Goldmark Award 2005 - William H. Gates Sr.

William H. Gates, Sr. Comments for Goldmark Lunch

honoring Ada Shen-Jaffe - February 18, 2005

Good afternoon, I’m Bill Gates, and I am pleased to be with you today to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Legal Foundation of Washington, and to honor this year’s recipient of the Goldmark Award for Distinguished Service.

I wanted to participate in this important day, because in addition to Ada’s countless achievements that have helped make Washington a national model for coordinated civil legal aid, Ada Shen-Jaffe has made an enormous difference to me personally over the years in the way I’ve become involved in, and the importance I have attached to, our state’s access to justice efforts.

In 1991, the Washington State Bar Association created a task force to provide guidance to the WSBA on the issues that were most vital to the effectiveness and future of the Bar.

Ada Shen-Jaffe’s presentation to our task force helped us place access to justice at the very top of our list of priorities and helped us articulate our recommendations that civil legal aid is essential to justice; it is critical to ensuring that poverty does not bar justice and that all people are provided the necessary help to enjoy the legal protections intended for them under the law.

There is no more important public service for a state Bar association than carrying out the long-standing commitment of lawyers to ensure access to justice. From the earliest days it has been a basic tenet of our profession that our legal system should be available to every person regardless of ability to pay.

I would suggest that a government based on equal justice under law is a hoax—if large segments of its citizens are denied access to the system. Our commitment to access to justice for all, is part of what distinguishes us as a profession.

Ada Shen-Jaffe personifies this commitment. Ada has worked for that goal with every ounce of her considerable energy throughout her career. Her determination, dedication and clarity of purpose encouraged my own participation in helping establish LAW Fund in the early 1990s. LAW Fund is but one of the many legacies of Ada’s vision and leadership.

LAW Fund has now joined forces with the Legal Foundation of Washington and in 2005 will launch the first state-wide collaborative fundraising effort for our state’s legal aid system called the Campaign for Equal Justice. So, please be sure to look at the LAW Fund brochure that is among the materials at your table, if you have not already done so.

Ada is receiving the Goldmark Award for Distinguished Service for her extraordinary work in the civil legal aid arena, and more notably, for her dedication and contributions to making real a society where there is justice for all.

Ada, we are deeply indebted to you for the incredible gift to us of your time, your energy and your unrelenting leadership of this cause.

I would like to invite you and John McKay to come forward for the award presentation.