A defining moment.

September 11, 2001, broke America's heart. But it did not break our spirit.

All but 19 of the thousands who died in that day's events were heroes. They were going about their lives, their loves, their work when democracy was assaulted in the freest nation in the world.

The terrorists' acts offended the human conscience more grotesquely than almost any event in history, and it is tempting to think of September 11 as a defining moment for every segment of our society, including our profession. But we--not events or enemies--define ourselves.

We Americans have given blood, food, money. Now, we trial lawyers need to give ourselves--our legal skills and devotion to our system of justice--to help the victims of the terrorist attacks and their families.

And we're going to do it for free.

While we were putting together a plan to set that help in motion, Congress was considering a bailout for the airline industry. It was then that Kevin Gallagher, one of the firefighter heroes and president of the Uniformed Firefighters of New York, made an eloquent entreaty to the nation's legislature:

   We would ... be shocked if the U.S. Congress, prior to, or at the expense
   of, the needs of some 6,000 grieving families, passed special interest
   protections for the airline industry enjoyed by no other business or person
   in our country.... [It] would be an affront to the firefighters, police
   officers, and emergency medical personnel ... throughout the nation, as
   well as the families of all others who died on the ground.... Please assure
   the American people that ... the number one priority is promptly and
   completely addressing the needs of the families who have suffered
   indescribable loss.

Trial lawyers sought that assurance in our own way. ATLA's first response to September 11 was to call for a moratorium on civil lawsuits (which so far has been honored). We urged restraint and respect, putting relief for the families above all else.

Next, we took our skilled advocacy to Congress--not for ourselves or our "industry," but for the victims. We argued that no special interest should be bailed out before the 6,000 families blindsided by terrorism received the care they needed.

Congress responded with a comprehensive, humanitarian bill that was signed into law September 22 (see www.atla.org for the complete text). It establishes a fund for every injured victim, and the family of every deceased victim, to recover full economic damages and unrestricted damages for noneconomic but very real suffering. There are no caps, and claimants need not prove negligence, duty, or causation.

We developed principles for and encouraged this law because it represents what is in our hearts and reflects our long-held values--constants since the moment we took our oaths, long before September 11.

Once we knew that the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund would be established, we moved to ensure that no family would suffer even more for lack of a lawyer. In partnership with the New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other state trial lawyer associations, we launched Trial Lawyers Care, a program offering free legal services from the entire community of trial lawyers to the victims and their families who are eligible and choose to make claims from the fund. The program is committed to ensuring that 100 percent of the federal money in the fund goes to families, not to lawyers.

This broad-based undertaking represents who we are and why we practice law: for the greater good. Enemies of the civil justice system have tried to define us as opportunistic, greedy, self-centered. Sadly, a few of us have bolstered that image.

But our response to September 11 revealed our priorities--and the true definition of trial lawyers.