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Daniel Greenberg, president and attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society of New York City, delivered the 90th Sibley Lecture this past month. Some excerpts:
On his job: “I can’t think of anything better than if I could wish, for each of you, that you could find yourself in an organization where every waking moment of your life you feel that you’re doing something important for you, as well as important for someone else.”
On the flaws of legal education: “The most important things that affect us as people are almost never answered by the question, ‘Is it legal?’ I don’t know how many times in the rest of my life--the non-lawyer part of my life--I’ve ever asked if something is legal. Every day I ask whether it’s right, whether it’s good, whether it’s fine, whether it’s fair, whether it’s the right thing to. We ask those questions all the time, but if you ask those questions in law school, you’re actually put down for asking them.”
On the tradition of helping those less fortunate: “The first boat people were Pilgrims. They came over without papers. They would have starved if they hadn’t had food assistance. We have a holiday each year to celebrate their welfare program!”
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