The Gazette 1976

GAZETTE

March 1976

THE PUBLIC INTEREST LAW MOVEMENT IN THE U.S. by Denis Linehan, L.L.M., Lecturer in Law, University College, Cork Part 2 (Partt I was published in the March Gazette, Vol. 70, No. 2, 1976, at p.39). Methods of Public Interest Law Representation 3. Organisation of the Constituency Base Most Public Interest lawyers emphasise the cardinal importance of having an organised constituency base. They point out that legal action seldom if ever exists in a political vacuum, and that one's success in imple- menting a policy depends very greatly on one's political power. Certain Public Interest Law Constituencies will already be well established and organised. These tend to be mostly middle class in character, and encompass such interests as the advancement of consumers' rights, environmental protection and the promotion of equality for women in the eyes of the law. Such Con- stituencies are able to deal with their lawyers very much as do traditional clients. Different considerations apply in efforts to advance weak minority interests. These tend to arise from the lower economic strata. It has been recognised that "most poor clients are unaware of their rights, afraid to assert them, and traditionally prone to shy away from contact with authority. In this field, Public attornies must prepare them for the unfamiliar role of plaintiff". 10 Public Interest lawyers who are con- cerned with weak minority interests must to some extent act as brokers by seeking out the cases, the clients and the issues although, in doing so, they may of course run the risk of exceeding the limitations of professional ethics. The concepts of Community Participation and Con- trol is central in the notions of some Public Interest lawyers who work with the "poor" client. These lawyers seek to develop institutions which embody the idea of community participation, such as, Tenant Or- ganisations, Retail Co-operatives, co-operative housing projects, Community-run Hospitals and small com- panies. The utility of litigation as an organising device has also been recognised. Litigation can be used as a vehicle for setting in motion other political processes and for building coalitions and alliances. The dissemi- nation of information is essential to organisation, and the "News Letter" is widely used to develop a network of contacts within Community groups. The establishment of Community Law Offices represents another approach to Community Organisa- tion. Such offices are primarily concerned with pro- viding day-to-day legal services to those caught up in the poverty syndrome. Much of the work at these offices relates to Credit Problems, Tenant Rights, Social Welfare Payments and police-community relationships. A novel approach to constituency organisation is illustrated by Boston Lawyers for Housing, a project initiated by the American Bar Association. This pro- ject was established to promote a single designated public goal, namely, the provision of housing for lower

income groups. It seeks to bring together a profes- sional staff which has expertise in housing laws and in the economic incentives available to developers. The programme initiated by Boston Lawyers for Housing includes the provision of information about policy goals, economic incentives and the active role lawyers can play in working towards the announced national policy on housing. In addition, the project co- operates with Community Groups working for specific goals by providing legal expertise in such areas as Taxation, Administrative and Company Law. 4. Monitoring of Government Agencies The Public Interest Law Movement has done much to focus attention on the performance of administra- tive agencies. These Agencies have grown in numbers and powers in proportion to the ever expanding sphere of Governmental regulation. The shift in emphasis from individual rights to social duties in the 19th century, and the inclusion of matters such as Health, Welfare, Education and Housing within the area of Governmental responsibility, heralded the arrival of Big Government. The Public Interest lawyers contend that the Public Interest role of the Governmental lawyer and agency has over time become corrupted by private interests. Private interests, which have long understood that Government is the arena in which the ultimate decisions are made, have the resources to ensure effective representation in the decision-making pro- cesses of Government. Diffuse majority interests and weak minority interests have, however, failed in the past to secure comparable accessibility to these pro- cesses. Redress of the imbalance in the types of re- presentation made to Government agencies is one of the principal concerns of the Centre for Law and Social Policy, a Public Interest Law firm based in Washington D.C. which concentrates on Consumer Affairs, Environmental Protection and Health. Charles Halpern, Director of the Centre, sees the new Public Interest Law firms as meeting the need "to create a new institution which would help to make old institutions work". 11 He illustrates the problem by pointing out that "at the present time, for example, there are less than twenty lawyers in Washington who are concerned with representation of citizen groups on consumer and environmental problems. In con- trast, taking the five largest firms in the city alone, there are 400 lawyers ready, willing, and able to serve corporate clients. "In the communications area . . . there are between 200 and 250 experts in this field prepared to serve corporate clients. In contrasts, there are two specialists who are prepared to serve citizen groups as clients." 12 The Centre for the Study of Responsive Law is another Public Interest law institution, the primary concern of which is the performance of Administrative Agencies. The Centre, which like the Centre for Law and Social Policy is based in Washington D.C., was founded by Ralph Nader in 1969. The programmes adopted by the Centre have emphasised investigations designed to give visibility to the workings — and to the shorttcomings — of Administrative Agencies. The Centre has to date conducted studies into such diverse agencies as the Federal Trade Commission, the Inter State Commerce Commission, the Agricultural De- partment, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Some Public Interest lawyers seek to influence the performance of Administrative Agencies by means 59