"...That No One Is Beneath the Law"
by:  P. Nathan Bowles, Jr., Esquire

In 1995 Congress debated whether to end federal funding for civil legal services for poor people. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the federal Legal Services Corporation (LSC) budget and an avowed opponent of continued funding, selected four local legal services programs around the country to appear as witnesses at his Subcommittee’s budget hearing in May 1995. One was the Legal Aid Society of Charleston, WV (now Appalachian Legal Services). As President of the Legal Aid Society’s Board of Directors at the time (and still a member of the ALS Board) Nate Bowles of Charleston gave the following testimony.

Chairman Gramm, members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you and to tell you about the Legal Aid Society of Charleston. I am accompanied today by Tom Flaherty, the President of the West Virginia State Bar, which is the official bar for all lawyers in West Virginia.

I am a partner in the law firm of Bowles Rice McDavid Graff Love & Getty. We have about 80 lawyers in four offices in West Virginia and an office in Lexington, Kentucky. We serve primarily business clients, including many banks, manufacturers and natural resource producers.

My practice is concentrated in what I call commercial litigation, and in mineral law, which in West Virginia means coal, oil and gas.

My father, Paul N. Bowles, who died in 1986, helped make our firm what it is. My father grew up poor, during the depression, and from age 13 was the man of the house which included an invalid brother and two nieces who became his adopted sisters.

I remember as a young boy my father saying that he charged some people higher fees so that he could represent poor people who couldn’t afford to pay him. He believed, as do I and many, if not most, attorneys, that part and parcel of a license to practice law is the responsibility of trying to make the American legal system a fair one. That includes seeing that people who need legal representation receive it, even if they can’t afford to pay $150.00 an hour.

A number of lawyers who went to law school after World War II, on the GI Bill, shared this philosophy and founded the Legal Aid Society of Charleston in 1953. At first, it operated with donated furniture and donated time from lawyers. Later, it received funding from the United Way and private individuals, and eventually, from the Legal Services Corporation.

Today [in 1995], the Legal Aid Society of Charleston has five lawyers who serve a client population of 60,000, which is enough to fill up the West Virginia University football stadium. These clients live in the City of Charleston and surrounding rural areas.

In 1990, after much debate and discussion by the Board of Directors, we accepted a request by the State of West Virginia to take on a program which provides lay advocates for patients in state mental hospitals. In 1991, the State asked us to supervise the ombudsmen who visit every nursing home in West Virginia. The ombudsmen deal with complaints from residents and families of residents in those facilities. Most of this project is funded federally under the Older Americans Act.

We like to think that the State of West Virginia asked us to take on these additional projects because of the reputation which Barbara Bayes, our former Executive Director, helped us establish. Our Board of Directors are all volunteers. We have lawyers and we have poor people on the Board. The Board brings a private business mentality and mind set to the Society’s organization. Our offices are clean and functional, but not plush.

The Legal Aid Society of Charleston and its Board can’t meet all of the requests in our service area for legal services to the poor. Hundreds of West Virginia attorneys have volunteered to take on pro bono cases in an organized program. Still we can’t serve everyone who walks through the door.

Since January, 1993 [through April 1995], we have closed more than 4,600 cases. The plurality, 40%, are domestic relations. Our lawyers represent people in divorce cases only where there is physical violence. We do put on regular clinics where people learn how to obtain no-fault divorces by themselves in simple cases. About one-fifth of our cases involve eligibility for government benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and other programs. About 15% of our caseload involves shelter or landlord-tenant disputes.

I know of the need for federal budget cuts, but think I can tell you why funding legal services for poor people in civil cases should be a federal priority.

First and foremost is the belief shared by the returning veterans who founded the Legal Aid Society of Charleston, that the rule of law is a critical component of a free society and that a truly fair and just legal system will provide lawyers for those who can’t afford them.

Secondly, government funding of some sort is required to get the job done. While the organized bar and the people I consider to be leaders of my profession share the belief that lawyers are obligated individually to hear and help the problems of those who come to them in need and without funds, some lawyers in today’s "me first" segment of society don’t share that belief. As a practical matter, the highly-paid lawyer who specializes in mergers and acquisitions just may not be able, even if willing, to represent a tenant whose landlord won’t keep premises up to city code standards.

Finally, I believe that federal funding is needed because we have national standards and notions of justice. Not all states can or will make the same provisions for seeing that poor people have access to the courts. If we had left it to the states to enforce civil rights of racial equality, we would not have the same sense of unity as a just and fair society that we enjoy today. I don’t mean to imply we are perfect in that regard, but making civil rights a federal matter allowed those rights to become fact, not just a nice theory.

The phrase "Equal Justice For All" should not be an empty one. Our country has a government and a legal system grounded on the equal importance of every citizen. Even school children can repeat our credo that no one is above the law, but we must also assure that no one is beneath the law.

Ed. Note: In 1995 Congress eventually imposed a 30% budget reduction for legal services. Even with the IOLTA funding mechanism added to federal funds in the early 1990s, the number of permanently-funded legal aid attorneys in West Virginia went from almost seventy in 1981 to thirty in 1999. Pro Bono assistance is needed now more than ever before.