First thing we do after the voting, to twist Shakespeare, let’s kiss all the lawyers. Obama’s lawyers, anyway. All 1,200 of them in Missouri. 5,000 in Florida. 1,800 in Indiana. And so on. Last night in Kansas City, I went to a Counsel for Change Voter Protection training attended by 170 attorneys. I’m blown away from what I saw last night and over the past couple weeks when it comes to lawyers leaving it all on the field for the Obama campaign.
I feel a pre-election ode to my profession coming on.
There were numerous trainings in KC and across Missouri this weekend, so that’s 170 lawyers at just one of them. Counsel for Change informed us that about 1200 lawyers have signed up in Missouri. There might be a giant sucking sound (can I quote Perot and Shakespeare in the same post?)in the court systems over the next few days as lawyers re-prioritize: Each of the 170/1200 are all showing up for these two-hour mandatory trainings, absorbing 30 page Legal Observer Manuals, taking Tuesday off from work, and committing to a 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. (or longer, depending on the lines) work day on Tuesday for Counsel for Change (aka Better Angels, LLP). Several of us have come from dark blue states (I’m in from Los Angeles) to help out in these swing states.
The trainers and manuals were excellent and the material could not be more important. Obama’s Counsel for Change team will know and use state and federal election law to make sure that every registered voter gets to vote. Each lawyer is trained to look out for shenanigans that gum up and slow down the voting process. Everyone learned the process for getting things done from outside of their precinct, such as boiler room calls to the election board. So last night was something special. (One KC attorney showed up with her two Cub Scouts, reasoning that they should get credit toward their next scout badge for attending an Important Government Meeting. Sounded right to me.)
Another team of lawyers is ready to act on calls to the Counsel for Change boiler room for potential injunctions such as keeping voting locations open longer if they failed to open on time. Yet more are monitoring the nationwide patterns, the long vote counts tomorrow night, and a handful keeping the public informed of nasty stuff like a "Vote for Obama by Phone" fraud.
I've been able to follow the time and money spent by lawyers and have seen them giving up a lot of both for Obama. For the many wealthy attorneys I've seen on the campaign trail, this must be Change They Must Really Believe In since they know Obama is going to raise their taxes. My friends, my brother Lee, and I have hosted five fundraisers in California and Missouri, all well-attended by attorneys who have been inspired to do more than just vote for the progessive candidate.
Last Wednesday night, I attended the Access to Justice Dinner hosted by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA). Over 300 attorneys attended. The dinner raised $600,000 for legal aid programs and promoted the incredible work (consumer rights, public benefits, foreclosure protection) done by LAFA's staff attorneys as well as thousands of pro bono hours contributed by private attorneys and firms. At my table, as a large international law firm accepted an award, we joked about how much anti-bono the firm must have done so that it could afford to do that pro bono, but much of the talk that night during the auction and at tables was about what folks were doing for the campaign. Between Obama work and pro bono work, I don’t know where attorneys are finding time to spend with their inner sharks.
On a personal note, this is the first presidential campaign I’ve worked on. One of my top speaking-as-an-attorney reasons I’ve supported Senator Obama from the get go with sweat and money is that he reminds me of Lincoln, another civil rights lawyer from Illinois. A few days ago, I mailed in my absentee ballot in Los Angeles and then posted here on DailyKos my own version of "I Did Not Vote for Obama" which lists many people and things I voted for, but I would like to add myself to the list. Lincoln’s career as a lawyer, writer and leader was an aspiration of mine for a long time, and now Obama, as a great lawyer, writer, and leader, could be the next great president, living out a dream that I and surely many other attorneys have had. Many attorneys I know and I are all very excited to see this happen in our lifetime and at this much needed moment.
Thanks to our candidate, his managers, and everyone working the phones and streets for the campaign, Obama’s favorability rating today is 62%. He may not need much help from the merry band I belong to. So I’m not saying lawyers should be treated as liberators on November 5 or that we’ll have atoned for our anti-bono ways with an Obama victory. I’m saying something akin to Michelle Obama’s famous statement of wonderment for our democracy during the primary—this is one of those times when I’m really proud of my profession, and this is a time when I can assure anyone who is anxious today, who has butterfly ballots fluttering in their stomach, whose hope is on a hanging chad edge, who is strung out over precinct lines with vote-discouraging lengths, I can assure you not to worry about voter protection; if there is trouble tomorrow, the lawyers have the voter’s and Obama’s backs.