Posted by wlansden |
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By James Bowden
I know that there is an easy answer to this one: donate money. Despite the great recession and the fuss that has been made about the collapse of the legal market, attorneys often still earn very competitive wages. We really should be able to give a little bit to help when crises arise – but that is not what I am talking about. Making a cash donation feels particularly anemic, even if it is what aid organizations would prefer.
Doctors, EMTs and professional first responders, law enforcement officers, nurses, aid workers, and others certainly have skills and experience that are directly translatable to crisis management. Even some of the newscasters who are reporting on the evolving tragedy are finding ways to help. Maybe discretion is better part of valor here, but it is a little bit frustrating that my training in wilderness first aid and my experience as a white water raft guide would likely be far more useful than my license to practice law were I to find myself at the scene of a disaster. For guidance on what I could do as a lawyer to assist in a humanitarian crisis, I looked to Lawyers Without Borders, an organization dedicated to “supporting the rule of law, economic development, peacebuilding and sustainability in the legal sector” through pro bono service across the globe. Their recommendation was, admittedly, less than I’d hoped for.
So are lawyers professionally incapable of adding value in these situations? Certainly not – lawyers clearly are actively working to help the victims of last week’s earthquake at all levels, through advocacy, philanthropy, and leadership. Their contributions may seem less immediate, but are no less noteworthy; they just get less dust on their boots in the process.
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