Washington Lawyer - July 2017 - 35

It began with a U.S. Supreme Court decision effectively awarding the contested 2000 presidential
election to George W. Bush over Al Gore, a first in
U.S. constitutional history.
Less than a year later, America was suddenly and
shatteringly attacked by terrorists on September 11,
an event that reverberates today in law, policy, and
geopolitics.
As the decade drew to an end, we saw the election
of the first black U.S. president in Barack Obama and
a drawdown of the United States' war footing in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, nearly seven years after the end of the 2000s,
we can begin to look back on that history and
draw some lessons. One of those lessons, perhaps,
is about the positive work that a nonpartisan,
community-oriented organization such as the D.C.
Bar can do.
It was during this time of struggle and conflict on
the national and global stage that the D.C. Bar
brought government lawyers into its Pro Bono
Center and helped set up and establish the D.C.
Access to Justice Commission.
"The Bar reflects what's happening in the world
around us. I think that's true today and it's true in
the era that I was president," says John C. Cruden,
a former U.S. Department of Justice official in both
the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations who also served as D.C. Bar president in

2003
Iraq War begins.

2005-06. "There were all kinds of things that we
could join on. It was those things that everybody
could agree on and it really helped. It's what a bar
brings to the table - that ability to look at government, look at really important things to value the
rule of law, and make it better."

DEFINING MOMENTS

D.C. Bar Presidents
2000-01

John W. Nields Jr.
2001-02

A defining moment came quickly for the Bar when
the day after September 11, smoke still lingering
over the Pentagon just across the Potomac River,
then-Bar president John Payton, a civil rights lawyer
and partner at WilmerHale LLP, called members and
staff together and declared we would not be afraid
to come to work in Washington, D.C.

John Payton

An already security-conscious city that had the
day before evacuated its workforce on foot was
now essentially an armed camp with fighter jets
patrolling the skies above. Payton's leadership and
courage in that moment, like that of so many others
throughout the District, set a tone of fearlessness
and perseverance for the nation's capital.

John "Jack" C. Keeney Jr.

Payton died in 2012 after a brief illness at the age
of 65. At the time, he was the sixth president of the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Melvin White

For all the powerful history unfolding as President
Bush took the United States to war in Afghanistan
in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003, there was important
work to be done at home and Bar members were
active.

2002-03

George W. Jones Jr.
2003-04

Shirley Ann Higuchi
2004-05
2005-06

John C. Cruden
2006-07

James J. Sandman
2007-08

2008-09

Robert J. Spagnoletti

2009-10

Kim M. Keenan

Left: U.S. Marines attack the military
garrison of the Iraqi 23rd Infantry
brigade in Nasiriyah. Right: Hurricane
Katrina as seen from space.

2005
Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf
Coast of the United States,
killing nearly 2,000 people and
causing more than $100 billion in
damage.
The D.C. Access to Justice
Commission is founded.

2007
The Great Recession begins, an
economic decline that impacts the
world's financial markets.

WASHINGTON LAWYER

JULY 2017 35

http://www.dcbar.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Lawyer - July 2017