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Briefs
Gottlieb Celebrates 25 Years With Atlanta Legal Aid
When Steve Gottlieb started as a staff attorney at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society (ALAS) in 1969, Woodstock had just taken place and Hippies were the personification of the counterculture movement. For this young attorney fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the future was wide open. That is why, when it came time to renew his Georgia driver's license, he would only do so for two years instead of the more fear-of-commitment-inducing four year option offered by the state. "After all," he surely said to himself, "who knows where I'll be in four years?" Now, a full 36 years later, Gottlieb laughs at these old memories from his office in the same organization he started at all those driver's licenses ago. In the middle of his 25th year as Executive Director of LSC-funded ALAS, he has no regrets about his decision to stay, having been at the helm of the Society for some if its most notable and important work. One such case involved the case of the Mariel Cubans from the early eighties. A brand new executive director at the time, Gottlieb worked with current LSC Chairman Frank B. Strickland and scores of other Atlanta lawyers to provide free representation to hundreds of Cubans who escaped Castro's clutches through the port of Mariel, only to be imprisoned without charge-and without access to a lawyer-upon their arrival in the U.S. ALAS staff attorneys also brought the landmark disability rights case of Olmstead v. L.C. and E.W. all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing successfully that the Americans with Disabilities Act gives disabled people the right to live in the most integrated community setting possible. ALAS's victory in this case has improved the lives of thousands of disabled Americans by moving them from restrictive institutional settings to communities where they can begin to lead normal lives. While Gottlieb is immensely proud of the work his organization has done over the years, he has another reason for sticking it out for so long: his colleagues. "The number one thing that has kept me around is the quality people I've encountered at Atlanta Legal Aid," some of whom, he points out, have been there longer than him. "I've been incredibly lucky to work with people whose passions coincide so perfectly with the mission of the organization." Contemplating whether a 30 year anniversary as Executive Director of ALAS is in his future, Gottlieb says, "if the people are still the same people and if the work is still as exciting as I've found it over the years, I won't be leaving anytime soon."
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