Pro Bono Publico and Awards Committee

A Note from the Chair

August 4, 2010

In these difficult economic times, a larger percentage of people facing legal woes find themselves without the means to pay for the legal services they need. Fortunately, there are many government agencies, nonprofit legal aid organizations and law firm pro bono programs available to help these people navigate the legal system. One constant challenge is to match up these pro bono efforts with those most in need of assistance.

Just like our attorney counterparts, we face the challenge of getting the word out to the potential clients who most need our services. The American Society of Trial Consultants has a very active Pro Bono Initiative, whereby jury consultants, courtroom graphics experts and trial technologists provide their services to clients of limited means either free-of-charge or at a very substantial discount. ASTC members have helped out in a pro bono capacity with trial strategy development, pre-trial jury research, jury selection and exhibit production.

So, if you are an attorney who represents clients of limited means, please do not hesitate to contact us for help. If you think that attorneys in your area would like to learn more about the ASTC pro bono initiative, please recommend us to your bar association’s pro bono committee. We have ASTC members ready and willing to come speak about our pro bono initiative. We love what we do and we value the opportunity to give back.

All the best,
Edward P. Schwartz
Chair, ASTC Pro Bono Publico and Awards Committee

Diane Wyzga
ASTC Board Liaison to Pro Bono Publico and Awards Committee

Chairperson
Edward Schwartz, Ph.D., MSL
Telephone: (617) 416-1070
Fax: (781) 863-5605
schwartz@EPS-consulting.com

Board Liaison
Diane Wyzga RN, J.D.
Telephone: (949) 361-3035
Fax: (949) 369-1589
diane@lightrod.net

About the Committee:

The committee is responsible for collection nominations for the pro-bono award, determining the winner(s), soliciting award sponsorship, and executing the award(s). The committee shall follow the guidelines set forth in the leadership manual. The Committee is also responsible for establishing criteria for and determining recipients of distinguished lifetime achievement awards to the profession as well as emeritus status in the Society. The Committee Chairperson shall prepare and submit an interim and a final report to the Executive Director two weeks prior to the mid-year Board meeting and the Annual meeting, respectively.

Bronson Dillehay Award for Research, Scholarship, and Education in Procedural Justice

The Bronson Dillehay Award for Research, Scholarship, and Education in Procedural Justice was established 3 years ago to honor the dedication of Ed Bronson and Ron Dillehay. These two terrific scholars have over the course of their long careers made many contributions to the field of procedural justice. The common thread of their work is identifying, evaluating, and reducing, as much as possible, the impact of prejudice and bias on jury decision making. As testifying experts in state and federal courts, Ron and Ed were very successful at educating judges and helping litigants obtain a variety of procedural remedies to protect their right to a fair trial.

The purpose of this Award is to recognize and to promote the work of others who are working on procedural justice issues in the legal and social science communities. Continued research, writing, and training that takes on the problems of prejudice and bias is essential to our work as trial consultants, and we hope this Award will help encourage the next generation to pursue the important work Ron and Ed have been doing for the past 30 years.

The ASTC Foundation acts as the fiscal agent for this Award, and welcomes tax deductible contributions dedicated to supporting and increasing the incentives this Award will provide.

The award this year has been granted to Mimi Samuels, who is a legal writing professor at the Seattle University School of Law. She has proposed a novel approach to enhancing appellate review of Batson challenges. Her article examines the case law on Batson noting that attorneys frequently use the non-verbal responses of prospective jurors as a justification when faced with a Batson challenge.  Appellate courts have no way to conduct any meaningful review of the trial judge’s ruling on that very common justification, so Dr. Samuels proposes videotaping jury selection proceedings to create a more complete record of the voir dire and the possibility of more meaningful appellate review. Her article is both informative and thought provoking, offering a simple but potentially powerful enhancement of the protection Batson was intended to provide. Dr. Samuels is currently teaching legal writing in South Africa, so she is unable to join us at the conference for the presentation of this Award, but she was very honored to have been selected.

Dr. Samuel's article is being published in the Brooklyn Law Review, advance copies are available here: Focus on Batson: Let the Cameras Roll