The best defense... David E. Rovella The National Law Journal January 31, 2000 "Working with social workers, drug treatment programs and community groups, The Bronx Defenders is the most extreme example of a handful of groups across the country that have decided to increase their mandate to the 'whole client,' a practice that has garnered the New Age moniker Holistic Advocacy. ..." Annette Lee says that she didn't know whether to believe Junior when he said that he was only 15. An intense, young criminal defense lawyer, Ms. Lee knew that most of the teens who pass through the Bronx County, N.Y., arraignment court think that claiming to be under 16 -- a juvenile -- means getting a walk. But Junior (her client's street name) begged her to believe him. Ms. Lee, who works for an indigent criminal defense group called the Bronx Defenders, decided to do some digging, and not only kept Junior out of jail on a drug-sale charge, but helped rebuild his entire life. Public defenders often see themselves as the punching bags of the criminal justice system -- overworked, underpaid and sometimes loathed. Many complain that perpetually low funding prevents the kind of outreach efforts that could keep clients from getting rearrested. Robin Steinberg, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, saw a connection between the two problems -- and exploited it. Spurred by the failed New York Legal Aid Society strike of 1994, and the opportunity it created for smaller indigent defender groups in New York, Ms. Steinberg opened a new kind of defender office on the second floor of an old ice factory on the corner of 161st Street and Grant Avenue -- a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, the Bronx courts and the shiny glass offices of the Bronx district attorney. Working with social workers, drug treatment programs and community groups, the Bronx Defenders is the most extreme example of a handful of groups across the country that have decided to increase their mandate to the "whole client," a practice that has garnered the New Age moniker "holistic advocacy." While some keep tabs on drug-addicted clients after they enter treatment programs, the Bronx group, which has attracted young lawyers from across the country, goes much further. In addition to counseling clients and their family members, lawyers and social workers help clients to get jobs, find places to live and sometimes even to get financial aid and go to college. "It's rewarding to the lawyers, and the public looks at them with reduced cynicism," says Cait T. Clarke, a lawyer who studies indigent defense systems at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. But she warns that the Bronx initiative is an exception and that "many defender offices can't even get lawyers to see their clients in jail before trial." And although there may be ethical land mines in intermingling the law and social work, the Bronx group may nevertheless be making it less likely that clients will return to jail. In doing so, Ms. Clarke says, they have turned the image of the knee-jerk liberal defense lawyer on its head and have, in effect, become crime fighters themselves. Client life-building The virtue of helping drug-addicted clients get treatment is no secret, says Ms. Clarke, echoing recently published studies of prison drug treatment programs in Delaware, California and Texas, showing drops in recidivism among prisoners who complete such programs. "Since Gideon, some defense lawyers would...try to get their clients assistance, counseling or treatment," she says, referring to the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright, which guaranteed representation for the poor. But in the '90s, the proliferation of drug courts emphasizing treatment over jail convinced defense lawyers that they could play a stronger role in getting clients into such programs -- clients like Junior, one of the Bronx Defenders' first customers. After Junior's drug arrest in September 1998, Ms. Lee went to his house to find proof that he was only 15, so he wouldn't be charged as an adult. After meeting Junior's drug-addicted mother and his three young sisters, Ms. Lee says, she concluded that Junior's court problems had much to do with his home life. His mother's addiction, she says, made the unemployed 15-year-old responsible not only for his own welfare, but also for that of his little sisters. "He had nothing; he was doing what he could to survive," remembers the 31-year-old Ms. Lee. Three months later, Junior was arrested for allegedly trying to rob someone with a BB gun. This time, bail was set. He stayed in jail. Ms. Lee began writing a pre-pleading report to convince the prosecutor and the judge that Junior warranted treatment, not jail. Working with client advocate (the group's less-stigmatizing title for its four social workers) Cristina Canas, Ms. Lee interviewed relatives and researched Junior's background to develop a profile. She got him youthful offender status (he could have gotten one to three years in prison), and had him admitted to a Queens, N.Y., drug treatment program in April 1998. Usually, this would be the end of a public defender's involvement, Ms. Steinberg says. But for the Bronx Defenders, it was only the beginning. The group kept tabs on Junior's progress in drug treatment: bringing him clothes, visiting him on holidays and showing up on family days. After he finished treatment, they found him a part-time job, brought him to visit colleges and helped him obtain a $ 7,000 grant to attend New York City Technical College. "As a team, we work to address the legal problem in court and the social problem that...put the client in the system in the first place," says Ms. Steinberg, from her specially designed offices, which look more like those of an Upper East side pediatrician -- with toys and a play area for clients' children -- than a legal aid clinic in the heart of the South Bronx. While Junior was in treatment, the Bronx Defenders even arranged visitation at their offices for him, his sisters and his mother. Junior, now 18, is in college studying to be a chef, has a home and works at a hospital as a peer mentor. Ms. Lee says that were it not for her group's effort, Junior's fate could have been grim. "He would have definitely done some jail time," she says. "Then he might be back in the same situation and probably would have gotten arrested again," a sentiment with which Junior agrees. "They showed a lot of love," he says. "If they didn't, I'd probably be in the same lifestyle I was then." More maneuvering room Having opened her doors in 1997, Ms. Steinberg, 42, recently obtained her second two-year contract with the city, worth $ 8.1 million, requiring her group to defend 12,500 cases annually. Her staff of 50, which includes 30 lawyers, is divided into three teams of lawyers, social workers and assistants. On Mondays and Tuesdays, indigent Bronx defendants are assigned to her lawyers, and the teams meet twice weekly to discuss strategy and tough cases. Approximately 10% of their cases, says Ms. Canas, require some "holistic" work. At a recent meeting in the Defenders' skylit conference room, decorated with artwork by local school children, one of the teams of 10 lawyers, social workers and staff met over coffee and bottled water to discuss one attorneys' opening statement in a buy-and-bust case. "Keep the defense simple," said one defender. "Just go straight-lying cop." Another colleague piped up -- "Just say 'You got nothing,' and sit down and tear up the indictment." The laughter is light, not cynical. "Well, I hope the opening will be a little more than that," said a skeptical Amy Gallicchio, the team leader, who quickly moved them on to the next case. One of the reasons client advocate Elspeth M. Slayter gives for leaving New York's Legal Aid Society for the Bronx Defenders in 1998 is that her new job allows her to be more creative with client problems, and that in team meetings like the one described above, social workers share an equal role with lawyers in addressing client needs. "At Legal Aid, we were ghettoized from the lawyers, and there was a limited, staid model of intervention" she says. "We would often have creative ideas, but these were completely quashed." Ms. Canas, who has been with the Defenders since its inception, says that the role of social workers in a defense organization can serve a client's legal needs. In researching and drafting a pre-pleading report, the result of an attorney's assessment of the client's "legal needs" and the advocate's assessment of a "social work goal," the advocate can present a complete picture of the defendant. But she emphasizes that although there is a rough equality between the social work and legal disciplines in her office, when a conflict arises, the client's liberty interest must win out. "The first reaction [other defender groups have] is, 'We're not social workers, we're overworked already,' " says Harvard's Ms. Clarke. "The second argument really goes to liberty interests." Without much time to investigate how solid a prosecution case is, she says, an over-emphasis on holistic advocacy could lead defense lawyers to urge clients to plead guilty and enter a program rather than fight a weak prosecution case. "I believe lawyers can walk and chew gum at the same time," responds Ms. Steinberg. "If you know that 97% of the cases...are disposed of without trial, to focus so singlemindedly on the litigation aspect" doesn't make sense. Michele Maxian, attorney in charge of the Legal Aid Society's Criminal Defense Division, praises the Bronx program but adds that she would extend her efforts only to the civil repercussions of a criminal case -- such as eviction or forfeiture. Across the East River, Lisa Schreibersdorf, director of Brooklyn Defender Services, suggests going a step further. While Ms. Maxian would refer related civil cases to civil attorneys, Ms. Schreibersdorf proposes criminal lawyers themselves handle related custody, housing or immigration issues. Both agree, though, that funding limits prevent doing more. Minnesota Public Defender John M. Stuart says statewide systems like his are simply too overburdened for such extravagances. "We are operating with twice the caseloads recommended," he says. "I would love to say that we follow these clients until they are successfully discharged from probation, but the reality of our work is like M*A*S*H -- the public defenders are operating, and they hear the helicopters bringing in new clients."

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