Hi George:

You had requested a copy of the speech I gave in accepting the Lewis Powell pro Bono award last night. The speech followed the prepared text listed below with a few ad libs. Thanks for inviting it.

Steven Rosenfield (electronic mail, May 12, 2000)

[Steven Rosenfield received the Lewis Powell pro Bono Award for his more than two decades of dedication to providing legal services for little to no charge to people unable to afford such services. His award was presented at a ceremony May 11, 2000 at the University of Richmond Law School. His speech appears below.][As an alternative to receiving the Bar Association's traditional painting of Patrick Henry arguing a case to a jury, Rosenfield requested and was presented with a plaque, made from recycled walnut wood, which he donated.]

It is somehow appropriate to give a pro bono award winner a plaque rather than a check. Actually, since I donated the plaque, I am also giving myself $10,000, no $15,000 and a two week all expenses paid vacation.

I want to express my humble thanks to the Access to Legal Services Committee of the Virginia State Bar. I appreciate the comments of Scott Street [President of the Virginia State Bar] and the kind introduction of Marvin Miller for whom I have some remarks in a moment.

After leaving my years of working at the Charlottesville legal aid society I received referrals from colleagues of people saying that "so-and-so said you would represent me for free." This award will no doubt revive the wonderful referrals for free help that I so long for.

I am honored to be among and in the presence of so many of the past recipients of this award.

I accept this award as a representative for the hundreds of Virginia lawyers dedicating themselves to conscientiously representing indigent criminal defendants. Every conscientious defense attorney pays money out of their own pocket to fulfill the Commonwealth's constitutional obligation to provide 6th Amendment representation to poor defendants. This shameful situation reflects a broad disparaging view of the criminal defense attorney fueled by those within and outside of the criminal injustice system. Sadly, it tells of society's tolerance for injustice, unfairness and discrimination.

Indeed, our legislative and executive branches care little about providing the resource tools needed by those charged with crime. Lowest wages in the country to court appointed counsel, increased power to prosecutors, rules and procedures that create obstacles to truth finding are designed and measured ways that our statewide leaders perpetuate the lie of justice in our courts. Tragically, sadly and embarrassingly of all is the disgrace brought by the judiciary in acquiescing to the legislative schemes that leave defendants fighting an unfair battle. The judges in this state, at all levels, bear the responsibility in perpetuating injustices when they regularly refuse to provide fundamental resources to defendants and their counsel. It is near impossible for a court appointed lawyer in a felony case to get the court to authorize use of an investigator or an expert to assist in the sentencing stage. It is shocking when the appellate courts of our state routinely pay court appointed counsel in capital cases exceedingly low wages for their work even when the legislature allows for unlimited, uncapped reasonable fees.

I urge our judicial colleagues to stand up for the fundamental constitutional rights of the criminal defendant, to recognize the severe disparity of resources between the state and the defendant, and to work toward remedying that inequity by proudly, and with integrity, facing the unpopularity of providing criminal defendants with the necessary tools with which to adequately and properly defend themselves.

These unheralded conscientious criminal defense lawyers are the pro bono champions of this state thanks to people like past Lewis Powell Pro Bono winner John Levy who obtained, for the first time, recognition for criminal defense lawyers of their pro bono contributions and thanks to Jim Hingeley, good friend and advocate for me who sits on the committee on legal access to legal services, who strongly and forcefully sought to have me chosen as a representative for this award in behalf of conscientious criminal defense lawyers everywhere and to the full committee for their recognizing the contributions criminal defense lawyers make by thanklessly representing indigent defendants.

Lewis Powell dedicated one year of his long career to creating a system for providing legal services in civil cases for the poor in this country. That mammoth effort culminated in the Legal Services Corporation through which I was able to study and learn the law and through which I began my legal career. Although I was not a big fan of Lewis Powell I am grateful for that year he spent. There were few individuals at that time anywhere in the country who could have ushered through the congressional legislation creating lawyers for poor people.

It is Oliver Hill, the legendary civil rights attorney from Virginia, who I owe for his vision, his hope, his dedication, his inspiration and his commitment to helping right wrongs, to fighting for what is decent and fair and just and for being a role model for many of us. I did not know of Oliver Hill until after I became a lawyer, but he is a hero to me. The rich results that his efforts and sacrifices have brought by virtue of his pro bono work is a glowing testament and a powerful example.

I will be recommending to the Virginia State Bar's Committee on access to Legal Services that they recommend to the Virginia Bar Council that the name of this award be amended to become the Lewis Powell - Oliver Hill Pro Bono Award.

When I think about me being singled out for this high honor, I think of all of my friends and colleagues and of my family who have influenced me in doing the work that I do. And as I look around this room I see people with whom I associate that regularly contribute to the legal profession or to heir communities, for no compensation and for no glory, but who do what they do because it is the right thing to do, because they are compassionate and caring people. And then it became clear to me that my tendency toward associating with you, dear friends, is because I feel most comfortable around people who care about other people. I know that this association is no accident. I have purposely surrounded myself with compassionate and loving people because I am strengthened and lifted by these wonderful relationships.

I became a lawyer based in large part by the influence of lawyers who I have admired for their committed work; for their sensitivities; for their humanity. Among them - Clarence Darrow and Thurgood Marshall, my Uncle Abe Rosenfield, the first legal aid lawyer in Pittsburgh-- by default-- long before legal aids were started. He had a difficult time charging poor people for his work -- he had a big, caring heart. My brother Michael was an early influence too-- He started a law commune in Pittsburgh in 1972 and practices the same kind of law as I do. He was the most radical lawyer I knew. I wanted to be like Mike. John Levy who I began admiring in 1971, when I joined the VISTA program, was the dynamic legal aid director in Roanoke VA. He once told me that he became a lawyer in order to share the power that comes with being a lawyer with the powerless, a motto I readily copied and tried to apply these many years. Marvin Miller, while sporting a wonderful ponytail, once represented Granderson Johnson, a black juvenile, in Charlottesville Circuit Court in 1972 on serious criminal charges with such style and passion - I knew when I saw him in court that day that I wanted to be like him, a people's lawyer, and I continue to use him as my model.

My earliest influences were at the Charlottesville legal aid office where I started my career and learned many lessons from Ron Tweel, Scott Williams, Peter McIntosh and David Levy sponsored by law reading program, my close friend Herb Beskin and, my old cellar mate Ed Wayland. And although working in the Richmond Legal Aid office at the same time I started in Charlottesville was Jerry Zerkin for over 23 years I have regularly and often turned to him for advice and counselling. Along with Debbie Wyatt my former law partner, she and Jerry probably do more pro bono work than any lawyers I know. Jerry and Debbie are wonderful examples to all caring lawyers.

These friends and colleagues helped mold and shape me. My parents, aunts and uncles and cousins surrounded me with constant deeds of kindness to others and gave me the impression that kindness was a normal activity that should be repeated often.

But whatever kind of lawyer I have become, I am a jigsaw puzzle of all of the wonderful influences to which I have been exposed and the many and varied influences that have come from the people I see before me.

FINALLY, and I will end here, it is unimaginable to me to so often take on high profile cases that are stressful and emotionally demanding without a special partner. I have had the best legal partners in the past with Brock Green and Debbie Wyatt and Barry Jones and a wonderful non-legal partner in Ed Housley, but no partner or person has had more influence on me than my special partner and wife Kate. She fought for justice in the workplace alongside Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers in California; as a trained nurse she helped and cared for people who were often the most underprivileged. She became an educator working with the most disadvantaged people in our community teaching adult literacy. She actively works in our community on a myriad of projects to bring a better life for poor and working poor neighbors.

On one occasion on a 15 degree winter day she suggested we stop as we past a group of union strikers of the Safeway in Charlottesville and march along side them in solidarity---- we did. When Dennis Stockton was executed in September of 1995 I telephoned her after it was over from a wayside public telephone and she cried with me long distance reassuring me I had done everything I could. She has given me strength and support in my work, she has shown me by example how to make our little part of the world better for humanity and it is with her spirit that I dedicate and accept this moving award.