayoral candidates
on community policing. I have sat on both the Legal Aid Society’s and
the New York Civil Liberties Union’s committees on police
misconduct.
Our Goal: Increase bargaining power to more effectively advocate
for our membership and our clients.
The Plan: Increase andre-energize member participation, improve
bargaining strategy, heighten our visibility.
I) Increase Member Participation:
a) Regular Presence of the President at Local Offices. Our
· representative-delegate system is hampered by obvious limits on the
time delegates have to devote to union matters. The regular presence
of the union president in the various offices will fix this problem.
The unique nature of the challenges facing the various offices can
best be addressed by the members in the offices involved. I know first
hand that the entire membership must cope with heavy caseloads. It is
time for a new union leadership to establish a regular presence in the
offices so matters can be addressed during convenient hours.
b) End Divisive Leadership Practices: The membership needs to
be unified to fight for the best contract possible and for maximum
quality of representation. To avoid discord, union leaders ought to
4
avoid attaching the union’s name to political causes not voted on byt]le
general membership even ifthename is.usedfor information purposes
only.
Change in leadership will energize the membership and end the
perception of there being a lock at the top on decision making
processes.
c) Work Towards Inter-Office Respect and Unity: The
membership tends to communicate only in critical times. We talk to
each other very rarely during non-crisis periods .. ·I· will· increase· the
flow of information between offices. I will develop an awareness of all
the·workbeing done in all the offices, including the use of a· union
newsletter to concentrate on the members and their cases.
d) Use Modem Technology To Communicate with Members:
Sometimes we can’t meet because our legal work absorbs our time.
Two options to consider are: Teleconferencing (a relatively inexpensive
option to increase the amount of time members can meet) and
regularized e-mail issue flagging and straw- polling (perhaps this will
make more constructive the footloose e-mail debate system currently in
use).
e) Release Time: Release time for members engaged in union
business is a contractual right. I will work with management to
guarantee its use. Members engaged in union business cannot be
expected to work full days, weeks, months and then use their personal
time to get the union job done. ·
II) Improve ALAA Visibility:
ALAA attorneys are the authorities many public policy issues. We
bring many of the actions against city agencies, fight the greatest
number of evictions and represent a majority of criminal defendants.
Y etwe as a union are not active partiCipants in public debate.
I will work to establish a media pipeline to and from our union
membership and thereby bring issues important to· our clients to the
public forum. I will create opportunities for ALAA attorneys to speak
to matters where they have the obvious expertise. I will ensure that
media outlets have access to our members.
When we become a visible entity and an organized advocate in the
public forum, we will directly benefit our clients and strengthen our
bargaining position as well.
III) Improve Bargaining Ideas:
a) Eliminate ·Divisive Inter-Office Bargaining: This year
management asked the members • in • each CDD office • to separately
assess how many new attorneys they thought they needed to meet new
contract demands. This led to divisive arguments among members about
the accuracy of those evaluations and about priorities. The union
leadership vacuum made worse the divisive inter-office squabbling and
emergency last minute decision making.
A few years ago management asked each office to develop an
independent plan detailing how each would spend our dwindled
fmances. Pretty soon our offices competed with each other and the
membership suffered a divisive set back. Again, the leadership vacuum
enabled management to initiate a bargaining practice that sapped our
strength.
I will work to eliminate this type of “planning” to the extent it
proceeds without prior membership consideration of its benefits and
liabilities.
b) Re-Open The Books: . It has been assumed for a number of years
that Legal Aid’s fmances are an open book. I challenge this notion and
submit that it is time to do an independent analysis. This must happen
before bargaining begins. All issues must be on the table, including
funds used for capital improvements, new management created jobs,
etc .
.. ..e-) Use< the Contract: Our contractual right to file grievaQ.ces and
arbitrate are under-utilized because members are not fully aware ofhow
such processes work and are discouraged by the false notion that use of
such tools creates a rift with management. Engaging contractual process
does not have to be acrimonious or divisive. It is in our best interest
and our clients’ to use whatever methods yield solutions. In addition,
our bargaining position will be enhanced by formalizing complaints and
placing them on the table.
I am a staff attorney first. I never waiver in my ongoing respect for
the members’ commitment to the best representation money can’t buy.
I will work hard for all of you so that your work may continue.·! will
examine every available dime to ensure you are compensated at the
highest available level.
Thank you for your consideration, Jim Rogers
Joseph Zablocki (Y ossi) for Trustee.
The frrst question on everyone’s mind is “What is a trustee?” The
simple answer is “I don’t know.” However, I am running for this
position for two reasons.
The frrst, and most important, is so that there will be a diversity of
views sitting on the executive board. From the moment I came to Legal
Aid (a little more than three years ago), I became very active in the
union. Initially, I was an alternate delegate, and although I could not
vote, I never missed a meeting, neither in my borough nor city wide.
As a delegate, my involvement increased especially when I organized
a borough wide case-load grievance (which 95% of our office signed
off on when I went door to door collecting signatures. ) Why would I
spend my time going office to office trying to get every member to sign
our grievance? The reason is simple. A strong union stems from
activity by our members encouraged by enthusiasm from our leaders.
The more active we are, the more powerful we would be. When the
same, (at times tired), faces showed up week after week at our
meetings, I realized that at least in Manhattan, we needed to encourage
more activity from the members. The same could be said about our
executive board, where to a large degree it has been the same faces with
the same views, month after month. It is important that new ideas and
members with great enthusiasm partake in this process. I also believe
that it is time for a change in our union. With this new contract with the
city, and the upcoming negotiations with management, we should take
this opportunity to strengthen ourselves as a union. We have increased
our size by some 40% and should be a force to reckon with. For the
past three years I’ve loved every moment of this job, never tiring from
the fight. Likewise, I will not tire from fighting for my fellow attorney’s
until we are treated with respect and compensated the way we deserve.
The second reason has to do with what little I know about this
newly created, not quite defmed, trustee position. Through sharp
cross-examination of those on the by-laws committee, I have discovered
that this position has to do with the union and its fmances. (No one
seems to know any more than this). Considering my background (I was
a director of a program for children with autism in the past and
managed a budget) and enjoyment of fmance, I thought this would be
a great way for me to be more active in the union.
I have great hope that my enthusiasm will foster more participation
by union members.
If anyone would like to talk with me, feel free to contact me at
(212)298-5296.
ACLA: Marlene Vasquez
5
·My name is Marlene Vasquez and I am running for the position of
Attorney of Color Representative. I have worked with the Legal Aid
Society since 1991, beginning my tenure with CAB and later
transferring to Manhattan CDD, where I am presently the delegate for
Complex 3. I have participated in the union’s many struggles including
those of the attorneys of color in order to make the Society a better
workplace. Like many of you, I have lost confidence in our union’s
leadership, and believe it is in desperate need of new direction.
The major points that need immediate attention are:
1) Ensuring that diversity is practiced in hiring new classes and in
cultivating, retaining, and promoting attorneys of color. The Society
has failed us in these areas. Merely hiring new lawyers who fail to
remain due to the Society’s de facto policy is unacceptable.
2) Promoting better communication between the different
divisions at LAS; and
3) Ensuring that workloads throughout Legal Aid are ethical and
manageable. Protecting comp time against future devaluation, and
ensuring that other divisions receive this very essential benefit.
While all three issues are important, my paramount concern is
Legal Aid’s track record on retaining attorneys of color. We can no
longer accept the rationalizations given by management for its failure
to retain and promote us. This issue exists not only at CAB and
Manhattan CDD; (divisions in which I have worked), but throughout
the Society. In order to eliminate this problem, the attorneys of color
caucus needs to be re-established. It must focus on addressing these
concerns. The union’s leadership must make diversity a top priority.
Vice-Pres. CDD-Bx: Thomas A.
Bomba
STATEMENT ABOUT MY CANDIDACY FOR SENIOR
ATTORNEY REPRESENTATIVE ON THE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE
I have served as Senior Attorney Representative since 1994, when
I took the position because nobody else wanted it. I have fulfilled my
duties with enthusiasm, dependability and imagination. My
mathematics background has proved useful to the Executive
Council/Bargaining Committee when numbers (often preceded by $)
have become citywide union issues.
Since I have become the Senior Rep, the maximum salary for
senior staff has increased from less than $65,000 to $80,000 and we
have won the long battle to increase the number of salary steps from 13
to 25.
When I served on the Bylaws Revision Committee, one of our
stated goals was to make ALAA more of a participatory democracy.
This purpose is well served by an Executive Committee that taps into
the thoughts of all union members. This purpose is ill served by an
Executive Committee that is dominated by supporters of the only
slate-maker in the union. My being on the Executive Committee will
promote full discussion of important issues within the committee.
I ask you to support me as Senior Rep because the Executive
Council needs people who look at both sides of issues, who avoid
personal attacks and who can communicate not only with colleagues
from all divisions but also with 1199 members and management. I have
done these things and hope to continue to do so.
Thomas F. Bomba, January 2000
Shana Skaletsky-Junior Attorney
Union Representative Candidate
Background
While this is the first opportunity I have had in belonging to a
union, I do have a great deal ofleadership experience and involvement
in community activism. As an·undergraduate and as a law student, I
participated in politically progressive organizations and activities as an
organizer, as a demonstrator, and as a journalist. I am especially aware
and sensitive to the issues faced by those in the LGBT community and
communities of color.
Goals
Through my attendance at the most recent union meeting as well
as through discussions with many of my colleagues, I have identified
issues that are of concern to junior attorneys at The Legal Aid Society,
and I have set out several goals I hope to accomplish as Junior Attorney
Union Representative.
Increased Salaries and Benefits
Our new contract has not only enabled The Legal Aid Society to
hire more new attorneys, but has also allowed for us to receive a
substantially higher starting salary than many attorneys before us.
However, I do not believe the discussion as to salary should end here.
I believe that we should continue to fight for salaries that allow us to
maintain a favorable quality of life. We sought to work for The Legal
Aid Society because we are dedicat~d to providing exemplary
representation for the poor; the idea of being unable to reconcile the
ability to live within our means with the desire to do the work that we
love is not an acceptable one.
Loan Forgiveness Program Development
Many, if not most of us, have exorbitant loans from law school that
need to be repaid. In order for us to remain part of The Legal Aid
Society and continue to work for equal justice, the creation of a loan
forgiveness program is essential. State legislation pertaining to a loan
forgiveness program for those of us working for the public interest has
been at a standstill since January of this year. As your representative,
I will seek to recommence a dialogue regarding the development of a
loan forgiveness program, as this issue is paramount for those of us
who regard working for the public interest as a career.
Solidarity Among Divisions at The Legal Aid Societv
Although my personal experience extends only to that of a staff
attorney of the Criminal Defense Division in the Bronx, as Junior
Attorney Union Representative, I understand and am more than willing
to undertake the responsibility to represent all junior attorneys at The
Legal Aid Society, regardless of borough or division. I am aware that
each borough and division has its own personality and issues, and I
want to be alerted to the concerns of any and all junior attorneys. We
are all committed to working for the same goal in our own way.
I am tremendously excited to be a candidate for Junior Attorney
Union Representative. As Junior Attorney Union Representative, I will
seek to represent the interests of alljunior attorneys of The Legal Aid
Society. I look forward to meeting all of you at the scheduled forums,
and I extend my sincerest apologies in advance ifl am unable to attend
a particular forum. I would welcome any calls ore-mails regarding my
statement and candidacy-please feel free to contact me by e-mail at
seskaletskv@legal-aid.org or by telephone at (718) 579-3059.
David B. AIDer Candidate for Senior
6
Attorney Representative
Just as the enthusiasm and fresh outlook of our newest colleagues
is essential to Legal Aid’s vitality, so is the experience of a core group
of senior lawyers who have made a career choice to advocate for the
poor. Career Legal Aid lawyers are entitled to the fullest degree of
support and encouragement from management; and the most vigorous
advocacy from the union’s leadership. Regrettably, has not always
been, and is still not always the case.
It was not the case when one Chairman of our Board said bluntly,
some years ago, that ours is a job only for ”young lawyers,” who should
quickly move on to something else. Or when a purge in my own office
forced out senior lawyer after senior lawyer, with barely a whisper of
union opposition. ·Or when the Director of C:bD Training told this
very years’ new hires that they will see certain senior lawyers who
should no longer be here.
Our Society’s career lawyers are certainly not receiving their due
in the insulting salary-step system, that affords lawyers between years
13 and 25 a sum total $500 increase per year.
And senior lawyers did not receive their due last year when the
union Executiv~ Board, which including the incumbent Senior Attorney
Representative, engineered a hasty ratification vote on a half-negotiated
contract; without frrst clarifying an ambiguity on a key retirement
benefit that senior lawyers had fought for. As a result, the membership
was told on the very eve of their vote, when it was too late to go back
to the negotiating table, that the contract would not grant medex
supplemental health insurance benefits to every lawyer who had
worked here over· 25 years, as union leaders had been emphatically
opining it would. mstead, the most senior of our colleagues have to
work to age 65 or forfeit the benefit entirely.
I ask for your vote as a person who has been lawyer in our criminal
divisions for the last 12 years (frrst at CAB, then at Manhattan CDD)
and a delegate the last seven. I ask for it as one who has actively
participated in the various struggles in my office, and who has actively
weighed in on Society wide issues when management neglected what
it owed to my colleagues, or when leaders of the union did the same
thing . While on some occasions my zealousness my have a led me to
speak a little too abrasively and a little less artfully than I might have,
I do not think anyone would question my passion and commitment for
fostering democracy in this union, and for trying to force its often-toopassive
leadership to vigorously fight for the people who pay its dues.
As Senior Attorney Representative, I would seek to enhance the
democracy of our \mion by organizing the caucus of constituents that
our by-laws mandate that office holder to convene and take advice
from. In addition to giving .advice on what positions to take, I want
such a caucus to be actively involved in educating management and our
more junior colleagues about the essential role that experienced lawyers
play in a Legal Services organization. Unlike the present incumbent,
who has derided the caucus requirement a8 unfeasible, I view it as
indispensable to effective advocacy. Only with a well organized caucus
of constituents backing him or her up, will any senior attorney
representative be in a position to effectively advocate for his
constituencies’ interests, at all times, but especially in contract
negotiations. Only an active caucus’s support will allow that
representative to ensure that issues of concern to career lawyers are
properly addressed, fully negotiated, and unambiguously clarified an
any future contract.
Thank you.
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