[blindlaw] Conducting Depositions

[Elizabeth Rene]

Dear colleagues,
I want to complement Scott and Luis on their excellent posts.
I have tried and argued cases at every level of my state's courts and have presided at administrative hearings and settlement conferences. Currently, I chair my state bar association's Character and Fitness Board, where I preside at hearings to determine whether certain applicants for admission to the bar should be recommended to the Supreme Court and submit and oversee the drafting of our Board's written findings and conclusions. These hearings involve evidentiary records and transcripts amounting to thousands of pages. The proceedings themselves can be complex and intense. The observations and suggestions made by Scott and Luis are right on point. The only thing I would possibly add to them is to encourage blind lawyers to participate actively in their state and local bar associations and to not shrink from the possibility of serving as a judge or judicial officer. Nothing should prevent us now from serving as law clerks in the appellate courts, from serving as court commissioners, referees, arbitrators, or mediators, from serving on rules committees, disciplinary boards, or task forces formed to improve access to justice, or from seeking elective or appointive seats on the trial and appellate bench. I think we need to claim these opportunities and to encourage one another to do so. Having faced our own struggles as blind people, we have a first-hand understanding of the impact and dynamics of implicit and explicit bias and can make significant contributions in these troubled times toward securing justice for everyone.
Sincerely,

Elizabeth M René 
Attorney at Law 
WSBA #10710 
KCBA #21824
rene0373 at gmail.com