Statement

Chiquitita, tell me the truth,
I'm a shoulder you can cry on.
Your best friend, I'm the one you must rely on.
You were always sure of yourself.
Now I see you've broken a feather;
I hope we can patch it up together. ©1979

That lament from an ABBA tune performed for the 1979 UNICEF concert reminds me of the hope that the New York State Law Guardian system can bring to our children.  But our children are in danger.

Law guardians and assigned counsel in the family court system and assigned counsel in the criminal justice system are jumping ship to pursue more lucrative practice alternatives.  Who can blame them?  With fees capped at $25 per hour for out-of-court time and $40 per hour for in-court time, even the most charitable hearts begin to question their public and personal values.  [“Manhattan Panel of 18-B Counsel to Refuse Cases,” NYLJ, 2/22/02].

What does that situation have to do with law and technology?

Simple, we are in another “crisis mode.”  This one won’t be shown on CNN as the dramatic events of 9/11/01 were, but the infrastructure is beginning to collapse.  Technology may be able to intervene to save what’s left until the NYS legislature and governor do.

How?

We should immediately create a site to post family law decisions and relevant statutory material.  This segment of the law is rapidly evolving and the latest decisions must be available to law guardians and assigned counsel.  It must be available at no cost.

With information developing at an exponential rate, rapidly evolving case law must be available almost instantaneously [at a meeting I attended seven years ago, an information academician stated that the body of knowledge is doubling every seven years and that rate is accelerating].

The NYSBA must be alert to crises as they develop.  The 18-B crisis will pass; but there will be others.  Managing a crisis is how technology can provide thrust to benefit society at the intersection of law and technology.

Education
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, 1967.

University of Denver College of Law, J.D., 1971.

Professional Associations
Admitted to practice in New York, 1972.
     -- Federal Court, Western District of New York, 1972.
     -- U.S. Supreme Court, 1976.

Professional Engineer, New York and Colorado.

NYS and Cattaraugus County Bar Associations (CCBA).
     -- Member of NYSBA House of Delegates, 1974-75.
     -- President of CCBA, 1980.

Publications and Credits
Brown, Eric L., Inexpensive Computer Research Plan Dealt Death Blow by Judicial Conference of the United States, New York State Bar Journal, Vol. 65, No. 2, p. 57 (February 1993).

Gallagher, Steve, A sole practitioner's gift to the Internet:  Court of Appeals decisions on-line, State Bar News, Vol. 36, No. 10, p. 16 (December 1994).

Contributing author, Effective Marketing for Lawyers, New York State Bar Assn., 1995, ISBN 0-942954-78-5, [author of chapter on computer usage in solo and small firms].

Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School; provided to LII on the date of decision Court of Appeals cases in digitized form with interim electronic citations [9/94-12/99].


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