Mockingbird has influenced generations of college graduat graduates, aspiring to practice law like Atticus Finch to go to law school. Last year on the occasion of the books 50th anniversary we contacted harper lee who graciously authorized this award to honor an author whose work best exemplifies the positive role of warriors in society and their power to effect change. The prize is grounded in the character of a lawyer, lawyer, Atticus Finch, indispensable and courageous representation of tom robinson. On september 21, 2010 u. S. Attorney general eric holder honored our law school when he came to tuscaloosa, alabama to help celebrate half a century of to kill a mockingbird and to help us to establish this award. Our law school has a very special partner in this award and sponsor at the journal which is read by about half of the nations lawyers monthly about half million lawyers but we now call upon jack to make some remarks, jack is the executive director of the ada. [applause] thank you, dean. It will surprise you, i know, but American Bar Association occasionally does things that are controversial. When we are asked by the university of alabama to partner with them in this award we were able to do something that totally was uncontroversial. Honoring harper lee is a great idea and choosing the writer who highlights the role of lawyers in society is a great idea and so we were able to define a role for this with the university of Alabama School of law and honored to do so and its especially fitting that the first interbeing on grisham couldve won the award a number of years ago had the award assisted at the time but hes a very deserving winner and we are delighted to present it to him. We note there will be many future winners who will be quite deserving as well and we hope some people are inspired to write the good stories about lawyers from this but the particular book he wrote, the confession i know many of you have read it as especially timely and it was a remarkably good job and does tell a very good lawyer story. The American Bar Association is the Worlds Largest voluntary professional organization and is this is one of those good things to do that we are delighted to partner with. Dean, thank you and the university of Alabama Law School for the opportunity. [applause] as you probably know our ceremony is occurring this week at the same time as the National Book festival here in dc which is sponsored by the library of congress so we will now will ask roberto schaefer, law library in a car is to make some remarks. Thank you, dean and other distinguished guests. I am delighted to be celebrating with you today at the inauguration of the harper leave prize for legal fiction. I will note that today is situated between two other important events that happened close in time. One was the celebration last week of Constitution Day and saturday in addition to kicking off the library of congress is 11th National Book festival we will also be kicking off the annual banned books week. Has many of you know to kill a mockingbird has had a high place on the honor roll of banned books for many, many years. Im here representing the library of congress but think im actually representing libraries in general. When all the honors are given in all the book tours are over although i guess for some they never stop. [laughter] books along with other intellectual treasures come to libraries to live long and rewarding lives and to offer explanations of the past and inspiration for the future. They sit on shelves, today either physical or virtual alongside works in other media and by other writers whose ideas may support or challenge the other ideas in these fantastic knowledge capsules. In these collections of knowledge challenge us to consider and study myriad of subjects, looking at topics of class, color, codes, legal or social codes, communication and even art clothing as young scout in to kill a mockingbird often protests what women have to we wear. Books of fact or fiction or those somewhere in between ask us to look at ourselves and our society every day and many may even ask are we killing the mockingbirds . At the very same time they try to entertain and educate us. Our libraries, personal, public or even congressional are constant reminders to our children, our judges, our lawmakers, our fellow citizens and even our adversaries of our Cultural Values and of the legacies that we want to be remembered by. This afternoon we are honoring two great authors, harper lee and john grisham. They can be assured that as long as we have libraries their work will continue to be honored. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, roberta. Looking around this room we could recognize so many special guests today and i know we members of the federal judiciary and you honor with your presence but i do want to single out and im sure mr. Grisham will do it later on and we many representatives from random house, sunny, gina and the rest of johns Publishing Team and we want to recognize you with a round of applause as well. [applause] we had an Outstanding Committee that selected this book and so many books were nominated and we had a group in tuscaloosa an ulcer that narrowed the skin scaled onto three books and then had an outstanding Selection Committee and i will go out in alphabetical order. Even bald duchy to my right whom is a bestselling author and his first novel, absolute power, published in 1986 was an immediate bestseller and he has since published more than 20 novels and seven original screenplays with his wife, michelle. They are known for their philanthropic work with the wish you well foundation promoting Adult Literacy and he received his jd from the university of virginia but to my left and my dear friend a graduate of the university of Alabama Law School cofounder and it still remains chief child counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center in montgomery and probably of anyone else in the state of alabama singlehandedly shut down the kkk in alabama. Also want to recognize from the committee as to robert gray, graduate of washington and Lee Law School and has worked with us on several projects but we will claim you as an honorary alumni. Robert is a former president of the ada and partner in the Prestigious Firm of hunting and williams. Two members of the 20 cannot be with us, jeff who has worked with us on other things on her just as awards, cnn senior legal analyst and committed to the new yorker magazine just a few days ago we learned that linda fehr stein cannot be with us and she is a bustling crime novelist and former prosecutor so lets recognize this election committee. [applause] in a few minutes David Baldacci will lead a Panel Discussion of the book we are honoring today, the confession, i want to take a few minutes telling you about the author of the confession, mr. John grisham. Im probably just repeating fax you all know but the more famous of person i guess the shorter the introduction. John grisham was originally from arkansas graduated from the university of Mississippi Law School in 1981 and practiced law for nearly one decade, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation but he also served in the Mississippi House of representatives from 1983 until 1990. As difficult as all of us lawyers know it is to practice law he somehow wrote every morning before the crack of dawn and published a time to kill in 1988. His next book, the firm, spent 47 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was a bustling novel, bestselling novel of 1991. Two more of his books immediately claimed the number one spot on that list, the pelican brief and the clients. Mr. Grisham has written about one legal Fiction Books a year, nine have been turned into movies and he has also written about other diverse subjects such as baseball and aging football quarterback and christmas. Mr. Grishams nonfiction book, the innocent man, symbolizes, and as i understand it galvanize this commitment to the goal of exonerating the wrongly convicted and as much about today actively in the Innocence Project nationally. In 1996 mr. Grisham took a break from writing to fulfill a promise he made to represent the family of a railroad break man who was killed when pinned between two cars. Youre in his client a jury award of 683,000 and in his own lawyering in that he surmises of some of the best lawyering in his books. It is not my great honor to present to the inaugural harper lee prize for legal fiction to john grisham. [applause] thank you, Deena Randall for this award and thanks also to the university of Alabama School of law. To the aba journal for cosponsoring the award, thank you to harper lee forgiving her blessings to what we are doing here today. I especially thank the incredible intelligent and insightful, well read and astute panel of judges that shows my book. [laughter] you guys are really sharp. Many of us, especially those from the south can remember the first time that we read to kill a mockingbird. For me i was in the ninth grade, mr. Tubbs english class 15 years old in 90s his nine when we read the story and for the first time that class had black kids in it. It prompted some discussions that were not always comfortable. As a child and as a kid reading the book i was entertained by the adventures of scout and jem as they tormented boo radley and watched surfaced officially the trial of tom robinson. Reading the book as an adult i was more impressed with the dignity and courage of tom and his lawyer, Atticus Finch, also known as gregory peck. I was astounded by the injustice of that era. The trial was 75 years ago. For those of us who observed the legal system and write about it we are still confronted with injustice and inequality in a system that often convicts innocent people and send them to prison and even executes them. Unlike many, i cannot say the Atticus Finch inspired me to go to law school. I dont know what i was thinking when i went to law school. But i do recall 30 years ago standing in a courtroom in a small town in venice it be a rookie lawyer, the way out of my league defending a black man charged with murder looking at an allwhite jury. I kept thinking what would atticus do now. What would atticus do now . A few years later when i began secretly writing my first novel i was drawn back to to kill a mockingbird for the incredible storytelling ability of harper lee and for the themes of injustice and loss of innocence for the humor but most importantly for me for the character of Atticus Finch. A few years later after my first book was published and several other books i received a package one day unmarked, opened it up and it was from harper lee and was copy of to kill a mockingbird, it was not a First Edition in that book is still in print so there it are still additions ongoing but it was an early addition and she inscribed to john grisham, best wishes, harper lee. It is a prized possession and i have a place for it on the wall and today i will add it next to this award here. Now that i have two earlier, dean randall gave me another signed copy of to kill a mockingbird i have two kids and i love to collect old books but they are constantly bickering about who gets what. Theyve been worried about who gets a copy of to kill a mockingbird well, now i have two things to you. [laughter] thank you for this award. [applause] thank you, john. Its now time for our Panel Discussion comparing the two books and exploring their place in legal literature and their impact moderated by David Baldacci introduced weve a few of the palace but we have two other panelists to introduce big dalia, contribute in editor at newsweek and Senior Editor at slate where she writes a Supreme Court dispatches and jurisprudence and has been a guest columnist for the New York Times oped page. Also [inaudible] director of the forum on law, culture and society at the Fordham Law School and himself offered several highly regarded novels. I will turn it over to david at this point. I want to add my congratulations to john. I was one of those very literary minded astute judges. [laughter] who picked the confession is a book and is much a deserving of this award. It was stiff competition but all the judges agreed and we had our Conference Call and went over the books in detail that johns book rose head and shoulders above the other books that were very fine books in their own respected it was a book that was eminently readable, terrifically entertaining and deals with substantive issues in a way that asked everyone or should make everyone read the book think about appeared in a shameless plug either as a poster back there the next we will do in october or next month and Yale University to feature highlight another iconic figure in american literature, mark twain. Its a fundraiser for the mark twain museum. Judy pickled will join john and i on stage and if you are in that part of the country and want to go to it, please do bring all the funds go to Mark Twain House Museum and in this country we cant celebrate writers like harper lee and mark train that we are doing so thereon. The panel is here, john has agreed to be up and participate if he wants to or he can listen and if we get things us no, i am sure. I have a series of questions here but i will ask the questions but i think we will have a free flow dialogue. I will call on any one person on the panel to answer so please feel free to jump in. I like this question. I will start with it. How has the lawyer pretrade in popular fiction changed in the 50 years since Atticus Finch can make Atticus Finch was a lawyer we should all have at least one time in our lives when being accused of a really bad crime. He is the guide that will be there for us and stands for what is good and pure and seems to be ideal in a sense that its hard to understand how a person can be there. How have lawyers changed in the 50 years since Atticus Finch . Everyone is looking at me. Yes, please go. While, for one thing Atticus Finch is a flawless character. For many people who read to kill a mockingbird that is some of the complexity of the book is that you have a character who is just too good, so good at the end that hes willing to have his own son prosecuted for the voluntary manslaughter of one of the most evil man in all of alabama. Overly righteous. And now we see characters with much more complexity, characters who have flaws and who are, in fact, using the law and many of John Grishams richters fall into this quality. They are using the case as a way to redeem themselves and it is a way for them to find themselves, through the law. Atticus finch was quite clear of who he was as a father and as a town legislator and who he was as a native son of alabama and if you look at art today the characters are as lost as their clients. We find them struggling with divorce and alcoholism and real human struggles and that makes it a huge difference between the last 50 years of we see characters of more character with texture into humanity. Or us. What i think is the campaign against lawyers, especially trial lawyers by the political right in america and the u. S. Chamber of commerce and others finding its way infection back in the time and i started practicing law we didnt see lawyers condemned as lawyers and trial lawyers but we were honored people. In fact, when you had a capital murder case in the country and the person was innocent the finest lawyers would be in town and you had to volunteer to represent this person and i think the Legal Profession is really condemned today, in many ways and you see that creeping into fiction also. I speak to a lot of law students and i always tell them that if they read henry the sixth they would read that if tyranny is to prevail you must first kill all the lawyers and then the first part of that shakespeare play is omitted today and i think john grisham has helped put it back in place. I might just ahead and maybe its a hybrid of the two points that have been made but i think that there is a sense that lawyers in fiction today are working against immutable machines, and away they did not used to be. I think one of the things you dont see anymore is lawyers who feel that their firm is a good place to be, lawyers who feel the government is a good place to be. There is a sense that there is this leviathan structure that fundamentally corrupts and that goes to some of these points about the real questions about the integrity of the legal system but in addition to having a drink in their hands and in modern fiction every lawyer has a drink in their hands, male and female but i think they are very disaffected and frustrated and broken and hopeless and i think it goes to, in a sense, that the legal system isnt respected and verified the way it once was. I would try to put a positive spin on this. That would be hopeful. Over the last 50 years, actually, i think one of the really good and positive attributes of fiction in the timeframe that we are talking about is and appreciation and understanding of the legal system. It is a complex but very critical part of our life in this country. Its a foundation for our democracy. And to have authors who understand it and put it in the context of reallife situations makes it appreciated but more importantly its an educational tool. I find that those who read the book, who are not lawyers, weight with a much deeper understanding and appreciation of our legal system and it is pretty good. In many ways we can be critical of it because we expect so much from it, as we should. But by the same token that we are where we benefit a great deal from the honesty that surrounds the purpose for the legal system. When you think about the use of juries as well you understand that this is our system. It is not something elses system. We own this system. And to the extent that it is a system that judges and passes judgment on very complex and sometimes life altering situations, i think, what we have learned from this books is that it is better to have it than not. Ive covered about all the other nine questions that i had on my paper. [laughter] will get more organized with bob, we can start with you and work this way. Followup question that i had thrillers and legal thrillers in general are very popular. Even though a lot of people seem to have disdain for the Legal Profession and i think we have seen max. They are fascinated with that world. We see that with movies and with books and if you could talk to why you think that fascination, aside from the fact that we have learned things about the legal system what is built into the legal system that fascinates people in a broad basis and they want to learn more about it . Well, particularly the ones that we choose to example if i, they are Game Changers but they are Game Changers for society and for attitudes and the way we see ourselves. In many cases when you see an outcome that goes against the grain but preserves the institution of a just system you want to root for it and you want to say to yourself that is this country, thats our country and i am proud of the fact that in this environment, in the society you can still root for the underdog and win. It is the only place that the president of the United States has the possibility of being tried. You dont see that in other countries, not the head of state and if it does happen its a rare occasion but in this country if you choose to break the law you are just as susceptible to being tried as anybody else. The statement that Chesterfield Smith made, former president of the ada, is that no person is above the law really rose true in the examples we see in movies that we see and the most important thing is that even without the means there is a preservation of Civil Liberties and civil rights. Legal narrative, legal novels, legal dramas are particularly in american cultural touchstone and they are very much legal dramas are very much like the american westerns in terms of the publics fascination. Westerns, as we no, take place in the prairie and deal with lawlessness but they arent essentially about the search for good in righteousness and to do what is just and to make things right and the legal system is a natural location, trials for good versus evil and you see, you know, cowboys on horses and lawyers strutting on in courtrooms delivering summations. There is Even Movement in courtrooms, john grisham is the master of having people do interesting things, including pouring a glass of water and all of a sudden this idea that there is an action that is taking place but it is an action that really is the same kind of dramatic tension that there is some injustice that is taken place in the audience cant sit still until some resolution takes place and its the court and the setting does it in a weight that is much more close but doesnt with the same kind of dramatic tension and excitement and anyone who is read the confession, this new novel knows it really is a page turner and who knew, right, that Something Like a legal trial could become so fascinating to American Culture that, in fact, even during the day all Television Soap operas are off and they lost their places in favor of judge judy and judge alex and the peoples court. Obviously there is some consumer demand to see, to see human resolutions to conflict and to be able to make distinctions between right and wrong. People are longing for this and perhaps they are not seen it and a lot but seeing it on d team tv and reading david and johns book. I would probably double down on the spaghetti western and say it is also the morality place but its the religious treaties. To the extent that we have a church in this country it is the Supreme Court, to the extent we have a foundational religious text is the constitution and we think, sometimes at our peril, we look at those things as substitutes for religion and i think this is justice but this is morality. This is the trial or even, i think even csi and hunting down the criminal, beating him about the head until he confesses, thats all part of an arts about morality and we hope that this is a system that, you know, in the absence of a beneficent god is the next best thing we have is a beneficent judge, who will do the right thing and make moral choices. Prevail. When i was in law school i was reading the old cases and i was struck with how history has been decided in many ways after the constitution and legal cas cases. Each passage in history made the distinction we got to witness at the detroit davis situation and i dont know what will be the next step. It could be hopefully the beginning of the Death Penalty in the United States hopefully. Whether it is the right to have counsel in many ways it is part of the whole legislative system that we have seen in court. I said fiction is only bound by plausibility, and people can suspend disbelief but you have to have an element of it not that it did happen but it could. Its gotten bigger and what people are willing to believe might have been the question is and i will start with you, is that a reflection on the legal system or societies that they will accept. Many things that can happen in fiction more so than the population might have accepted a think it has a lot to do with im not sure if that is true. My favorite books i have to tell you its a lot of disbelief and there havent been any books written since then. In the commercials they can make for the war heroes it can be suspended with disbelief. I said lets get john to Lifetime Achievement award because he can take any of his books and the rest of them and so the contributions theyve made for the cause of justice. If in fact it is the case the enormity of the kind of things he writes about books that look like this cant possibly happen i had the Great Fortune of reading this book. Between the fictional work about a possibly innocent man being sent by a judicial system and prosecutorial system and what can happen in front of your eyes. I couldnt remember from day to day as the week went on but what i have read from the concussion i think one of the things john does so well is take these questions what if you bought a Supreme Court justice and terms it into beyond belief until you watch the court so it seems to me the problems have gotten huge and i think the problem is in the disbelief to persuade readers that this may have just happened. I think that is the real problem that we are facing. Thabut it is true that we lie in this culture where people feel no longer shocked by anything. We live in a shockproof society. Cnn very shortly within an hour or so of the World Trade Center stopped shoving the two buildings falling down. I dont know if you remember for the first hour you assaulted all the tim time had now you never e anymore someone mustve called cnn and said cut it out, the more you show this the more you make people desensitized. And this needs to be outrageous, untrue such atrocious. We are no longer shocked and when we deal with john grisham i think it is true once you are there you get much closer to the conventional narratives about good, evil and morality and in that sense with all due respect it is not featured in its best light that is a perfect setting for cynical culture to look at the legal system as machine. Once you become a part of the system you can never leave and that is the perception that we all have about the legal system and i think that it fits into the cynical culture where we dont believe in the institutions and we feel everyone has failed us and now judges and lawyers has no. Im not sure what i can add to that particular observation but i think each panelist has brought a perspective that is true and by the way this is a good question that you asked. We are never going to be the same not just because of the dislike of 9 11 is because everything is realtime, so you see the underbelly of a problem or a conflict immediately there is no time to spend and wait and see and cast it to produce some revisionist history. It is their right in front of us and i think people are a lot more cynical and realistic and we can draw an interesting scenario and circumstance and people will say thats possible. I can analogize back to something i saw were just read about on the internet. Its not that wild or far out anymore as it is to be. It was interesting i saw an episode of the Twilight Zone which was a sitcom and it one time. Thats not crazy. Thats like somebody needed in a shoebox and put and put it out back then it was over you kidding me, that is really fantastic. But the defense of the nation is true. We really are in a much more real world that when things are realtime, the way we analyze problems and look at the circumstances is so much different than when we first went to kill a mockingbird first came out and over the years thee have learned that anything is possible. Sometimes it is like a race to the bottom. One lament i hear and publishing world is even five years ago it doesnt necessarily thrill people anymore. You are sort of constantly pressured to come up with more outlandish situations and elements that have always existed and you tell it well and a story about people and situations under pressure and how the highstakes are there but this gets to the next question goes into confession and kill to kill a mockingbirde are issues of faith and how that can affect the concussion and theres a line in the book about to kill a mockingbird where atticus tells Scott Peterson go to church and worship if he didnt defend tom robinson and this very segregationist structures of the question is what role does faith play or should faith play a role in lawyering for the social justi justice. I think youve got to start in the middle. [laughter] i either give you a too much time to think or no time at all. Well, we are a faithbased culture into custody with High Expectations notwithstanding the opportunity to take advantage of a situation tha that there is certain principles and ethical standards and people have faith in the fact that you will act upon those for the preservation of justice. I think by and large, that works. There are exceptions to the rule and situations that have bad results as the result of prosecutors doing bad things and defense lawyers not doing good things, judges being in different two things that change the outcome and affect peoples lives in a very adverse way sometimes but when you look at bat in ththat in the totality, t is what i think the book does for the stories to. They put you in the position of saying there can be bad things that can happen but what principles we stand for as a country and expect our lawyers to adhere to involve a degree of faith that once given is usually transformed into a just decision and an opportunity i think for us to right the wrongs in this country. And by and large, i must be the internal optimist oeternal optil but i think that that is why this system has stayed intact as long as it has with other systems around the world. I think its beyond faith. It goes to the notions of the reality its not just a he tells them you cant go to church if he doesnt represent tom robinson. He told her numbers of things. He says i cant prevent you or have you do your chores. I couldnt walk down the street or be able to function as a sum of the state. I couldnt represent the town and the legislature. Wall students are taught to achieve the correct legal results. They are not taught to think about the fundamental distinctions of right and wrong and the common human courtesies and. That is what atticus is about. He did go to the university of Alabama Law School. Assuming he went beyond what youre talking and he said no, i scanned the correct legal presold but its also important for me to do what, and i think that the idea is also the drives so much of the fiction of john grisham characters when you think about one of my favorite books these are people that are tireless, energetic crusaders who do the right thing. We dont teach law students to do that, so its beyond faith and asking them to just fight for the right thing as the most righteous crusading cause and that is why these characters stand out and the heroes stand out because they are not doing what everyone else is doing. They are doing they be something beyond what everyone else is doing. I think it is interesting that atticus is a man of faith. The lawyers are outsiders now. So they believed im going to use this mechanical legal system to make the world good and fair and just in a way they may have thought about religion and i think that same point is exactly right which is the legal system cannot at the end of the day deliver you the kind of outcomes you might seek from the religious system. When i was born in alabama in 1936 and read to kill a mockingbird in 1956 that came out, i was just out of law school. I graduated 1960 and i didnt read it as fiction but just fa fact. Even though i probably strayed from my Southern Baptist beliefs at the time, it had everything to do with provided starting at the university when they tried to integrate it. At my sunday school class for next week i said id read the first chapter. How can you say you love god youve never seen him that hate your fellow man that you have seen. They took me off the job as the superintendent of sunday school the next sunday. [laughter] is a very dramatic thing and even though i know probably spend more time at the unitary and fellowship and synagogue than i do at the baptist church, i still appreciate my beginnin beginnings. I dont think i ever Closing Argument in a case talking about the fact that juries using the idethatidea that you stated to m to understand that that is what the whole Justice System is about. We have for you lawyers at the senate. They have all types of religious faiths and beliefs and with the sugar and some of my employees especially those that dont work in the Legal Profession their potential manhunts in alabama Supreme Court a lot of people in my neighborhood. Fullstop i was doing something sacrilegio sacrilegious. I go to worship on sunday morning. Thank you. [laughter] Atticus Finch is a lawyer from the south and many of John Grishams characters are from the south. How is the trial lawyer perceived differently in the south than other regions of the country . I will start with you this time. Because im from the northern [laughter] lets start with that guy. [laughter] im saying this now as a northern jewish guy southern lawyer is a more flamboyant character. Frankly. Mason is humorless. We dont even know what he likes to eat. He is in la. Does anybody realize that hes actually in la and the kind of car she drives his pre la. La. Matlock there is an interesting guy. His suits told you a lot, there is a kind of wisdom of folksiness and one can see that in the traumatic presentation not the corporate lawyers during a boxelawyer staringat boxes ofs were regulations but the corporate and wisdom of how to relate and function as a human being as opposed to a called in a machine that perception is the debut a better. They are more likable and i think the presentation of yankee players is that they are more mechanical and thorough and less presenting their own personal style that when you think about other aspects of great fiction, Richard Wrights native son and the chicago portrait, but again you just get the sense that he represented communists. You dont get the sense of did he eat hot dogs okay. Okay. Theres something about the way we see southern lawyers that they are off watching a baseball game and for that reason they become more interesting characters. Robert [inaudible] [laughter] the best moment was in the south. Its always been the case that if you are going to try a case in the south you better get somebody from the town and there was always the case that the northern firm would come in with two partners, three associates and two paralegals and they would take up that half of the courtroom against the southern downhome lawyer who is tied with the kid had yesterdays supper and a few buttons missing off the shirt and mismatched socks and the like and he would say im going to do the best i can against the army that is sitting over there. And the jury got it all in one statement, david against goliath was always the setup and it was always fascinating and warmed our hearts and gave us this idea of the underdog, the southern lawyer who had very little sophistication and had to go up against the wall street lawyers and at the end of the day ended up with a verdict and they are scratching their heads like how in the world did that happen. When you saw the jury listening to the lawyers, when the southern lawyer was talking they would talk about experiences they both had and they would get this nodding of the head like this that is exactly right and the northern lawyer would get up and say this is a very complex case that involves all of these Different Things and their heads that go together we like i dont think so. That this has been a great cultural experience i think in talking about the wall and depicting lawyers and its a great example that you raise when you do that about the differences of culture professionally in the country and how you can get the same Legal Education that is a whole different outlook about how to try a case. I grew up in the south and when i went to court i have to bring another southerner with me. I got used to being called mr. Baldwin over and over again by the judge which was okay. I have two quick responses. It is an incredible godgiven device to talk about the issues of the law and the values of the main addon to the lawyer and that is one of the reasons that the books are so good at talking about things that still all these years later we can talk about they can write about if we have a southern lawyer to life the way. Its a big cities and small towns and i think this goes to something that robert is saying that is so fundamental. Theyve known each other all their lives and they have repeated relationships with each other over and over and over and you will see in small towns that is how it functions. It is a very different thing this is an interesting and powerful way of talking about people that have relationships with each other. Not just north and south but it has a lot more to do with communities where there are repeat players who have stereotypes about each other and have longstanding trust issues and dont issues. That is what lights up in the book. The ones i had a case and the lawyer said they are not going to get your southern accent and i said well, let me try to not just in the United States but also those in the deep south. This is against the nations and i have a boss richard cohens law school and i got objected and the judges gave up and we ended up with a substantial verdict and they walked out in front of the courtroom. They dont know anything about the law. All he does is tell the stories. [laughter] i think the storytelling is a big part of it and i can intensify that it works. He is one of the greatest lawyers that they will ever kn know. Theres there is a move to close courthouse doors to you will stand and make your Opening Statement and that is the case especially in the civil courts to shut the door because Corporate America does not trust the jury. I gave a talk once so i did that one year and said how many of you came to represent peoples rights in all of their hands go up. That is a great story. I said well nobody knows why and he would have never had a trial so i think its important to they keep the idea. Some of you may know what it means. Im sure you know what it means but its the right to the trial ended up 25 or more that is just lost on those people in washington, d. C. Thank you. Among the many other things we have a couple of minutes left id like to open up questions from the floor if anybody has any questions. I was struck between the perspective coming from a little girl looking at her father and then you see the procedure and practice and a Football Player being railroaded. In our larger legal issues it seems the process is being taken away from us but it is the drones killing people overseas and american citizens without due process. I wonder if we can talk a little bit about that. That is a fundamental issue to the integrity of the Justice System. We are in a complex society so i dont want to try to do that with the drones and the like but let me take your point and expand on it just as much. I think you hit a nerve when you say w we make the thing due process in jeopardy because if you dont have that then all of the other pillars in the structure fall and that is a critical element and its a linchpin. It might even be the achilles heel of you cannot be assured if they are followed carefully by police and prosecutors and judges you get to where you should go. You may not like the outcome but you cant say i got a fair day in court and that is important and if theres any way anybody takes a shortcut to avoid the person getting the opportunity, then the system has failed. Thats the tricky thing about the constitution. There are people in this district that would save the drowning campaign is outside of the constitution like Guantanamo Bay that is the fundamental question we have been wrestling with since the last few years. Is it only limited to these very sort of insular domestic settings or what happens in the wider world when nations decided to avenge crimes committed against them. The reason we have the patriot act is because everything would be otherwise unconstitutional. Thats why its called the patriot act so everybody feels like you have to be a patriot to support it and if you dont, then whats wrong with you. The surveillance act these are things that would otherwise be unconstitutional so weve taken steps to find a way around the constitution and the more complicated issue it would be so much better and that is what we have the patriot act and then it would be at least much more conversational. But at least to have a conversation about what is really happening instead of the fiction to a constitutional standard when we dont. We did and for people that have communist affiliation in the 1950s and we dont have it for pedophiles today. All sorts of people for whom the constitution doesnt apply and they are on a separate track for justice. Lets at least be honest about what they are doing. I would add to the problem is compounded simply not because we are losing the rights and access to due process but people dont know or care. I think underlining the question one of the bad things about it being a Supreme Court reporter is when you try to say im setting my hair on fire they changed the standards. Its not just pleading standards but these incredible jargon laden ways in which americans are less and less free and they dont know it, and i guess i would say one of the things fiction can do a. It really matters to them that the cell phone contract and i dont think we are doing a very good job of not just talking about those things in this country. Im going to pass on all of those due process issues personally. Fiction is great and to kill a mockingbird is great, but the book that john wrote, the innocent man is just as great and its a reallife situation. And i hope they will consider books that are nonfiction, too. Who wouldnt be moved by my life in court and so many books. So those are probably more frequently written than the Fiction Books to the level of the confession or to kill a mockingbird. Its where people have to go try to resolve their disputes confronted with overwhelming issues most of them are economic. So it is expensive in the law anand the lawand the technologyd so dramatically. I know they have some law books and common sense and people who could talk to and instigators and things like that. Today the cost whether they are big or small or the burdens that face our trial courts in the thinking of the challenges for us as lawyers and those who write about the law to try to address the issues that are beginning to overwhelm the court and it takes years and years during the case and most people cant afford it and dont want to pay if so the Economic Issues are pressing to the point where in the states i tried cases the problem is it is an enormous problem and they cant afford to get their practice over to representing those people who maybe cant afford it so it is the best in the world for the accesbut theaccess to it is cony getting more narrow because it is expensive and the judges were absolutely overwhelmed with the volume of litigation and the concept of the pro se litigant is taking everything away from the legal system turning the courts into the kind of dispute results that dont have the time and resources so i think lawyers as a profession and those that are otherwise involved are writing about the court system need to try to give as much creative thought as possible to try to make the courts accessible to people and try to give people access to the Justice System which does function better than any other system in the world. I want to echo of two things. One is when we look at how we fund the institutions that preserve the way of life that we have in the democracy that we are we think it is very special in our society you dont do that by shortchanging the court. They are and should be the weakest branch of government is they should be nonpolitical but to take advantage and put them in a disadvantaged position where only those that can afford it have access to it is not american and it is not the way the country ought to think of itself as preserving this democracy. The second thing, there are things that are not that hard. People should be able to resolve of the court and we ought to make that accessible to them in ways where mediation and other forms of dispute resolution help people because of this and that complex a. Thank you for coming. [applause] i want to thank the staff, susan newman, Rebecca Bolden of this wonderful event. We are adjourned. [applause]
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