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Thomas R. Meites remembers the tumultuous events of the 1960s that took him from the classroom to the courtroom. The civil rights march in Selma, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to African Americans and the March on Washington both had profound effects on Mr. Meites, who was then finishing up his undergraduate studies at Harvard.
For Mr. Meites it was the beginning of a career spent striving to enforce the newly created Civil Rights Act of 1964 and to ensure that all Americans have access to the justice system. Mr. Meites went on to receive his law degree at Harvard and took a public interest job for a year before opening a small law office in Chicago, where "the second case that walked into my office was a race discrimination class action involving an auto parts warehouse in Broadview, Illinois." Despite his lack of experience with complex litigation, Mr. Meites successfully proved the company had a discriminatory promotions policy and won damages for his clients. He also defended his victory on appeal before the Illinois Seventh Circuit. Suddenly, many Chicagoans who had suffered from employment bias were seeking out Mr. Meites for representation. "I was off and running," Mr. Meites recalls.
Now, more than three decades later, Mr. Meites continues to advocate for vulnerable clients. He is a founding partner of Meites, Mulder, Burger & Mollica, which has established a reputation of taking on big corporations. Mr. Meites has twice served on the Board of the LSC-funded Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago and also is a past Chairman of the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice-a research and advocacy group dedicated to social justice and government reform.
"We live in a society where relationships are resolved through litigation," Mr. Meites says. "Poor people have the same [legal] needs because they operate in the same society as people who are not poor. Legal needs of people at the lower end of the wage scale usually aren't that complex. It is not like a massive takeover battle in corporate America where you need 500 lawyers on each side. Often, it is just one lawyer, one phone call."
Mr. Meites sees his LSC tenure as an opportunity to help more Americans find an advocate to make that call. For an attorney who still vividly remembers the demonstrations that took place in his youth, the call for justice still resonates. "I can't imagine the U.S. functioning without legal assistance; I wouldn't want to picture what it would be like," he says. "[Serving on the LSC Board] is a very exciting experience. The public is watching."
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