THE PUBLIC BAR
Aron, Nan
The Public Bar LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL: Public Interest Law in the 1980s and Beyond by Nan Aron Westview Press. 166 pp. $29.95. "The intention of this book," writes Nan Aron, "is to provide a...
...She has recommendations for foundations, the Government, the organized bar, and law schools on how to advance public-interest law...
...As an example, she cites the executive director of the Mental Health Law Project, who spent 90 per cent of his time fundraising after the Reagan Administration cut off Federal money...
...Aron discusses the damage the Reagan Administration inflicted on these groups, but finds they have managed to survive by changing their strategies and activities...
...She notes, accurately, that "groups are now forced to devote so much of their time and resources to fundraising that their substantive program work is being hampered...
...The intention of this book," writes Nan Aron, "is to provide a better understanding of the mission of public-interest lawyers and stimulate thought about ways to energize and build a movement that advances social justice...
...For instance, she devotes only one paragraph to rebut critics who charge that public-interest lawyers do not sufficiently involve themselves with grass-roots issues of community empowerment...
...Aron is the founder and executive director of the Alliance for Justice, a coalition of public-interest organizations involved in the legal arena, and her book gives a good overview of the field...
...This is a worthy book for lawyers, politicians, foundation executives, and especially for law students who want to know how they can make a difference once they graduate...
...Aron seems more intent on presenting a brief to foundations which supply crucial funding to these legal services...
...However, she does not explore the legal and political agenda these groups intend to pursue, and she slights the debate over the role of public-interest law in the movement for social justice...
...She sketches the history of public-interest law, from the birth of the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund early in the century to the growth in the 1960s and 1970s of a range of issue-oriented groups...
...She includes not just consumer and environmental organizations, but also those designed to protect the rights of women, children, gays and lesbians, prisoners, and the disabled...
...Aron provides tables and charts for the statistically inclined, covering types of public-interest lawyers, salary distributions, and funding sources...
Vol. 53 • April 1989 • No. 4
