GA: justice, one person at a time

'Holistic' attorneys preach a defense that goes far beyond court

In a converted Corvair shop in a rundown part of downtown Atlanta, a group of lawyers and social workers tinker with the way the justice system treats indigent defendants.

The Georgia Justice Project's guiding principle is something more likely heard at a day spa than a nonprofit legal center: Treat each client with a holistic approach.

I hired a woman back in Twin to be my office defense investigator, and she took this concept and ran with it, expanding the job description from that of a general forensic investigator to include duties such as targeted services coordinator, substance abuse treatment booking agent and social worker without portfolio. Every office should have its own investigator. Every office should be so lucky to have a Jill of all trades like Gwen.

As for the article, where I was expecting a client-centered approach, the reporter takes an odd sort of a Boomer turn, and focuses more on the psychosocial benefits of this approach to the attorneys:

For disillusioned attorneys burnt out on corporate life or looking for a higher calling, the project is often a way station of sorts. Some stop over only briefly while figuring out their next move, though a few... make careers out of it.

For desperate defendants, it's a last stop, a furtive attempt to break the "destructive cycle" of crime and poverty...

Oh well, by any means necessary, I suppose. I may be more comfortable with terms like "client-centered" than with the word "holistic," which sounds a bit too much like drumming circles for me, but working out of their converted garage, the good people at Georgia Justice Project don't sound too frou-frou! They sound idealistic, and they seem to be doing some good street-level life-saving work, for clients and incidentally for a few wounded lawyers too.

And their website has an excellent intro paragraph:

We are the Georgia Justice Project. We are an unlikely mix of lawyers, social workers, and a landscaping company. We defend people accused of crimes and, win or lose, we stand with our clients as they rebuild their lives.

Pay them a visit.