This has been no ordinary week. As we all absorb and seek ways to meaningfully respond to the tragic events in Minnesota, and occurring across the nation and here in San Diego County, I am compelled to express my personal shock and sadness. Racism and xenophobia continue to perpetuate the vastly unjust treatment and disrespect of people of color in our country. This directly goes against the SDCBA’s core values of Community and Inclusion, which are close to my heart. As a society, we not only can do better. We must be better.
As a major voice for the legal community in San Diego, the SDCBA has a process for requesting, considering, and publishing public position statements on issues like the ones we all are now confronting. Our Public Positions Advisory Committee already is evaluating how to respond to the events of the past week. Please stay tuned for further comment.
On March 27, 2020, the SDCBA issued a public position statement denouncing the use of racist, xenophobic terms to describe COVID-19 which you can read here. We have amplified this position by sending a letter to the San Diego City Council advocating the Council’s adoption tomorrow of R-2020-557, Council President Georgette Gómez’s resolution that denounces racism and xenophobia directed to Asian Pacific Islander communities in San Diego, and calls for steps to become a more inclusive City. You can read the SDCBA’s letter supporting this resolution here. If you would like to submit public comment on the City Council’s resolution or review items docketed for tomorrow’s Council meeting, you can read more about that here.
Also toward the SDCBA’s efforts to enhance collaboration in our legal community, last Friday, we virtually hosted our semi-annual Community Building Luncheon, with leadership from more than 25 law-related organizations representing ethnic, minority, geographic, and specialty legal organizations throughout the County. As always, hearing the creative ideas and collaborative spirit of San Diego’s legal leaders resulted in an illuminating discussion. The group shared ideas for adapting to the “new normal” wrought by COVID-19, ways to enhance services to our members, the legal community, law students and new lawyers entering the profession, and our clients, and ideas for continuing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable members in our community to ensure access to justice for all. We look forward to continuing this dialogue with legal organizations throughout the community for collaboration and mutual support.
At the same time, our San Diego Superior Court is tackling the challenge of the huge backlog of canceled and rescheduled hearings resulting from the court closures due to COVID-19. I am heartened by the efforts of the newly-formed RESOLVE Law San Diego, the largest pro bono project in San Diego history, and the first of its kind in California. RESOLVE offers litigants the opportunity to connect with a retired judge or qualified local attorney that will agree to hear matters free of charge. This program will last for 120 days and is designed to streamline the law and motion and mediation process so cases can move forward while the courts work to gradually restore services and eventually reopen. If you and your clients would like to learn more about how to find a neutral to help resolve your case or law and motion matters, which will help provide timely access to civil justice, please visit the RESOLVE Law San Diego website for more information.
We look forward to the day when we all can reconvene in person. We hope that time will come soon, but we recognize that it is not advisable from a public health perspective to reopen our downtown Bar Center at this time. The Bar Center and offices will remain closed through June, with our staff continuing to serve you remotely, and we will continue to closely monitor and evaluate the situation. Please see our latest update from Friday, May 29, for more details.
Johanna Schiavoni
2020 SDCBA President