Leave a Proud and Enduring Legacy
Keynote Speech at 2008 TBA Lawyers Luncheon
From President Buck Lewis

Throughout the last year, Marcy Eason has taught me lessons in graciousness, unselfishness, and the importance of encouraging others. It has been invaluable training to watch her work.

I want to begin by thanking my Bar mentors. When I think about my first days, I am reminded of the story my friend Reverend Ben Hooks tells about the minister that comes in on Sunday morning and says, “Everybody who wants to go to Heaven, raise their hand.” Of course, everybody raises their hand, except for this one elder gentleman in the back. The Reverend says, “Brother Jones, don’t you want to go to Heaven?” Brother Jones says, “Absolutely, Pastor, but I thought you were trying to get a busload up for this morning.” Just like Brother Jones, I wasn’t quite sure just which bus I was boarding when I began serving on the Board of Governors, but I’d sure get on that TBA bus again knowing what I know now. I want to thank Bill and Claudia Haltom, Lucian Pera, Randy Noel, and John Tarpley, for encouraging me to start and to continue this journey.

I want to thank my family for being with me today. At 52, I am already old enough that I have more doctors than ex-girlfriends. I guess some day I will get to the point where when a pretty girl walks down the street, my pacemaker will open the garage door. But since I have no living parents or siblings, I thank my lucky stars for my extended family – for my brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, my eight nieces and nephews, my mother-in-law, herself a leader in the ABA, for my Lewis family cousins and uncles and aunts and my Bell family cousins.

I’m also grateful for the long time friends that are here today.

I’m grateful for the friendships that I’ve made in my law firm where I’ve been since 1981. The firm’s support has made the coming year possible. Their genuine excitement has been a great motivator. The ever present attacks on my ego from the 18th Floor lunch bunch have been a constant reminder that today’s peacock is tomorrow’s feather duster. Mr. Donelson’s encouragement over 27 years with the firm has been nothing short of amazing.

Friday the 13th is said to be an unlucky day. I hope this one’s not too unlucky for our association. But the luckiest day of my life was when I met the girl with the million dollar smile. As we first gazed into each other’s eyes, over the top of a keg as I recall it now, I knew she was special. I wake up every morning and come home every night to the sweetest, most encouraging, most supportive wife a man could ever hope to have. She has already done more for the Tennessee Bar than you can imagine and I’m pretty sure she’ll be your favorite part of my year as President. Malinda, would you stand up, please, and show ‘em that smile?

II. Invitation to the 2009 Convention
Let me invite you to a big party. This party will be held June 18-20 in Memphis, Tennessee at the Peabody Hotel in the year 2009. I was tasked by our Strategic Planning Committee to increase participation at our convention. It’s important for the sake of fellowship, collegiality, membership, collaboration with the judiciary and with our colleagues in other bar associations. I am pleased to announce to you that the law firms listed on the screens have committed over $30,000 in sponsorship money for this convention. This will enable us to have some of the best entertainment and CLE you can imagine. Instead of having CLE on Thursday and Friday, we will have it all day on Friday, and on Saturday morning, so our members can get all available CLE and miss only one day out of the office.

The convention is in Memphis and to a Memphis boy that means great music. We are going to have three of the best bands we could find. On Thursday night, we’ll have a party at the Peabody Hotel in conjunction with the judicial conference, TLAW, and the Tennessee Association of Justice. We will have two bands, The Bouffants and The Jimmy Church Review with Honey, Sugar & Spice. They will play back to back for four hours. We’ll have one dance floor and two stages, one for each band. And, on Friday night, like Paul Simon, we are going to Graceland. If you saw the movie, Walk the Line, you saw and heard The Dempseys. It doesn’t get much better than the Dempseys at the home of the King of Rock and Roll.

I think our CLE will have some sizzle as well. Our federal judges in Memphis have agreed to a panel discussion on jury selection in federal court. We are bringing in the Ethics Counsel involved in the Duke Lacrosse Team Prosecutor case to put on their seminar called, Anatomy of a Hoax. This presentation has gotten rave reviews. Our federal magistrates in Memphis have agreed to a panel discussion on electronic discovery. Former Tennessee Supreme Court Justices Anderson, Burch, Reid, and Drowota have agreed to participate on a panel discussion regarding the most important initiatives and decisions of their tenures on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Senator Howard Baker and former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. will appear on a panel to discuss “What Our Country Simply Must Do Now.”

III. Leave a Proud and Enduring Legacy
The theme for this year will be, Leave A Proud Enduring Legacy (LAPEL).

Let’s talk for a moment about two very different legacies. One of the most famous financial legacies is the legacy of Alfred Nobel. His experience was the subject of one of the most memorable sermons I ever heard called “Writing Your Own Obituary.” Alfred Bernhard Nobel invented dynamite when he was thirty-four years old. Twenty-one years later, when Alfred was fifty-five years old, his brother Ludvig passed away. Thinking it was Alfred who died, a French newspaper ran an obituary with a headline, “The Merchant of Death is Dead.” The newspaper said that Alfred became rich by finding ways to “kill more people faster than ever before.” Alfred was so deeply troubled by reading his own obituary that he left most of his great wealth for the establishment of Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and world peace. Obviously, Alfred was concerned with his reputational legacy and wanted to make sure that he was remembered for something more than inventing dynamite. The world is surely a better place because of the Nobel Prizes, but with all due respect to Alfred, I am not sure he understood fully what a proud enduring legacy is supposed to be about. For a better example of a proud enduring legacy, we have to turn to Sevier County’s most famous citizen.

Sorry, Justice Wade, the citizen I have in mind is Dolly Parton. Dolly was born in 1946 right here in Sevier County. She was the fourth of twelve children. She describes her family as “dirt poor.” She grew up in a rustic, dilapidated, one-room cabin on Locust Ridge, so far up in the mountains that even the Methodists handled snakes. Dolly is the most honored female country performer of all time. She has twenty-five gold, platinum and multi-platinum recordings, twenty-six number one songs, forty-one top ten country albums, seven Grammy awards, and forty-two Grammy nominations. I am proud to stand in the heart of the Smokies and proclaim that Dolly is smarter than Alfred Nobel.

Why? Because Dolly understands, better than Alfred, what it means to establish a proud and enduring legacy. Dolly understands what I think Alfred missed. Leaving a proud legacy is not just about changing your will or writing a check. Enduring legacies are not about recognition, awards, or resumés. Eleanor Roosevelt made my favorite comment about recognition. She said, “I was flattered once to have a rose named after me, the Roosevelt rose. Then I read about my rose in a garden book. It said, “The Roosevelt is no good in a bed, but fine against the wall.”

Dolly isn’t looking for recognition. She just loves children. Her literacy program, “Imagination Library,” mails one book per month to children from the time of their birth until kindergarten. “Imagination Library” began here in Sevier County, Tennessee, but has been now replicated in almost six hundred counties across thirty-six U.S. states. Imagination Library gives more than 2.5 million free books to children every year. Dolly gives of her time, talent and love to this literary project, not because she’s concerned about being remembered well. She would be much beloved had she done nothing more than entertain us. But Dolly understands, as Dr. King said, that, “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace – a soul generated by love.”

IV. Our Legacy as Lawyers, as a Profession, and as an Association.
How do we apply Dolly’s lesson? Like Dr. Nobel, we are terribly frustrated, of course, by the image of our profession. Lawyers are unfairly attacked on late night talk shows, in movies, and by a few pandering elected officials. Last year, the Florida Bar Association spent $300,000 on a media campaign to improve the public image of lawyers. It barely moved the perception polls. One of the lessons there is that we have to be more like Dolly and less like Alfred. In the end, our legacy as lawyers and as an Association depends upon how much love we bring to helping others.

Allan Ramsaur, who celebrated ten years of TBA service this year, has taught me that some of our best efforts start out as a kernel of an idea and have grown and grown through succeeding years, each year building upon the work of those who have come before. Let’s look at some proud and enduring legacies you will recognize from our recent history.

1. John Tarpley loves young lawyers. A few of them even love John back. TBA Leadership Law carries on that proud enduring legacy. I reject, as does John, the attacks that have been leveled at the youngest of our generations. I have tried to honor our young lawyers and John’s legacy by making the most of my appointments for the coming year from the ranks of the TBA-Young Lawyers and Leadership Law alumni.

2. Charles Swanson and Marcy Eason have been strong and steadfast advocates for the cause of equal opportunity and diversity. Our diversity committee has given us a blueprint for improvement. We will see that we continue to improve.

3. Larry Wilks, the only friend I have that is a cross between Atticus Finch and Ernest T. Bass, challenged us to serve every lawyer every day. Marcy’s Attorney Well-Being Initiative certainly honors that legacy and we will continue to implement those initiatives.

4. Three years ago, Bill Haltom wrote and spoke eloquently about the importance of the Rule of Law and an independent courageous judiciary. Billy challenged us to Stand Up And Deliver For The Rule of Law. We will honor that proud legacy with a Rule of Law conference in Nashville on October 27th of this year in conjunction with Justice O’Connor’s visit to Tennessee. We will also fight to save the Tennessee Plan, which just the way it is, is still the best plan for selecting judges we have ever had.

V. A Plea For Access To Justice
In this year, though, I ask that you lock arms with me to aggressively attack a problem that is growing worse by the day despite our constant efforts. That problem is the denial of access to justice caused by poverty, domestic violence, our deteriorating economy, and the ever increasing cost of legal services.

Even eight years ago, according to the 2000 census -- before 9/11, before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and before the subprime mortgage crisis--Tennessee had more than 1 million citizens living at or below the Legal Services eligibility threshold. This is a household income of $13,000 for someone living alone or $17,500 for an adult and one child. Of course, those that have minimum wage, forty hour a week jobs, make $12,168. Currently, Tennessee has about 80 attorneys to serve the needs of 18% of our population. In Memphis, as one example of the gap in resources versus needs, 4 out of 10 eligible clients who request legal services are turned away.
A study done for the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services by UT, and released four years ago, showed that in this population, 70% had experienced one civil legal problem in the past year. That’s about 700,000 legal problems a year and this report was released in January of 2004. Interestingly, the study showed that the “working” poor had more legal problems than the unemployed. A 1993 ABA study concluded that 70 percent of the legal needs of the poor are unmet. This spring, the proposed LSC funding is less than it received in 1981!

What are these legal problems? Well about two-thirds are either problems with creditors or problems with medical bills. As legal service attorneys and administrators will tell you, a high percentage of these clients are women left alone to care for children. Many are victims of domestic violence. And, there are ripple effects. Tennesseans who cannot resolve basic legal problems often end up requiring more resources from other state and federal agencies.
Who are these people? Well, they are our brothers and sisters. They go to our churches. They clean up our offices at night. They work in the hotels where we convene. They look after our children when we travel. They mow our lawns, paint our houses, and fix the roofs over our heads. They type up the transcripts of our depositions as a second job. They answer the phone all day long for minimum wage at some of Tennessee’s biggest companies. Many are servicemen and women who serve our country but can’t afford to hire a lawyer to write their will or deal with their landlord.

These Tennesseans struggle every day to make it, and there but for the grace of God and our opportunity to get a legal education, go every single one of us. At the age of 34, in his Nobel Prize lecture in December of 1968, Dr. King said, “The poor in our countries have been shut out of our minds and driven from the mainstream of our societies because we have allowed them to become invisible.” Sadly, in Tennessee in 2008, our Constitution’s promise of “Justice for All” is, for many of our “invisible” neighbors, a broken promise. So, I will ask your Board of Governors in the morning to authorize a new Access to Justice Campaign entitled “4 All.” Our “4 All” campaign will work on four fronts.

Educate:
We must first awaken and enlighten those who are unaware of what Justice Barker has been calling “The Gap” between the need and the resources. On your tables is a DVD designed to educate the bar and the public on the urgency of the situation. We will show this DVD at every bar meeting and CLE session for the next twelve months. We will use all available means to sensitize our members and the public to the urgency of the need.

Collaborate:
We will work with our Supreme Court, which itself has recently determined that Access to Justice will be a strategic priority. We will send the Court an access to justice package of ethics rules next week. We will work with other Bar Associations, including the American College of Trial Lawyers, the TAJ, TLAW, city bars, and county bars on the creation of new collaborative initiatives, like courthouse clinics and Saturday pro bono clinics.

Participate:
We must find new participants and give all our volunteers new ways to participate. More courthouse clinics in more counties. More Saturday clinics in more churches. More telephonic and on-line opportunities to serve the need in rural counties. We will beg for more involvement from non-litigators and enlist help from our paralegals who, by the way, are eager to pitch in. We will urge more firms to adopt formal pro bono policies.

Legislate:
Tennessee will spend two billion state dollars of a total budget of 7.5 billion state dollars on health care. Next to that, Tennessee spends almost nothing on legal care for the poor - $3.3 million. This is all derived from statutory filing fees, the oldest of which has not been increased in over a decade. In 2006, we created a voluntary trust fund for civil legal aid with the expectation there would be cy pres awards and other gifts and contributions which would eventually build a state trust fund for civil legal services. Thus far, it has not received any funding.

And, I will give you a selfish reason to pitch in. If you are feeling burned out, get out there and help those that need you. It will reinvigorate you far better than a “bounce back weekend” at the Hilton. If you feel that you are working harder and appreciated less by your clients, pro bono clients will be as refreshing as wading into a Smoky Mountain river. Every managing partner I have talked to about pro bono has said that their lawyers feel better about being lawyers when they give of themselves to those whose appreciation is so boundless. As the great Maya Angelo said, “You can’t go through life with catcher’s mitts on both hands. You need to throw something back!”

Imagine for a moment if we were called upon, as was Nobel, to read our own obituaries. Would our obituaries say , “Billed 100,000 Hours” or “Stopped Consumer Class Actions” or “Set Record for Largest Percentage Contingent Fee,” or “Worked 500 Consecutive Saturdays.”
The words of Bobby Kennedy, who left us 40 years ago last week, still haunt our memories today. He said:

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy. The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic towards common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason, and courage into a personal commitment.

Ronald Reagan, in his first inaugural address, said:
No arsenal or weapon is more formidable than our will and moral courage. We fight on for what is right and good and resist the badness that is in us because God gave us a gift to be used.

If you will indulge me one final personal reference, let me close by honoring the proud enduring legacies of some of my departed heroes. Sunday is Fathers’ Day. We lost Malinda’s Dad, Newton Allen, only 96 days ago. He was the most beloved President of the ABA seniors division and his 60 years as an active member of the Memphis Bar made him a legend. Newton was preceded, of course, by his father and by his brother Richard, both presidents of this association, by my father, who practiced 40 years and then served 12 years as a Chancellor, and by my Mom, the first President of the TBA Auxiliary.

I have been thinking a lot the last 96 days about all of their legacies -- the love in their eyes, the fairness of their judgments, the steadfastness of their commitments, and their service to the community. In the end, what binds them all together is what binds us together. They loved this beautiful state of Tennessee. They loved this profession, their colleagues, and their neighbors. Their lives proved the great paradox that if you love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, only love. Like the principles by which they lived, our Association’s proud enduring legacy will endure for another 126 years, and 126 years after that. Why? Because a legacy of love never dies.