Here’s to the Lay Person: Providing a Public Perspective for Lawyers by Deirdre Norman Only a select few professions refer to those outside the profession as lay people: doctors, the clergy and the law. In this usage, a lay person is someone who has not become socialized into the group in question by sharing the same training and viewpoints, and as such they provide a neces-sary counterpoint to the cohesive perspectives within the profession. Though he is a member of the Methodist clergy, when it comes to the law, the Rev. Dr. Theodore “Ted” Smith is one such counter-point — the sole lay person on the Clients’ Protection Fund board who, as a nonlaw-yer, assists the board in understanding and empathizing with people who have suffered a financial loss due to a lawyer’s malfeasance. For over a decade Smith has been giving the lawyers of the Virginia State Bar a lay person’s perspective on the law. His first interaction with the Bar came when the Honorable Rossie D. Alston Jr., now of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, asked him to be on a disciplinary committee in Alexandria. Laughs Smith, “Rossi actually approached me and said, ‘The Virginia State Bar is an organization of lawyers and a few nonlawyers, and we need someone who’s ignorant of the law. You’re perfect.’” Ted Smith The fund benefits the average lawyer from a perspective of trust and credibility with the public... Lawyers want the public to believe that they’re trustworthy, that they’re capable, that they’re professional. Smith was willing, and he began first with a disciplinary district committee, and then transitioned onto the Standing Committee on Lawyer Discipline. From there, he moved onto the Disciplinary Board and then later began his current service to the Clients’ Protection Fund Board. In all of these roles, he has served purely as a volunteer: Someone willing to help Virginia’s lawyers with the process of self-regulation. According to Smith, the lawyers of the Virginia State Bar have worked tirelessly to include nonlawyers in the process of self-reg-ulation. “In my experience with all of my Virginia State Bar committee service, there really is a respect of lay people who are volunteering,” Smith said. “Very often when questions arise about a lay person’s perspective, a public per-spective, or what the average citizen who has no connection to the law or to the legal field thinks, I have encountered a great respect and an intentional effort to hear the lay perspec-tive.” Smith said that going from the disci-plinary process to the Clients’ Protection Fund Board was a natural move because, “much of what we see as a part of the Clients’ Protection Fund is a direct result of action from the disciplinary process.” According to Smith, the Clients’ Protection Fund doesn’t involve itself in the disciplinary process, but rather steps in to 18 VIRGINIA LAWYER | AUGUST 2020 | VOL. 69 | CLIENTS’ PROTECTION FUND www.vsb.org
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Here’s To The Lay Person: Providing A Public Perspective For Lawyers
Deirdre Norman
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