Democracy and the Rule of Law Part 6: Lawyers Defending American Democracy

It’s been almost four years since the last Presidential election and the battle for the future of our democracy is still raging. Much of it is in the spotlight, through national news media, popular podcasts, books, and social media. Large organizations, like the American Bar Association, have devoted a great deal of time and effort in recent years promoting democracy and the rule of law. Much work also is happening through individuals and groups you may never have heard of who are diligently defending democracy and the rule of law in discreet yet meaningful ways. The important work of those organizations, some of which we’ve featured on this podcast, provides an inspiring source of hope for those concerned about our nation’s future. 

One such group, based in my home state, is Lawyers Defending American Democracy. Co-founded and chaired by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and led by Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, or LDAD, states as its mission “to galvanize lawyers to defend the rule of law in the face of an unprecedented threat to American democracy.” Because defending democracy is the responsibility of all Americans and not just one party, LDAD’s website confirms that its work is not political or partisan. 

In June 2023, I had the privilege of interviewing Lauren Rikleen about a number of topics, including the work of LDAD. The following is an excerpt from our conversation. As with other episodes in our Democracy and Rule of Law series, the complete episode of my interview with Lauren can be found on the Higher Callings podcast website and on leading podcast platforms.

Transcript

Don: Well, I mentioned at the beginning, Lauren, that you are Executive Director of Lawyers Defending American Democracy, which I've been learning about more as I've been talking to you and reading the website. There's a lot of good information there. Did you just come out with a new annual report? Or it's not an annual report. A report of your first four years of the organization? 

Lauren: Exactly. Yes, we did. We issued that in December. Thank you. We wanted to pull together the threads of everything that we had been doing since our founding.

Don: And like so much of the work you've done, this is work of a nonprofit organization, but dedicated or with a mission of lawyers finding ways to, where somebody detects an attack or something that would be detrimental to American democracy, pursuing a legal process or public relations or whatever the right approach is to try to push back on that.

Can you talk about that? I know you can describe the mission much better than I just did. 

Lauren: Oh, sure. Thank you. This is very much a project of the heart. 

I had been approached in August of 2020 about joining the board, the leadership team of Lawyers Defending American Democracy, LDAD, by Scott Harshbarger, who those of us from Massachusetts listening would know is a former two-time Attorney General. Very highly respected and beloved in his role. And I was very excited for that opportunity because it came at a time when I was growing, as many of us were, increasingly horrified about what was happening to democracy and the Rule of Law in our country in that period of time. And happy to have the opportunity to somehow try to make a difference in whatever little way that we could. 

And what LDAD was really conceived of and what it's been trying to do is to help galvanize the legal profession to understand that protecting democracy and the rule of law is not a partisan or political activity. It is in fact at the heart of what we as lawyers took an oath to do when we raised our own hands to protect the Constitution. And we all who are involved in LDAD do feel that the profession as a whole, there have been many wonderful lawyers doing a lot of work, but as a whole, in terms of our legal institutions -- and that means bar associations as a whole, law firms, legal academia -- it has been too quiet. The voices need to be stronger. 

And I think for all of us, we had hoped that with the election in 2020, would be an end to worrying about these kinds of things. But as we are seeing through attacks in the states on democracy, and laws that have been passed that are quite draconian in terms of how it impacts the Rule of Law, as well as a complete lack of boundaries between the judiciary and the executive and legislative functions, we had hoped that things would change, but that isn't the case. Things are getting worse. 

So about a year after I became involved on the board, I was asked if I would assume the executive director role because we were realizing that this was not going to be an end point, but unfortunately, a continuation of trying to do what we could to help galvanize our profession. 

Don: So what are some of the activities that you and other members of the organization have undertaken over the last four years?

Lauren: We have been involved in a number of different projects. So one area is the development of ethics complaints against, particularly against lawyers who were very active participants in the Big Lie, who were presenting untruthful statements, falsehoods, in open court and otherwise really undermining the rule of law through what was happening following the 2020 election.

So people like John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, there's a number of those actors that we have filed detailed complaints against. And we are all lawyers in this organization. So what we do is very meticulously researched and very carefully done. And we always make sure we are proud of the quality of the work product that we produce at the end of it.

Don: And these are complaints that are filed with the disciplinary authorities in the jurisdictions where they have their bar admissions? 

Lauren: Exactly. Yes. Wherever it is that they primarily practice. In some cases it's been in multiple jurisdictions. But yes, that has been a very big part of the impact that we have had and work that we have done. 

We do a lot of other special kinds of projects. So more recently we coordinated with another nonprofit organization to create a Supreme Court code of ethics, on the theory that we know there should be a Supreme Court code of ethics, we hear a lot of conversation around that. But we had this idea of, well, what should that look like? Because it needs to be somewhat different than the same code of ethics that the [lower] federal courts are under. I don't think that the answer is just take the federal code and apply it to the Justices because of the unique role that they have, and also because of some of the issues that have come to light. It needed updating. It needed rethinking. So we were involved with our partners on that. And that is something that is available for anybody to take a look at on the, LDAD website, LDAD.org. 

We do a lot of writing, a lot of opinion pieces, a lot of statements that we issue to our very large email list. We do calls to action where we have asked lawyers to sign on to particular statements where we are addressing violations of the Rule of Law and other legal principles that needed to be addressed.

So it's a whole variety of things. And we are always thinking about what kind of project can we do that would help to make a difference, that would help to bring a fresh perspective to this conversation, and that would help get lawyers energized. I spend a lot of time working with other bar associations, trying to work with other bar associations, and energize them around these issues and trying to make them feel comfortable with the fact that we are again talking about nonpartisan, non-political issues. And it's something that we all ought to be addressing in a very active way. 

Don: How many lawyers are involved in this work? In writing or doing research, somehow helping the work along? 

Lauren: Well, LDAD is a very tiny organization. We have our board, which is all very active, and then we are trying to recruit volunteers to work with us. But overall, I think of us as tiny but mighty. We do a lot for how very little we are in terms of the numbers of people that we have and how absolutely limited our resources are.

Don: But a lot of the work that's being done is being done by volunteers, right? 

Lauren: Well, even our board members are volunteers. And our board members are extremely active, and we have been recruiting others who are not necessarily on the board, but are people we know to be brilliant lawyers who care deeply about these issues, who we try to bring into the fold to help us.

Don: Okay. And can you measure at all the impact that the organization has had so far? 

Lauren: That's an interesting question and I think about that all the time, but I'm not sure one can. I look around and I spend in my role a lot of time trying to reach out to others in the democracy field, making sure we are having partnerships where we can, and joining together on projects where we can, or thinking together about what needs to be done.

And I've come to the conclusion that the way we will measure progress is by our collective voice as a community of activists out there in this country who are spending every day trying to figure out how to protect democracy and the Rule of Law in whatever way possible. And I guess time will be the answer to what our impact will be. Time will be, have we maintained a democracy? Do we have leaders that respect the principles of our Constitution? 

Don: Let me ask this in a slightly different way. Have you had successes in some of your efforts? In other words, if you filed an ethics complaint against a lawyer who was a threat to democracy through their conduct, have you succeeded in some of those proceedings? 

Lauren: For many of the complaints that we have filed, the jurisdiction has opened an investigation and moved it forward. Now, nobody would ever say, "Oh, LDAD, it's your complaint that made the difference for us. But we also know the quality of our work and discussions that have been had, and feel pretty confident that what we do is taken pretty seriously. And we are seeing, we're just thrilled to see that process move forward and more attention being paid to the ethical obligations that lawyers have to do the right thing in their role. 

Don: And you have an impressive board. I think I recall you have some retired judges and some very accomplished lawyers on your board. So it is a group that I think should be taken seriously, and it's not a surprise that it is taken seriously. And you're adding an important voice, I think, to the pro-democracy conversation that the nation needs to have and continue having. 

Lauren: Yeah. Thank you. I do appreciate that. 

Yes. The board itself, it consists of people who have had enormous success in their careers and could very well be spending their time right now enjoying a lot more leisure kinds of activities than writing complaints to ethics authorities or calls to action. We also have done amicus briefs in several cases. But these are people who are channeling that prior success into the work that they are doing now. But I do feel very proud when people talk about our board and the backgrounds of the people who are on it because every one of them really has an extraordinary background. 

Don: Where can people go to find more about Lawyers Defending American Democracy? 

Lauren: Definitely our website, which is LDAD.org. Very easy. Lawyers Defending American Democracy. LDAD.org. And they can donate. Donations are always definitely needed. There's a way to reach out to us. People can reach out to me directly. We welcome inquiries and interests.