1 1 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 2 Address by 3 Attorney General Janet Reno 4 to the 5 School of Law 6 Inter-American University of Puerto Rico 7 San Juan, Puerto Rico 8 Transcribed from an audio recording. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 GENERAL RENO: Mr. Chairman, President Gonzalez, 3 King Ramos, Dr. Ruiz, the Justices and Judges who have 4 made me feel so welcome, faculty, students, friends, and 5 ladies and gentlemen: You have done me such a great 6 honor. I have been very privileged to have been invited 7 to address you here at the Inter-American University of 8 Puerto Rico, my first visit to this beautiful island and 9 this beautiful city. When I received the letter from your 10 chairman advising me that the Board of Trustees had voted 11 to confer on me an honorary degree, I was deeply touched. 12 I am more touched now, as I see this city and I see this 13 island. 14 You are positioned in such an extraordinary way 15 in history and in geography. 500 years or 400 years ago 16 you were the frontier of the old world to the new. And 17 the traditions of that frontier world still exist today on 18 this island. Now today, you are a frontier on the 19 Northern Hemisphere, reaching out to the Southern 20 Hemisphere and bring us together. And you are at this 21 point of adventure and pioneership just at a time that 22 technology and communication and science have brought us 23 closer together, but offered us more extraordinary 24 challenges than we ever dreamed possible through 25 technology and what technology can do for us and to us. 3 1 With this backdrop it is extraordinary in terms 2 of one's opportunity in the law. I love the law, and I 3 love lawyers. I do not like greedy, indifferent lawyers, 4 but I find, fortunately, very few of those. Instead, I 5 have found lawyers who are protectors, who are advocates, 6 and all of us in the law who cherish it and prize it must 7 never forget our role as those who protect and advocate 8 for constitutional rights. 9 For as long as I live I will never forget the 10 instance in which the Governor of Florida asked me to 11 reinvestigate the case of a man who had been prosecuted, 12 convicted, and sentenced to death for the poisoning death 13 of his seven children in 1967. He had spent 21 years in 14 prison after the Supreme Court had set aside the death 15 penalty in Florida. I reinvestigated, and determined that 16 the evidence was insufficient to have charged him in the 17 first place, and I recommended to the court that he go 18 free. I will always remember looking over my shoulder as 19 that man walked out of the courthouse, a free man for the 20 first time in 21 years. And I will recall that as I 21 recall the duties and the obligations that each of us as 22 lawyers have to protect and to defend. 23 I look at lawyers as builders, as people who 24 help create businesses and companies and institutions, and 25 deals, good deals, that help promote the economy and 4 1 commerce and trade. But I would like most of all to talk 2 to you today about the lawyer as a problem-solver. I am 3 sure you have been to a lawyer or to an accountant or to a 4 doctor. You worried that the doctor was going to tell you 5 you had to have major surgery, the accountant was going to 6 tell you it was going to be a horrendous audit, the lawyer 7 told you it would be a horrible litigation, that's what 8 you were worried about. But they sat you down, heard your 9 story, and in very sympathetic and understanding ways 10 said, oh, I think this is the way we can work it out and 11 do it just right, and it won't cost that much money, and 12 we can solve it. And you felt so desperately relieved and 13 so grateful for the problem-solver. I think too often 14 lawyers forget that they are in the role of problem-solver 15 for the people. 16 Some people perhaps pursue the law and pursue a 17 legal career to make money, but I suggest to you that 18 having spent most of my life in public service and having 19 now had the opportunity to meet again my colleagues as 20 they have come to talk with me as Attorney General, who 21 say I wish I had gone into public service. Some come into 22 it for status, and clearly recognize that status by itself 23 is not worth it. But this university recognizes so 24 clearly what we should really be in the law for, what the 25 law should be all about. Your school says the student's 5 1 preparation for the betterment of the society in which he 2 lives forms part of the modern legal education. 3 Therefore, the school of law seeks to create in 4 students an awareness of the responsibilities of the legal 5 profession and of its obligations towards the problems 6 that confront Puerto Rico, society in an ever-changing 7 world. This is a marvelous foundation upon which to send 8 your lawyers out into this community to make a difference. 9 And again remembering the remarkable opportunity they have 10 in a frontier of time and space, but also with a tradition 11 of years that we should be so proud of. 12 Your work reflects this connection, and your 13 work reflects action. Your work reflects what you are 14 talking about. This law school is taking action to 15 confront problems in Puerto Rico. Your clinical program 16 has represented thousands of low-income tenants of public, 17 subsidized, and private housing. Our Constitution secures 18 due process rights to all persons. That includes the 19 poor, the elderly, and those who are disadvantaged for one 20 reason or another. But if 70 percent of the poor and the 21 working poor in this country do not have access to a 22 lawyer, how can those promises of the Constitution be a 23 reality? 24 We each have a responsibility to make the law 25 real to all Americans, and if you say that is not my 6 1 problem, that is somebody else's problem, let me remind 2 you that if people do not have access to the law they will 3 not believe in the law. They will violate the law, ignore 4 the law, and soon the law will not be the institution that 5 you and I prize. 6 I am so impressed by your street law program, in 7 which law students go out into the community, into public 8 housing and low income wards throughout San Juan, and 9 conduct clinics to explain the law to people so that they 10 can do more to help themselves. And so in some respects I 11 am preaching to the choir when I talk to you today about 12 public service and problem solving. 13 First, one of the great opportunities that any 14 lawyer can have is to serve in government, to serve at the 15 local level, to serve at the State level, or to serve in 16 the national government. I have been blessed with that 17 opportunity. But I have also had the opportunity to be a 18 partner in a major law firm, to have my own small firm, 19 and to do different things in the law. 20 I commend to all the students the opportunity 21 for public service. I commend to the faculty that 22 opportunity, as well. It has been so exciting to see my 23 colleagues in the Justice Department come from academia 24 and bring such a wealth of knowledge, such experience, 25 such insight to public service, such as Drew Days has done 7 1 as Solicitor General of the United States coming from Yale 2 Law School. We don't have to spend our whole life in one 3 sector or another, but in working in each we gain an 4 experience, we gain a perspective, we recharge our 5 batteries, we make a difference in both sectors by 6 contributing in both sectors. 7 In the private sector, every lawyer should 8 undertake the responsibility to perform pro bono service. 9 I have just announced a pro bono policy for the Department 10 of Justice, the first ever, that encourages as an 11 aspirational goal, that every lawyer in the Department of 12 Justice will perform 50 hours of service during the year. 13 I am trying to encourage lawyers to be involved at every 14 level of their community, through whatever service they 15 think is appropriate based on the law and the regulations. 16 I urge all of you to community involvement, to 17 trying to figure out what works and doesn't work in a 18 community, to participating in your local government when 19 asked to serve on a commission. I have heard too many 20 lawyers say I don't have time for it. If you don't have 21 time for it, you're going to be spending more time undoing 22 what was broken because of public indifference to the 23 processes of government. 24 And lawyers as problem-solvers, as we focus on 25 the issues that confront us, must figure out how to 8 1 resolve issues, how to negotiate a matter so it doesn't 2 have to go to court, how to learn the art of negotiation. 3 When I went to law school we didn't have courses in 4 negotiation. We learned how to be advocates. We learned 5 how to try cases. It is so important that we pursue that 6 marvelous art of negotiation to save our clients the time 7 and the money that litigation can incur for all of us. We 8 can make that difference. 9 Each of us as lawyers must learn how to use the 10 law the right way, in simple terms that people can 11 understand, with what Winston Churchill referred to as 12 small, old words. We lawyers use legalese far too much. 13 We confuse the public far too much. And if we used 14 simple, straightforward words we could make the law 15 available to so many more people who could use it for 16 themselves. 17 I am touched today to be here with so many 18 different disciplines. As I watched the academic 19 procession walk by I identified, or had identified, 20 various degrees, and it is so important that lawyers as 21 problem solvers reach out to other disciplines. 22 One of the most exciting developments of the 23 last 3 years has been to see the medical community join 24 with the criminal justice community in focusing on 25 domestic violence, both as a criminal justice problem and 9 1 as a public health problem, to see doctors and lawyers and 2 social workers and parks and recreation specialists 3 developing community initiatives that look at a whole 4 picture rather than just the narrow perspective of one 5 discipline. To solve problems we must reach out to so 6 many, and help come together in identifying what the 7 problem is up front. 8 Let me give you an example. I have often looked 9 at young prosecutors, joyous because they got a conviction 10 of an 18-year-old. He gets probation. Nothing happens 11 because the probation officer has too big a case load, 12 nobody addresses his drug problem, nobody counsels him, 13 and he is right back in the court again in no time flat. 14 All of us as lawyers have an obligation to go beyond the 15 conviction to do something to identify what caused the 16 problem in the first place and solve it. 17 The public defender who is elated because he has 18 gotten his client off on a motion to dismiss too often 19 ignores the fact that his client walks out of the 20 courtroom a free man for the first time in one sense, but 21 in the throws of an addiction that is a worse prison than 22 any bars that man could create for him. We must all work 23 together to solve the problems, and I would like to 24 suggest to you one of the greatest public services that 25 all of us, whether we be faculty, the attorney general, 10 1 students, or people who care about our communities. 2 About 10 years ago I started looking at the 3 presentence investigations of juveniles that we were 4 prosecuting. I was concerned because they were committing 5 more serious crime, more violent crime, and there were 6 more of them coming into the system. I would look at the 7 presentence investigation and see five points along the 8 way where we could have intervened to have kept that child 9 in trouble to have kept that child from dropping out, to 10 have made a difference in that child's life. But society 11 stood by and did nothing. Now, that child does not in 12 most instances have a lawyer. That child, at that point, 13 is voiceless in terms of somebody speaking out for him or 14 her. We have got to make a difference. 15 I started looking at what caused it, and looked 16 at drop-out prevention as a key, but learned quickly that 17 if we wait until a child is in sixth or seventh grade 18 before we start focusing on drop-outs, that is too late. 19 The child has already fallen a grade level behind, and is 20 beginning to act out in other ways to attract attention to 21 himself. So we developed a neighborhood intervention 22 program. 23 But at that point the crack epidemic hit Miami 24 in 1985, and the doctors took me to the public hospital to 25 try to figure out what to do about crack-involved infants 11 1 and their mothers. And I clearly learned then that we 2 have got to start at the beginning, and build carefully 3 from a strong foundation for our children of tomorrow. 4 They taught me that the first 3 years were the 5 most important in any human's life, that 50 percent of all 6 learned human response is learned in the first year of 7 life, that the concept of reward and punishment and a 8 conscience is developed during the first 3 years of life. 9 What does that mean to all of us? That means that unless 10 we invest in children up front, and we as lawyers and as 11 people in academia and as citizens who care about our 12 university and our island and our nation, that unless we 13 invest up front we will never be able to build enough 14 prisons for a child 18 years from now if he never learned 15 what conscience and punishment was all about. 16 Unless we invest in children up front and health 17 care that can make a difference, we are going to bring 18 health care institutions to their knees for failure to 19 provide preventative medical care, which is a lot less 20 expensive than the tertiary care down the road. Unless we 21 make an investment in children up front in that first year 22 with 50 percent of all learned human responses acquired, 23 we will never have enough dollars to spend in remedial 24 education to make a difference that can educate our 25 children and that can produce people with the skills 12 1 necessary to enable them to earn a living wage. 2 Now, you say, well, I am a businessman and I 3 don't care, but that businessman must understand that 4 unless we invest in children he will not have a workforce 5 in this nation in 15 years with the skills necessary to 6 match the wonderful technology that we have created 7 through man's genius. In short, we have got to figure out 8 how we as lawyers, as people who care, can make a 9 difference. And I would just offer five areas where I 10 think all of us can make a difference. 11 First, and I speak particularly to the students, 12 your family. Your family will be one of your most 13 precious possessions. You may go to a law firm that 14 requires that you do a certain amount of billable hours. 15 Try to find a law firm that understands that billable 16 hours are important, but quality time with family is just 17 as important. 18 I remember my afternoons after school and in the 19 evening. My mother taught us to play baseball, to 20 appreciate Beethoven symphonies, to bake a sponge cake, to 21 play fair. She loved us with all her heart, and there is 22 no child care in the world that will ever be a substitute 23 for what that lady was in our life. When you go talking 24 to law firms, find out what they do about parental leave. 25 Find out what their policy is about letting you spend time 13 1 with your children's school. Find out what their policy 2 is about telecommuting. Find out just how much they value 3 family. And then spend time with your family. They grow 4 up so very fast. 5 In your law firm you can make such a difference 6 by addressing those concerns, by recognizing that if we 7 can send a man to the moon, surely we ought to be able, 8 with modern technology and high speed communication, 9 faxes, and computers, to enable parents to spend quality 10 time with their children. Be competitive. You may not be 11 able to offer the starting salary, but you may be able to 12 offer something far more important for a young law school 13 graduate. 14 As a lawyer, as a prosecutor, think beyond the 15 arena in which you are working, and solve the problem. 16 Solve the drug problem. Galvanize the community together 17 to get treatment opportunities for that child, even if his 18 parents can't afford it, and even if there is a waiting 19 list for drug treatment in the community. As the public 20 defender, don't just address the child's drug problem. 21 Look at what is happening in the family, and bring 22 community forces together to try to reweave the fabric of 23 society around that kid before it is too late, before he 24 has hurt somebody, before he has killed sombody. 25 Youth violence is increasing dramatically. It 14 1 has increased dramatically since 1985, while violence is 2 going down generally in this country. The figures on 3 youth violence are made even more striking by the fact 4 that in the years of 1985 to about 1991 or 1992, the number 5 of young people in this country was decreasing. Since 6 about 1992, the number of young people are increasing 7 substantially, and will so over the next 20 years. Unless 8 we intervene now, we will never be able to turn it around 9 if we wait and fail to invest in our children. 10 In community and government, get your community 11 and your governments to take stock, take inventory of what 12 is there. The major complaint I hear form government is 13 you've got a lot of good ideas, Janet, but we cannot 14 afford them. But then I start pointing out to them, you 15 say you need a community center at 4:00 in the afternoon. 16 But there is a school standing idle there. Open up your 17 school in the afternoon and evening. Let the city use the 18 school. Let's work together. Let's provide opportunity 19 with what we have. 20 You will find a police officer sitting in a 21 squad car. Get that police officer out of the squad car 22 and start letting him be a mentor to the kids in the 23 community so that they come to respect him as a police 24 officer. Get the social worker, the public health nurse, 25 the teacher, and the police officer to work together as a 15 1 team, and you get the resources moving. 2 Make sure that we look at a child's life and 3 build on it: good parenting in the beginning, educare, 4 medical care, afternoon and evening programs, mentoring 5 programs for children at risk. It is going to save us so 6 many dollars down the road if we invest up front. 7 And finally, as an individual we can all do so 8 much. I was the mentor to a young woman in Miami. She 9 continues to keep in touch with me. She is working and 10 doing well. She sometimes hopes that she will go to law 11 school, but she is enjoying herself too much in terms of 12 being a self-sufficient human being who is making a 13 difference. We can be a mentor. We can make a 14 difference. We can participate in the Little League team. 15 On the plane down here yesterday, parents and 16 children were coming for a basketball tournament. Young 17 people, young parents who were spending time with their 18 children, but people who were also coaches, who 19 volunteered their time to make a difference in these 20 children's lives. And you looked at the children, their 21 first plane flight, having won the tournament, coming to a 22 new land, they were so excited, and you could see the 23 difference that each one of us can make in the life of a 24 child. 25 Some people say the problem is too big. But I 16 1 beg to differ with them. I have watched this Nation 2 respond. In my own home town in August of '92, I watched 3 us respond to Hurricane Andrew. In those first 2 or 3 4 days the world seemed to have fallen apart, and fallen 5 away from us. There was no cohesion, there was no 6 community, there was no society. People looked stunned 7 and adrift. But then people came together. They started 8 directing traffic on their own, and delivering materials, 9 and bringing in water, and reaching out and caring and 10 helping. And that community is stronger and better and 11 more wonderful for it today. 12 And then almost a year ago, on the Sunday that 13 followed the terrible tragedy in Oklahoma City, I went and 14 watched the people of Oklahoma City start to come 15 together, to speak out against the violence that had 16 spawned that blast from hell, to work with law enforcement 17 to hold those who had done it accountable and to help the 18 survivors begin to heal. 19 After 3 years in this office, my faith in the 20 American people and their ability to deal with adversity 21 and their ability to deal with the critical problem of 22 youth violence and how we build the structures of society 23 for our youth, I have never been so sure that we can do 24 it. And together we can, child by child, block by block, 25 family by family, school by school, because lawyers and 17 1 doctors and other people care, and are willing to do 2 public service to make a difference. 3 (Applause.) 4 (End of transcript.) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25