Honorary Membership Bestowed
on Sargent Shriver
New
York , NY – Honorary
Membership
in the Association
of the Bar
of the City
of New York
was bestowed
on Sargent
Shriver
by Bettina
B. Plevan , president of the Association, and
Judge Leonard B. Sand, chair of the Association’s
Committee on Honors, in a midday ceremony on
Friday, June 10, 2005 , at his home in Potomac
, Maryland .
In the history of the 135-year-old
bar association, Honorary Membership has been
bestowed on 58 luminaries in the legal community,
including six chief justices of the United States,
seven associate justices of that court, two presidents
of the United States, numerous chief judges of
many of the United States Courts of Appeal, and
presiding judges of foreign courts. Recently
named United States national honorary members
include George J. Mitchell and Cyrus R. Vance.
When bestowing the award, Ms. Plevan
said: “I
am deeply pleased to tell you that our Executive
Committee elected you to Honorary Membership
in the Association in recognition of your vast
contributions to our society.” Judge Leonard
Sand, who chairs the committee that recommended
the award, said its members particularly took
note of Mr. Shriver’s role in creating
the first federal program to support the provision
of civil legal services for the poor, which served
as the forerunner to today’s Legal Services
Corporation.
Acknowledging the honor, Mr. Shriver
said: “I
am grateful to Ms. Plevan and Judge Sand and
the members of the Association for this high
honor. In accepting it, I want to specifically
acknowledge the vision of Edgar and the late
Jean Camper Cahn, whose article in the Yale Law
Journal first brought to my attention the need
for a nationwide, government-run legal services
program for the poor. I am grateful to the late
United States Supreme Court Justice Lewis F.
Powell, Jr., who was then president of the American
Bar Association, to Clinton Bamberger, the first
director of ‘Legal Services for the Poor,’ to
Mickey Kantor who would not accept the closing
down of ‘Legal Services for the Poor’ and
who energized us all to work until Congress created
The Legal Services Corporation, and to the thousands
upon thousands of Legal Services lawyers, past
and present, across our country who work day
in and day out to bring equal justice to all
Americans. They believe as I do, that, as a lawyer,
our government and our profession have a positive,
moral and legal duty to make sure that legal
services are available to the poor on an accessible,
affordable, regular, dignified basis; and, if
necessary, even free of charge!”
Mr. Shriver was the first director
of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1964 – 1968).
He was the first director of the Peace Corps
(1961 – 1966) and served as United States
ambassador to France (1968 – 1970). In
1972, he was the democratic nominee for vice
president of the United States . He is chairman
of the board emeritus of Special Olympics International
and retired partner of Fried, Frank, Harris,
Shriver & Jacobson. In 1994, Mr. Shriver
received his nation’s highest civilian
honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom.
About the Association
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York (www.nycbar.org) was founded
in 1870, and since then has been dedicated to maintaining the high ethical
standards of the profession, promoting reform of the law, and providing service
to the profession and the public.
