Page 130 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

128
attorneys interact with other local officials on a regular basis, and should develop strong working relationships with local policymakers (and vice versa) . Their ethical responsibilities give them some professional independence in assessing policy issues through a “legal lens .”4 They may have long- term institutional knowledge and extensive access to information, and can conduct a thorough investigation in order to understand and to solve problems . They are able to collaborate with local policymakers in order to develop just policies and, where needed, to bring about change .
This essay is as much descriptive as it is prescriptive – that is, the work of local government attorneys that is described here reflects work that the author engaged in and observed colleagues engage in while working at the New York City Law Department for more than a decade . The author worked with other Law Department attorneys, and attorneys at other New York City agencies and the Mayor’s Office, to counsel local officials in the context of defending or anticipating litigation; negotiating and implementing class action and other settlements; and drafting or revising policies, rules and legislation . Local government attorneys regularly counsel government officials on a wide range of law and policy issues and positively impact the lives of individuals and families .5
Even so, in the author’s experience, the role of local government attorneys in counseling local officials is often misunderstood, perhaps because so much of the work is done behind the scenes . When local government attorneys are successful in advising a local official to develop a sound policy or to reject an unjust proposal, the attorney’s work is rarely public . In contrast, local government attorneys have a more visible role in defending litigation – including litigation that might have been avoided or settled if the attorneys’ advice had been followed, and for which the attorneys are actively working with local officials to address the underlying problems .
Furthermore, local government attorneys are not unanimous in how they see their roles – nor are local officials unanimous in how they perceive the role of attorneys . Some attorneys may fear that advising a public official not to pursue an initiative would result in the attorneys losing influence with the official, or even their jobs . Some public officials may be reluctant to heed legal advice if they disagree with it or if they believe that an attorney has overstepped his or her role .
4 Schwarz, Jr., supra note 2, at 386 (“[T]he legal lens is one of the lenses used in America to examine most public policy questions.”).
5 Speaking from his own experience as the former Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr. observed:
Every day, city government touches people in the most intimate and immediate ways: their safety, their schooling, their health, their sanitation, their housing, their transportation, their daily jobs. Directly and frequently, the city affects the lives, the aspirations, and the pocketbooks of millions of people and tens of thousands of businesses. And so does the work of the [New York City] Law Department.
Id.
Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice