Justice Should Not Depend on Means

A commitment to community and service is not an add-on to this firm—it is part of why it exists. The law is at its best when it protects everyone, not only those who can afford to be heard.

There is a quiet kind of injustice that rarely makes the news. Someone suffers a serious, well-documented wrong—a real harm, with real consequences—but the cost of hiring a lawyer to pursue it would exceed anything they could ever hope to recover. So they are left with an impossible choice: spend money they don't have chasing accountability, or simply absorb the wrong and live with the injustice. Far too often, people are forced to live with it.

That space—where a genuine wrong goes unanswered because pursuing it isn't economical—is what I think of as the gap of justice. It is precisely where committed lawyers can make the greatest difference. When I am able, I take on matters in that gap not because they pencil out, but because the person in front of me was wronged and deserves a voice. Holding the powerful accountable and standing up for those who would otherwise go unheard are, to me, two sides of the same commitment.

I cannot take every case, and pro bono work is balanced against the focused attention my clients are owed. But leaving the community a little better than I found it is a responsibility I take seriously—and one I intend to honor throughout my career.