Nova Southeastern held the Equal Justice Colloquium for Puerto Rico and Florida on January 26 and 27, 2001. The conference opened with a reception on Friday evening. On Saturday morning, Dean Harbaugh welcomed everyone and introduced the first three speakers - Herman Russomanno, President of the Florida Bar, Terrence Russell, President-Elect of the Florida Bar, and Elliott Millstein. Jaime Ruberté, the President of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, was also introduced. Fran Tetunic, the chair of the conference planning committee mentioned that there were law professors from all the Florida schools in attendance. There were over 160 participants - Elliott mentioned that this was the highest attendance thus far. There were 20 attendees from Puerto Rico, consisting of professors, legal services lawyers, private practitioners, judges, and community representatives involved in civil rights issues.

The morning plenary panel consisted of various speakers introducing various collaborative efforts. Kent Spuhler of Florida Legal Services began the discussion. Paul Doyle of the Florida Bar Foundation spoke of the state planning effort (140 different programs) nd summer fellowships. He mentioned that banks only pay 1% to IOTA. He mentioned law school loans being one of the biggest challenges to the programs. Finally, he spoke of a letter written by the Florida Bar President which generated a tripling of contributions to Children’s Legal Services.

Catherine Arcabascio spoke of her class “Post Conviction Litigation Workshop” which works with 10 students and lawyers in the community through the Innocence Project. Deborah Howard spoke of the Law School Consortium. Maryland is working on a demonstration law office. Northeastern is working on domestic violence (seminar) and community economic development (client base of small businesses in an empowerment zone). CUNY is working with general practitioners in immigration. Each law school is experimenting with a different model. Robin Rosenberg of Holland & Knight spoke of the Community Service Team. The firm has 3% of its revenues going to public interest. It has lawyers working with public interest agencies, including Smith Fellows, who spend 2 years working full time for public interest agencies.

Anthony Alfieri from the University of Miami spoke of the Center for Ethics and Public Service. The Center works with 70 students in 5 practice groups, including one that is the ethics advisor for Greater Miami Legal Services and FIAC (Florida Immigrant Action) and a pro bono group (which works on a community health education project).

The group then broke into subject matter groups that were to identify issues that faced the provision of legal services in the morning and in the afternoon, work on potential solutions that involved law schools. The groups were Children, Environmental Justice, Prisoner’s Rights, Domestic Violence, Immigration and Civil Rights.

Justice Hernandez Denton of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court was the luncheon speaker. He spoke of the need to vindicate in practice the rights granted in theory and the need to extend the blanket of justice so no one should grow cold under our watch. He spoke of the efforts in Puerto Rico to increase access to courts - a toll free number, kiosks, web site, drug courts (with social workers and education). He spoke of clinical programs at the U. of Puerto Rico, which began in 1952 and is mandatory for all third year students, and the Inter-American University. He mentioned that 5 major cases before the Puerto Rico Supreme Court in the past 2 years were brought by clinics. Finally, he mentioned that the court has asked law professors to handle indigent cases.

After the afternoon small group meetings, the groups reported back. The Children’s group identified the need for experts, a listserv, a CLE manual and the need to mentor pro bono attorneys. The Environmental Justice group mentioned the need for information - national website and listserv network. The Prisoner’s Rights group identified the need for money and first amendment professors. The Domestic Violence group identified the need for appellate work in the area. The Immigration group identified public education as one of the things that law schools could do. Law professors could get more involved in the local bar. Law schools could provide some training on how to make public interest private practice affordable. Access to law schools, including for the immigrant communities, is an issue that loan forgiveness programs would aid. Networking between alums and law schools and CLE are ways to have access to information for alums so they can handle cases. Law schools should require a pro bono disclosure statement from firms recruiting on campus. Law schools should set up clinics in subject areas no covered by service programs in order to train law graduates so they can provide services when they graduate. At the same time, the clinic would fill a service vacuum.

Efrén Rivera, from the University of Puerto Rico, closed the conference. He spoke of the links between Florida and Puerto Rico. He announced that the Puerto Rican group would meet in the next two weeks in Puerto Rico to continue the conversation.

For further information, contact one of the local planners listed below: