Message From Our Executive Director
Over the past 10 years, the Equal Justice Council (EJC) - Legal Aid's private-bar fundraising arm - has become an integral part of the fabric of Legal Aid. Our relationship continues to thrive for many reasons—visionary leadership, excellent staff support, and receptive and willing donors, to name a few. But the glue that holds it together, that forms the foundation, is that of trust. One cannot overemphasize enough the importance of trust in any relationship. It is paramount and when present, can produce results at an unimaginable pace and magnitude.
At Legal Aid, over the years of my tenure, I have kept focus on maintaining and enhancing our strength and credibility - and the trust that flows from that focus. Trust increases morale, promotes creativity, and supports risk taking. At its core, trust is not based on the question of, “Whom can I trust,” but rather, “How can I engender trust in me?” Essentially, trust flows from credibility.
To sustain credibility, there are three basic imperatives, encompassed in the acronym REC.
R stands for respect. Respect is a critical factor in any relationship, professional or personal, and entails the respect we show to our colleagues, to our clients, and even to our adversaries. It also includes self respect, which is at the center of being able to respect others—it begets reciprocity. (I respect you, you respect me). Respect insures cooperation, collaboration, and a unified sense of purpose. In fact, it plays a pivotal role in one’s motivation toward the second element, that of excellence.
E stands for excellence. Our commitment to providing quality legal services to low-income people requires that we, in our individual and collective capacities, prepare ourselves and execute our respective functions, always adhering to the best practices available. It is this commitment to excellence, strengthened by mutual and self-respect, which enables us as individuals and as a law firm to meet our ultimate objective encapsulated in our mission: “To provide high-quality legal services to Maryland’s poor through a mix of services and to bring about the changes poor people want in the systems that affect them.” This brings us, in effect, to our raison d’etre and the significance of the third element: Our activities are client-centered.
C stands for client-centered. This suggests that we must know and understand our clients—their needs, aspirations, hopes, strengths and weaknesses—with an eye toward achieving specific goals for them, individually and/or collectively. Being client-centered means recognizing that our analyses, research, strategies and desired outcomes should always be performed with the best interest of our clients in mind. It is essential that we stay true to this path and not allow ourselves to be diverted by competing—and sometimes enticing—agendas.
In summary, each satisfied client takes us one step further in strengthening our credibility among all our clients and our other constituencies as well. By reinforcing our credibility at every step, we bolster our ability as an organization to earn and deserve the trust of others, which is the cornerstone of any lifelong association.
That trust is embodied in the relationship between the EJC and Legal Aid. Because we as a staff continue to raise the bar in terms of the respect we bestow upon others, the excellence of our work, and the client-centered focus of our advocacy, I have the utmost faith and trust that our relationship with the EJC will continue to flourish and evolve.
Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr.
Executive Director
