DOJ Commits to Access to Justice

Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe will head a DOJ-push to strengthen indigent defense. Attorney General Holder urged renewed commitment to legal defense for the poor at this year’s Brennan Legacy Awards Dinner and at the 2010 Indigent Defense Symposium. “Ours is an adversarial system of justice—it requires lawyers on both sides who effectively represent their client’s interests,” Holder said at our dinner. “When defense counsel are handicapped by lack of training, time, and resources…we start to wonder: Is justice being done? Is justice being served?”