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Legal Auxiliary of Sacramento turns 50 |
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In 1956, Sis Kennedy gathered a group of 21 women, all wives of lawyers, to form a social group bound by legal careers. From that gathering, Elizabeth McGilvrary, attorney and wife of 1954 Sacramento County Bar President Kenneth McGilvrary, requested a $100 donation from the Association in order to form a non-profit corporation named Lawyer’s Wives of Sacramento County (now Legal Auxiliary of Sacramento). Under the presidency of Anthony Kennedy, said request was granted by the Bar Council and thus began an illustrious 50-year history of service to not only the County Bar, but also to the community in general. So who were the Lawyer’s Wives and what did they do? And who/what are they today? In the beginning, a member had to be the spouse of an attorney member of the SCBA. These volunteers supported the Association by taking on various tasks and duties. One of those critical tasks was assisting with the paperwork, typing and filing for the Sacramento County Bar Association’s Legal Aid Committee, chaired by Jack Downey, its founder. It was in 1956, when Legal Aid took steps to become a non-profit corporation that prompted the Auxiliary to take the same path. Jack Downey moved toward forming the Lawyer Referral Service as a separate operation from Legal Aid as there was a distinct difference between clients who could pay for legal assistance and those who could not. In turn, the Lawyer’s Wives took on the additional operations of that program while still carrying out Legal Aid functions. They also assisted the Association with event planning by hand addressing invitations, taking reservations, providing volunteers for check-in as well as clean up crews, and even worked on The Docket (the former title of Sacramento Lawyer). In addition, they published their own newsletter, The Brief. One of their illustrious editors was none other than Doris Matsui. The Lawyer’s Wives held their own events for community leaders and planned special events for their own membership. They produced literature for local schools that informed students of their rights and duties as citizens, organized and hosted court tours, and assisted with Mock Trial and Moot Court competitions. In 1966 the Lawyer’s Wives organized a Dinner Dance for the SCBA and 279 attended. Considering there were less than 700 Association members at that time, the attendance represented 40% of the total membership. Impressive. In 1967 they co-sponsored a Law Day Dinner where the Governor of the State of California, Ronald Reagan, agreed to be the keynote speaker. In 1968, the Lawyer Referral Service took its operation out of the Legal Aid offices and moved to the second floor of the newly constructed Court Plaza Building. There was a lot of concern at that time that the expensive appearance of the office building would intimidate potential clients. It did not and the Service is still in operation. During 1969 the Women Lawyers of Sacramento assisted the Association in organizing SCBA’s Annual Meeting and all proceeds from the event were given to the Lawyer’s Wives for their newly-created scholarship fund. Many law students benefited from this program, even our own District Attorney Jan Scully. In 1971, the Bar Association moved their Lawyer Referral offices to the first floor from the second floor of the Court Plaza Building. The Association paid 50 cents a square foot for this new locale. In an effort to minimize expenses, the SCBA allocated space to the Lawyer’s Wives in conjunction with their assistance with Bar matters as well as subletting space to 4 attorneys. In 1971, the Lawyer’s Wives boasted a membership of 262, contributed over 500 hours to the Lawyer Referral and Legal Aid, and were financially able to grant four scholarships plus establish the Davis loan fund. In 1972, they held a public relations luncheon inviting the presidents of 35 community service groups to take a tour of the courthouse, leading to a successful elementary school program on the courts. This program was given $300 in start-up funding from the Bar Association, and the first court tour by Del Dayo Elementary School included Dorothy Bullin, Bobby Stewart, Betty Mandich, and Jean O’Connell as docents. In 1975 the Lawyer’s Wives began work on the restoration of the Hastings Building in Old Sacramento in conjunction with the State Department of Parks and Recreation and the SCBA. By the end of the 1970’s, the SCBA hired an Executive Director and an Administrative Assistant to take over the functions that the Auxiliary had been providing for the Association. Although the Legal Auxiliary of Sacramento remains alive and active, their focus and service has evolved and changed with the times to find new ways to work with community groups to help highlight and promote understanding of the legal system and to preserve the integrity of our legal heritage through citizenship education. They still publish The Brief, sponsor an annual awards dinner for the State Bar Foundation Scholarship Program, and provide fundraising assistance with other community projects. 2006 is a milestone for the Auxiliary. Not only does this year symbolizes their 50th anniversary, but Linda Jarvis, a past president of the Auxiliary, will be sworn in as President of the American Lawyers Auxiliary (est. 1958), a division of the American Bar Association, at the ABA’s Annual Meeting in Hawaii. Congratulations on both achievements.
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