by Jason Howard

Justice Broderick Ponders Call For Justice At Meeting

Flanked by his fellow members of the longest-serving LSC Board of Directors in the Corporation’s history—and six of President Bush’s new Board nominees—New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice John Broderick delivered a moving statement at the last meeting of the 11-member body, which has led LSC for more than nine years:

“About a year ago, when I was at the Court one morning, my phone rang—which doesn’t happen as much as I’d like it to. I picked it up, and it was a woman calling me from Nashua, New Hampshire, who was very desperate.

“She said to me, ‘I need your help; I’m being evicted.’ I said: ‘Ma’am, I really can’t help you. It’s not what I do. I’m an appellate judge.’ She was having none of it, though. She continued to tell me about her problem, and I listened as best I could. I said, ‘Ma’am, you really need to go to the Nashua District Court, and they can probably help you.’ I just can’t help you.

“She replied: ‘I never expected you to understand, as you have never been poor and you have never been homeless.’ As she hung up the phone, I realized she was right on both counts. I have thought about that conversation many times since. And I filter it through the politics of Washington and the country as it relates to the work of this Corporation.

“That woman doesn’t care about the politics of the Legal Services Corporation, those who favor it or those who oppose it. She needed help with a real problem. I hope that this Corporation, in going forward, will remember people like that, who need help that only this Corporation and its programs can provide…. To the extent that average people and poor people in this country cannot get [legal] questions answered in their own life circumstances, we have a much greater problem than we think.

“I hope that the new Board, when constituted, enjoys serving here. I hope this Corporation can continue its mission. The unmet legal needs in this country are enormous. They are far more important than the politics of the moment, or the politics of the day. Yesterday one nominee to the new Board asked us, after nine years of service, which of us were Democrats and which of us were Republicans. It was the highest compliment this person could have paid. I hope for those of you who are coming in, that after your years of service, that somebody in good faith can ask you the same.”

For MLK Day, LSC Gives

Honoring the intention of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday to be “a day on, not a day off,” a dozen Legal Services Corporation employees trudged through snow and slush on Jan. 18 to volunteer at the Northeast Branch of the D.C. Public Library. For several hours throughout the morning, the LSC workers sorted and shelved books donated to the library, one of the oldest in the District that is still in operation. 

“Knowledge is power—once you have it, no one can take it away,” says Ruby Short, an LSC administrative services assistant. Reggie Haley, an LSC programs analyst, agrees: “I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. In fact, I grew up near the library we helped. It felt terrific to give something back to the community.”

The community service project was part of “LSC Gives,” a program founded in the Spring of 2001 that encourages LSC employees to participate in service projects and pro bono work.

“As a child growing up, my family was, shall we say, not awash in cash, and we satisfied my voracious reading habit by making many, many trips to the local library,” says Mattie Condray, the LSC Senior Assistant General Counsel who chairs LSC Gives. “I like to think that we made some small contribution today toward encouraging and enabling others to read.”