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".

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".

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."

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