in the community
A Campaign for All Seasons
Elizabeth A. Price
Alston & Bird
[email protected]
Letitia A. McDonald (Tish)
King & Spalding LLP
[email protected]
Google the word “campaign.” Its ety-
mology may surprise you. The word
derives from the French counter-
part that means both an open field
and the battle that an army wages in
such a field. As Co-Chairs of Atlanta
Legal Aid Society’s (ALAS) 2017 An-
nual Campaign, we have taken on the
mantle of the battle concept this year,
girded our loins, and proceeded to
battlefields around the metro area.
First, on April 11, shortly after sunrise,
we marshaled the troops in Georgia
Pacific’s sky-high dining room at the
invitation of Tye Darland, who, along
with Matt Calvert, had twice served
as Supreme Commander in the 2015
and 2016 campaigns. After a rousing
battle cry that included the introduc-
tion of our joint generalship under
the combined (celebrity) moniker of
“Lish”, we introduced squadron lead-
ers (a/k/a vice-chairs), set the goals,
and sent the troops marching. Though
we had no military band to bugle us
into “the wild blue yonder,” we had
ample spirit and a real determination
to succeed. Returns are still coming
in, but we are declaring victory for
this campaign year.
The 2017 campaign is Atlanta Legal
Aid’s thirty-fifth foray into battle. The
first campaign took place in 1983 when
the Legal Services Corporation (LSC),
whose funding then accounted for 75%
of Legal Aid’s budget, was under at-
tack. The final cut, while not a mortal
blow at 25% of the budget, was still
drastic. Without more robust fund-
18
November 2017
ing, ALAS would have been forced to
reduce personnel, with an immediate
negative impact on service to clients.
Steve Gottlieb, then and now ALAS
Executive Director, and his board
decided to turn to the metro legal
community for help. Funding reduc-
tion, they argued, would substantially
hamper its mission of helping low-in-
come people realize their basic rights
through free civil legal services. To
head the campaign, they invited Ran-
dolph Thrower, who had been an of-
ficer in the Marine Corps in WWII and
former President of ALAS, to serve
as the inaugural chair. Mr. Thrower
was well known by his fellow lawyers.
He was highly regarded not only for
his legal skills but also for his ethics.
He had served as Commissioner of
the Internal Revenue Service in the
Nixon era. He was forced to resign that
position when he refused to provide
tax information about people on the
current administration’s “enemies
list”. To no one’s surprise, that first
campaign was a success.
Repeated success through the years
has encouraged ALAS to raise the goal,
not just to account for inflation (it
takes $245.77 in 2017 to buy what $100
would have bought in 1983), but also
to bolster Atlanta Legal Aid’s ability
to accept more clients it can advise.
ALAS has always encouraged law firms
to participate at the Pacesetter level,
a certain number of dollars for every
member of the firm. In 1983, a gift
of $100 per lawyer entitled the firm
to earn Pacesetter status. Today the
Pacesetter number is $500 per At-
lanta lawyer. Thirty-seven firms were
Pacesetters in 2016. We hope to enroll
forty or more as we approach the end
of the 2017 campaign.
Just this year, we introduced a new
category of giving to Atlanta Legal Aid
designated as The Gambrell Society.
To become a member, one makes
a three year pledge to contribute a
specific amount per year, with the
amounts ranging from $15,000 down
to $2,500. Over twenty lawyers have
already enrolled so far in the Society.
The Gambrell Society takes its name
from Atlanta Legal Aid’s founder, E.
Smythe Gambrell. Mr. Gambrell had
fought in World War I. After the armi-
stice among the warring countries was
reached, he was among the thousands
of young men awaiting repatriation
to the U.S. who attended the Ameri-
can Expeditionary Forces University
(“AEF”) in France. A school teacher be-
fore the war, Mr. Gambrell met War-
ren Seavey at the AEF University. Mr.
Seavey was a graduate of Harvard Law
School. He persuaded Mr. Gambrell
to apply for admission to that Law
School. Mr. Gambrell was accepted.
While a student, he participated in
the activities of Harvard’s Legal Aid
Bureau. Inspired by that experience,
he rallied sixteen colleagues early in
his practice in Atlanta and convinced
them of the value of an agency offer-
ing legal services without cost to those
who needed help and couldn’t pay.
They signed a petition of incorpora-