Emeritus Legacy Project

EMERITUS LEGACY PROJECT

To mark its 40^th Anniversary, Public Justice sought to capture the organization’s unique history through video interviews with founders, past presidents and longtime staff. The effort was led by Emeritus Board Chair Sandy Dumain along with Emeritus Board members Ingrid Evans, Neville Johnson and Bill Rossbach and PJ staff. Excerpts from the interviews are featured in the historic overview that premiered during the 40^th Anniversary Gala on July 18, 2022.

With Executive Director Paul Bland announcing that he was stepping down in May 2024 and with the Board agreeing on a critical new Strategic Plan, the Emeritus Board decided to build on the history gathered for the 40^th anniversary and create the Public Justice Emeritus Legacy Project to provide a fuller history, including longer edited video interviews and transcripts highlighting information and personal stories that might otherwise be lost in time. The Emeritus Legacy Project also conducted new interviews with important contributors such as Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook.

Featured here are links to Emeritus Legacy Project videos on Public Justice’s YouTube site, with additional links to edited transcripts. (For more, see the Transcripts category which also includes profiles of some past presidents and staff, lists of Newsletters and selected Press Releases compiled by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and Documents such as Ralph Nader’s original June 1980 speech and articles written by Bill Trine on reforming the justice system.)

Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook: “Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook are two icons of the consumer rights movement in America. They are responsible for many of the lifesaving regulations we take for granted today.” Link to Video. Link to Transcript.

The 40^th Anniversary Video: “The killing of Viola Liuzzo back in the 19…Comanche Peak nuclear power licensing…. We sued the NCAA… mountain chop mining coal industry….We represented five Jewish students…for-profit prison… unequal treatment…experienced sexual violence….We’ve got to keep suing the bastards.” Link to Video. Link to transcript.

Joe Cotchett (Past President 1986-1987) : “We eventually got into the Civil Rights Movement and in the early ’80s, I received a call from Ted Kennedy and a member of his staff about the killing of Viola Liuzzo back in the 1965 era. The Trial Lawyers for Public Justice came together and decided that was a case we were going to take on.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Bill Trine (Past President 1988-1989): “But because of the type of case involved, I felt I can maybe make new law on appeal. And it didn’t matter what kind of case.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Arthur Bryant (Staff Attorney/Executive Director 1984-2019): “The entire model of the operation was to use our members’ skills and resources to litigate cases.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Jim Hecker (Director/Senior Attorney Environmental Enforcement Project 1990-2024+): “The purpose of the Environmental Enforcement Project is to use citizen suits to enforce federal environmental laws when state and federal governments fail to do so.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Jeff Foote (Past President 1992-1993): “Some of the major early cases we were involved in, we lost. But we went out and fought the good fight and tried to do things that people had not done with the law before.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Leslie Brueckner (Senior attorney 1993-2022): “I’m particularly proud of Hardeman v. Monsanto, where we succeeded in defending an $80 million verdict that was the first in the country won on behalf of a victim of Roundup….I joined the team and helped convince the Ninth Circuit to uphold the jury verdict in a landmark decision that will keep the courthouse doors open for hundreds of thousands of victims of Roundup and other dangerous pesticides and herbicides in the future.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Mary Parker (Past President 1994-1995): “We had battles over everything. We battled over the mission statement for an entire weekend where we were holed up in a hotel with a consultant. We battled over who we’d interview, who we’d hire, what cases we would take, where we’d have a board meeting. Everything was a battle. Out of that came a tremendous brainstorming of everything. That was impactful. I probably still do battle in the law office, [laughs] having been raised by TLPJ lawyers.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Adele Kimmel (Staff attorney, Managing attorney, Director of Students’ Civil Rights Project 1994-2024+): “A good friend of mine told me about Public Justice. When I read the job announcement and saw that one of the requirements was that you had to have a healthy sense of outrage, I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got that in abundance.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Mike Withey (Past President 1995-1996): “We can’t forget the reason for our existence. It isn’t just to put on great galas and have Trial Lawyer of the Year awards — that’s very important. But we’ve got to keep suing the bastards because there’s nothing going on in this country from the rightwing and from corporate America that’s good. So, let’s make sure we don’t revel in our success and forget the origins that started us — and that’s the fight for social justice and access to justice.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Susan Saladoff (Past President 2001-2002): “Joan [Claybrook] was just like this inspiration to me. And, as one of the younger people, at first I was a little intimidated. But then I got my voice and I was able to give a perspective that others didn’t always share.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Gary Gwilliam (Past President 2003-2004): “2001 was a very difficult year for all of us. With [the terrorist attack on] 9/11, I had some losses. I’d lost a partner, my former wife, and my sister had died. It was a very difficult year for me. At the end of the year, [we lost TLPJ Foundation Vice President] Larry Trattler, who had been very active in our telethons and was just a prince of a guy.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Alan Brayton (Past President 2006-2007): “I joined because Fred Baron approached me and said, ‘Al, this is something that you need to do.’ I attended a meeting and I was taken in by the description Arthur Bryant gave of what makes a Public Justice case. He said, “You look at it and you say, ‘that’s a goddamn outrage.’ I thought they were filling a purpose that needed to be filled.” Link to transcript.

Sandra Robinson (Past President 2007-2008): “I love being a trial lawyer. I love it. I get nervous for anything where I’ve got to say something or be observed, but once I’m prepping for it and I’m in it, I love the whole process. Being in the courtroom, witnesses, exhibits, cross-examination, especially, is a lot of fun. I even love depositions, getting ready for trials. I just love the whole process.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Gerson Smoger (Past President 2008-2009): “There’s not a choice other than to be optimistic. I think that our training as lawyers is no matter how bad the hand is dealt, we have developed skills to get around the bad deal and to win. I’m optimistic because we have a profession that allows us to push creativity.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Mona Lisa Wallace (Past President 2009-2010): “Until that company ultimately filed bankruptcy, a very, very significant number of injured workers, including individuals with cancer, wouldn’t have had the benefit of their access to justice and to the court. Had Public Justice not been one of the organizations that stepped in — the impact is important today. It’s probably one of the most important cases in history, in my opinion.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Steve Fineman (Past President 2011-2012): “When I became president, what we wanted to accomplish was to try to professionalize the operation a little bit. I don’t mean that pejoratively. I just mean, by that point, we had grown into a different organization than we had been a decade earlier.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Esther Berezofsky (Past President 2014-2015): “As a child of Holocaust survivors, whose mother was a partisan and a resistance fighter, the warrior gene in the service of justice is deeply embedded in me. I really resonated with the organization and its goals and its visions and mission.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Tara Sutton (Past President 2017-2018): “I feel like each year, Public Justice almost reinvents itself. What I’m most proud of today is the grassroots efforts that we’re making. That we are, as an organization, reaching out beyond the trial bar and the plaintiff’s bar, and we’re getting grassroots organizers, non-lawyers and we’re getting academics. We’re getting people from across the country involved in what we’re doing and believing in what our mission is.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

Eric Cramer (Past President 2020-2021): “The organization has evolved from an incredible group — a small group of trial lawyers who were trying to use the law and the courts to improve the lives of people, and it has expanded its scope, both in terms of who’s on the board and who the organization serves. And so, the organization has been developed from an organization that focused on access to justice issues and some other issues surrounding making courts available for the average person and just broadened its scope and accomplishes so much more.” Eric’s interview is part of a longer story on the consequential 2022 Board Meeting in Palms Springs. It is one of five videos, including interviews with Dan Bryson and Preston Tisdale on DEI and implicit bias. Link to transcript.

Dan Bryson (Past President 2021-2022): “This is an organization that you should care about. Even if you’re not an attorney, this is an organization that you should support because here are attorneys that are going to battle to try to have a better society, a more just society and that is their mission.” Link to video. Link to transcript.

We will update this page as history warrants.