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Law Day 2010
The Past, Present and Future of Law
Gather in Hartford To Embrace
Law in the
21st Century: Enduring Traditions, Emerging Challenges
HARTFORD—A gathering of
Judges, seasoned lawyers, students with an eye on the legal
profession—even Boy Scouts—celebrated Law Day 2010 at
Hartford Superior Court in the historic, dark-paneled Center
Court courtroom on Friday, April 30th. |
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 The
day’s activities, sponsored by the Hartford
County Bar Association (HCBA) in conjunction
with the Judicial Branch, included a lecture by
Attorney Frederic Ury, past president of the
Connecticut Bar Association, and scholarship and
award presentations.
The Honorable Marshall K. Berger, Jr.,
Administrative Judge of the Hartford Judicial
District, opened court by emphasizing the
importance of this year’s Law Day theme—Law
in the 21st Century: Enduring Traditions,
Emerging Challenges.
“This year’s theme is particularly relevant to
our Judicial Branch and to all of us who work in
the Superior Court,” Judge Berger said. “We sit
here in this historic courthouse and courtroom
first opened in 1929. The two figures sitting
upon the pilasters at the entrance to this
courthouse represent truth and justice. The bust
of Chief Justice John Marshall sits above the
door to this courtroom. Enduring Traditions,
indeed.
“Yet upon this bench and on that in all of our
courtrooms,” he continued, “sit state-of-the-art
computers and programs that acknowledge and
embrace the change to the practice of law and
courtroom advocacy. The legal system is
challenged from every turn whether from
technology to budgetary problems. This year, in
this courthouse, ninety-year-old Judges have
mastered computer technology even as we are
being told our library will be closed.
Challenges, indeed.”
Following Judge Berger’s statements, Attorney
Raymond C. Bliss, President of the Hartford
County Bar Association, read a proclamation from
Governor M. Jodi Rell, declaring May 1st Law Day
in Connecticut.
 Attorney
Lori Rittman Clark, a labor and employment
lawyer with Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP,
introduced Law Day speaker Frederick Ury of Ury
& Moskow LLC. Past President of the Connecticut
Bar Association (2004-05), Attorney Ury has
become an expert on the future of the legal
profession in this technological age. In 2007,
Connecticut Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers
appointed him to the Steering Committee of the
Judicial Branch’s Public Service and Trust
Commission.
In a speech that opened
with the familiar figure of Atticus Finch from
Harper Lee’s
To Kill a Mockingbird, Attorney Ury wove
a story of law, past, present and future, and
emphasized that, despite the rapidly evolving
transference into the world of technology, “…the
legal profession will always be as relevant and
as important as it has been for centuries.”
He went on to say, “Other professions and
businesses as important and interesting as they
may be do not safeguard the rights of all our
citizens. We are the protectors of the unpopular
cause, the downtrodden, and the accused and
persecuted. We represent the last hopes of
someone sentenced to death….We fight for and
represent the poor and the disabled. We are
there to cry foul and then represent those who
foul…No Internet provider does that.”
In conclusion Attorney Ury said: “There will
never be a virtual law firm or website that will
replace the lawyer who has given his or her best
effort during a trial.”
Here Attorney Ury
recalled the last words spoken to Jean Louise
when her father, who had fought a noble but
losing battle in To Kill a Mockingbird,
walked down the aisle to exit the courtroom.
Ury concluded, “It is only by the force and
strength of his or her presentation and demeanor
and the respect that he or she has earned in the
community that similar words will be said:
Miss Jean Louise stand, your father the lawyer
is passin’.”
Attorney Ury’s
complete remarks (PDF)
 And,
perhaps a Connecticut Atticus Finch was present
this day in Hartford. Attorney Morton N. Katz,
recipient of the Hartford Bar’s
2010 Pro Bono Award, was cited for his unselfish
service to
pro bono clients during his more than 60
years in law and for his ongoing invaluable work
with the Statewide Legal Services.
“Despite the boost that technology gives to
Legal Services, the facilitation and
administration of justice cannot be achieved
without attorneys like Morton Katz,” said
Attorney Janice Chiaretto, Executive Director of
Statewide Legal Services. “He has been
instrumental in delivering justice for our
clients, instrumental in developing family legal
clinics and mentoring attorneys—he is so many
things. A solo practitioner without the full
weight and resources of a big firm, he has used
his own skills, his own heart and his own
bravery to achieve all that he has achieved for
his clients.”
A veteran of the 82nd Airborne and a decorated
soldier at the Battle of the Bulge, he retired
as a full Colonel after 32 years in the military
reserve.
Katz, resplendent in his customary bow tie, was
just days short of his 91st birthday when he
accepted the award by saying simply, “When
someone helps you in life, then it is your turn
to help someone else.”
 Jonnell
Kedine Atkins, a senior at Hartford Public High
School and the Law and Government Academy,
received the Law Day Scholarship Award. Atkins
was cited for her intelligence (Top 10 in her
class), her strong written and verbal advocacy
skills and her work with various social service
groups. Atkins will attend Eastern Connecticut
State University in the fall and hopes to become
a lawyer.
The Connecticut River
Council of the Boy Scouts of America, its
Learning for Life and Exploring Division, was
presented the HCBA’s 2010 Liberty Bell Award.
The Scouts spent time touring the court
throughout the year with Judge Berger as their
guide as well as with attorneys and professors
of the UConn Law School. |
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