Speak out for our system of justice.

Never in my lifetime have I witnessed such an attack--not only on lawyers but more important, on traditional legal remedies--as there is today by those in power. I truly believe that lawyers have a special role to play in fighting this trend. Let me explain.

Our enemies demonize all lawyers as greedy and all lawsuits as frivolous. They hire the slickest public relations manipulators and repeat ad nauseam every horror story of a large jury verdict of dubious merit, be it about hot coffee or misused lawn mowers. They claim that doctors are being driven from practice by high malpractice insurance rates resulting from runaway verdicts, and they invite doctors to strike. They claim that lessors of automobiles will no longer survive due to vicarious liability. They charge that buildings will not be built if strict liability continues to allow construction workers to sue those in charge.

But our enemies never mention that lawsuits have leveled off or that there is no significant increase in the number of suits filed. And they never discuss that insurance reform, not caps on recoveries, brought down doctors' malpractice premiums in California.

Nor do they suggest that the CEOs of companies in the health and insurance fields--who are making $5 million, $10 million, even $20 million for just one year--ever take a cap of $250,000 a year, which they would impose on plaintiffs who suffered paraplegia and brain damage and whose claims have merit. Nor do they mention that innocent victims will go uncompensated if lessors who profit from leases have no duty to pay when their negligent motorists can't.

Nor do they mention that workers who benefit from strict liability engage in the most hazardous activity while those who would take away their rights sit comfortably in high offices with lovely views built by those very workers.

As Clarence Darrow described them in 1898, those workers are "the men who risk their lives and whose mangled remains are often found on the earth below. These are the men who built the civiliZation we enjoy." But their families' claims were defeated by the defense of assumption of risk because the construction workers were so stupid as to work high up in those buildings in the first place. Wouldn't today's tort "reformers" love to get back to those good old days?

Out of balance

But we should not take a narrow, selfish view and concern ourselves only with the everyday cases our clients bring us. The attack is part of a much larger pattern.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the cry for security was understandable. Even civil libertarians understood the need for balance in ensuring national safety. But now we have citizens in jail without a hearing, without even being able to see a lawyer. And within the confines of the military justice system, the suspect may not even get to see the evidence. In this atmosphere of permanent war and endless terror alerts, will the Bill of Rights become a quaint antique?

We should not forget the excesses of the past during wartime. Now we look back uneasily on our government's internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent. Yes, there's a need for balance, but belief in due process for all is one reason we cherish and fight for the America we love.

When it comes to upholding the laws protecting the environment, we see a wholesale departure from the spirit of conservation pioneered by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt. Cleverly, all too cleverly, the administration settles lawsuits by opponents of wildland protection in a way that is favorable to the enemies of the environment. Now we are told that the law mandating wilderness reviews expired years ago. (Really? Endangered species better watch out.) Conservationists appeal while oil, timber, and mining interests cheer.

And what about the judiciary? The White House has ended the American Bar Association's screening of potential nominees by a committee that was always composed of the best and fairest lawyers in America. Instead, it submits the names of undistinguished people who never advocated for a consumer in their judicial lives and who will be with us for many a year.

And whatever happened to the legal requirements for open bidding on reconstruction contracts in war-torn areas? Are lucrative assignments to be given to those companies whose only distinction is the size of their campaign contributions, or whose former executives now serve in high office, or whose staff members include the most former generals? Does anybody remember Dwight Eisenhower's brilliant foresight in warning us to beware the power of the "military-industrial complex"?

And even in die wake of Enron and all of the other corporate scandals in recent years, we see foot-dragging in both the funding and the staffing of the enforcement arm of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Changes that have been proposed for the tax laws favor those in the corporate community. Proposed changes in Federal Communications Commission regulations permit big media companies to get bigger. Will voices of dissent continue to be heard?

Under the cover of 9/11, such proposals are creating an era of corporate dominance not seen since the days of William McKinley.

Get vocal

What can we do about it, you say? Much, I believe. Lawyers have voices. We should speak out.

Many of you are community leaders. We all have clients and, I hope, client lists. We should bring our clients up to date and tell them our concerns. There should be a great national debate on all these issues. The media may be getting a little too corporate to sound the alarm. We'd better do it ourselves. There is no shame in failing to prevail. There is shame only in silence.

Our clients, ordinary citizens, cannot turn to a lobbyist to tight the corporate powers, which already have hired all of the best lobbyists. But they can turn to their neighborhood lawyer. And that's you. It was lawyers and lawsuits that uncovered the horrors of asbestos and of tires and cars that explode. You are the private attorneys general who can correct abuse.

But for our voices to sound convincing, we had best be worthy of trust. We must not tolerate those whose greed besmirches us all. Those who cheat and lie their way to false rewards deserve their punishment. They make our work harder. They diminish the claims of the honest and give ammunition to those who would bring us all down. They are not to be tolerated.

And to young lawyers, I say ignore those who would lead you astray. Make yourselves towers of probity. I'll share with you a secret, not of life but of legal practice: We lawyers can have it all. We can earn a decent living, have integrity, and sleep at night.

Henry G. Miller practices" with Clark, Gagliardi & Miller in White Plains, New York. This article was adapted from his recent address to the Queens County Bar Association of New York.