President-elect of the American Bar Association, Attorney Stephen N. Zack, a partner in the national, Miami based firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, discusses his new role  and the ABA’s new agenda .  Zack is a founding member of  the Cuban American Bar Association and represented Vice President Al Gore in the infamous Vice President Gore vs. Bush Trial, and  the first Hispanic-American to serve as president of the ABA.  Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams  interview on the Legal Talk Network show, Lawyer to Lawyer,

Growing up, Zack witnessed his family’s  struggle with the loss of their liberties and it is their fight to keep them that inspired him to be a lawyer.  His primary goals as president will be to renew the importance of  a prominent civics education and  focus on inspiring a new generation of lawyers.

An exert from the Bill of Rights was read on the on street, and people were asked what the origins of the document was, 50% of them , actually thought it was a Communist Doctrine.

There are some disturbing gaps in the civic knowledge young people have, and Zach stresses how the ABA is going to impact the  importance of civic education currently lacking in our schools.

3-out-of- 4 high school students believe that the 3 Branches of U.S. Government govt are democratic, republican and independent.
(In case you’re not sure… they are Executive, Judicial and Legislative)

Pretty sad, but unfortunately, not surprising.

A result of No Child Left Behind, where Civics is an elective, there is an entire generation of Americans who are civicaly ignorant.

There are 400,00 members of the ABA, the largest voluntary assoc in the world...“Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor has been working closely with this issue and emphasized that civic knowledge of — not something that’s “transferred in the gene pool”,

There’s an impressive program in conceptual stages at the  ABA called the  American Bar Academy, with a faculty consisting of the organizations 400,000 bar members.  Conceptually, they’re going to go into every high school  and provide a curriculum that teaches Civics.  They’ll be working with 11th graders (50% women & minorities),  in turn they’ll be taking that knowledge back to classrooms.

The program will also request that American Bar Academy Certificate holders be allowed Certificate holder will be allowed to work for an one of the ABA member firms of their 400,000 members for a day,  allowing them to see how important the law in this country is about is to them and their families.

Listen to this invigorating interview on the  Legal Talk Network
[audio:abapres.mp3]

Other articles you may be interested in:

Obama Calls For Sweeping Change In Education Law – NY Times

Tags: ABA, Bob Ambrogi, Kara Smith, Karasma Media, Stephen Zack