Why Lawyers Are
Not Running: For the Legislature - Not 10k's
By
Lu Hardin*
Rita Fleming
Statistics provided by Steve Cook
Beginning with the 84th General
Assembly, there exists the surprising possibility that there will be
no attorneys in the Arkansas Senate and only a few in the House
of Representatives. Why, after a century of attorneys being prominent
both in membership and leadership in the Arkansas Senate and House,
have we come to a time when only a few lawyers will be serving
in the General Assembly? In the past, attorneys have run for public
office for a number of reasons. Before advertising, many young lawyers
would run to get their name before the public; more idealistic
young attorneys ran for the admirable goal of public service;
and others ran because it seemed like a natural career progression.
So, why are there fewer attorneys now in the Arkansas General
Assembly, and what is the cause? I put the question before several
members of the bar who have also served or presently serve in the Arkansas
Legislature, and here are their responses.
Almost all attorneys interviewed for this
article indicated that term limits were a major reason that fewer attorneys
were serving. Former State Senator Morril Harriman of Van Buren stated
"With term limits, we see fewer and fewer people in the legal
profession running. And within the legal profession itself, the time
required to be spent within a full time law practice makes it
economically impractical for attorneys to run for the legislature."
According to former State Representative
Mike Wilson of Jacksonville, the legislative lawyer members outside
the Central Arkansas area practically have to give up their practice
for those days that the legislature is in session. They are also
obligated to attend committee meetings throughout the time that the
legislature is in recess. Many feel obligated to perform public
service but, also, have to support their family. Representative
Wilson stated that, "many lawyers serve on local commissions and
boards, but it is a different proposition to pick up and move
to Little Rock for several weeks during the session. This creates
a tension between fulfilling a moral obligation to perform public service
and fulfilling a moral obligation to support your family. Most
are now choosing to fulfill their public service through local and community
service rather than state-wide service."
State Senator Mike Beebe of Searcy believes
that a law degree is a wonderful asset in the legislature. Senator
Beebe stated "I'm prejudiced. A legal education is the finest education
you can get. Regardless of whether you practice, it teaches you
analytical thought and that there are two sides to every issue. The
decrease in lawyers is partly due to term limits. It's simply
not worth a lawyer re-adjusting months of his or her life for
a six to eight year period. While you certainly can have too many lawyers
in the legislature you can have too few. The possibility of bad
or unconstitutional legislation getting into law could increase."
It is disturbing to Senator Harriman that
the number of persons in the legislature with a legal education are
declining. "In a citizen legislature you don't want a lot of lawyers,
but you also don't want there to be none. You need a sufficient
number of people with legal training to make sure the legislative bills
meet constitutional merit and to make sure that the bill's language
is written in a way that fulfills the intent of the legislature
and is not ambiguous."
Trial attorneys and constitutional scholars
credit the State Senate Judiciary Committee in the late 1980's
through the 1990's with cleaning up bad legislation and defeating unconstitutional
bills. What will be the ultimate result and effect on the legislative
process with fewer attorneys? Clearly, the process will suffer
without the eye to detail of an attorney who has practiced in the areas
of real estate, commercial law, criminal law or domestic relations.
Two examples come to mind that the State Senate Judiciary Committee
dealt with in the early 1990's. First, a bill was introduced that gave
grandparents unrestricted access to the chancery courts to petition
for visitation. While conceptually this may sound good, passage of
this legislation could have doubled the caseload of the chancery courts
as well as putting the grandparents and son or daughter in an
adversarial relationship on visitation. A second bill was filed that
made membership in a "gang" a felony. This bill was
obviously, blatantly unconstitutional on the basis of violation
of the rights of free speech and freedom of association. The bill was
amended in the Senate Judiciary Committee and was patterned after
the federal RICO law with the concept of gang activity interjected.
The legislation passed and met constitutional muster.
Therefore, the stakes are somewhat high;
over 2,000 pieces of legislation are introduced during a legislative
session. Legislative staff attorneys, many times, are not in a position
to challenge or question the legislator. The result during the
next legislative session, with few attorneys could be questionable bills
passing both the House and the Senate.
With term limits, the attorney that is
willing to serve will have to be motivated primarily by public service.
It is a rich tradition of our profession that many think we have neglected
in recent years. As Representative Wilson stated, "Lawyers
have an ethical and moral obligation to return to the community and
state the advantages they have."
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