Podcast - Be a Role Model

Dan Small: Welcome to another episode of "The Trial Lawyer's Handbook" podcast. In this episode we will finish discussing my pro bono work in Uzbekistan, working with lawyers and judges there on rule of law and system reform. These episodes are all based on my latest ABA book, Lessons Learned from a Life on Trial.

We've talked about my first mock trial workshop in Uzbekistan, in 2013, using the mock trial case file of the murder case State v. Faulkner. Everything was new for the Uzbeks. Coming out of the old Soviet system, they essentially had the Byzantine system, where the judge does everything. They had no adversarial, two-sided trials. Trials as we know them, and everything that goes with them, were completely foreign to the Uzbeks. But there were a group of young lawyers who wanted change, and it began to happen – slowly, carefully, so as not to upset the administration. It was not a democracy, and there was legitimate concern that if they went too far too fast, bad things would happen.

Ten years after this first workshop, after observing and aiding this change through several more trips to Uzbekistan, hosting and speaking to several delegations in the U.S., and various remote presentations, I was honored to be asked to speak at an international conference in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, in anticipation of a national referendum on amendments to the Uzbek Constitution.

I had been asked to review and comment on the amendments the summer before, and since then they had passed both houses of Parliament and a review by the Constitutional Court. Now, representatives from 17 countries gathered to speak in favor of the amendments and talk about reform and the rule of law. It was an extraordinary and very moving event, knowing how far they had come and how hard people had worked to get them there.

The amendments were sweeping changes, 10 years after counsel had to wipe away tears in talking to me about the inability to effectively represent clients and the absurdity of asking questions of a government witness. The changes included:

• the presumption of innocence
• the privilege against self-incrimination
• the right to effective counsel
• the right to trial
• and yes, amazingly enough, the right of a criminal defendant to confront and question witnesses against them

It has been an extraordinary process to witness and to assist in some small way. Uzbekistan still has a long way to go, and they're working to get there. Some of the pieces of our system that seemed so alien and impossible to them at first have now become accepted – or, at least, desired. Some of those patient and courageous young reformers are now senior officials in the government and in the courts. The NGO Regional Dialogue's pioneering efforts have become so widely respected and requested that they developed a large staff on the ground in Uzbekistan and formed an advisory council to help them plan and develop future programs, which they asked me to join.

Uzbekistan still has a long way to go to turn these high goals into day-to-day reality. But what country doesn't have its struggles? I've had the privilege of watching them come so far, and whatever the many lawyers and judges I've worked with there have learned from me, I have also learned from them. With each interaction, I am reminded that what they are hoping and striving for, we as trial lawyers too often take for granted. Every trial lawyer has a responsibility to treat the system with respect and do what they can to make it better. The Uzbeks look to us as a role model, for better and for worse, for many of the things that they want to consider for their system, and for how some of those good things can be too easily abused. We need to be more aware of that fragile balance on a daily basis. Lessons learned.