The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will be holding its  50th Anniversary Gala Celebration this week, May 1-4, in New York City.

NACDL is proud to host its 2008 Spring Meeting and 50th Anniversary Gala in New York City—the world’s most exciting city! As the “city that never sleeps,” New York is an adrenaline-charged haven of unending excitement that holds immense romantic appeal for its visitors. There are a million different New York moments that are just waiting to be had, and what better a time and place to pursue them than with your friends and colleagues at NACDL’s 2008 Spring Meeting and 50th Anniversary Gala?

Chock full of metaphors, there’s still plenty of room for anybody to come and hob nob with the nabobs.  How do I know they’re nabobs?  Because, they’re putting on a CLE entitled “Warriors for the Defense: Trial Techniques from the Masters” 

The Masters!  Wow.  How much better can it get.  No kidding, there are some great lawyers in the group.  Some are masters of their own domain.  CLEs are nothing without a little hyperbole.

But there’s one thing that’s bothering me about this affair.  I’ve never quite understood what the NACDL had to do with the “local” affiliates, and there’s a bunch of them.  It doesn’t do much of anything for the affiliates, other than lend the “cache” of its name.

So why, I wondered, when the NACDL came to town did it put the touch on the local affiliates to pony up the cash to pay for its cocktail party?  When it asked the NYSACDL for money, I wondered what was in it for us.  After all, we have just lost a bundle to mismanagement, raised the members dues to pay for it and proven that enough member of the Board were incapable of the responsibility of caring for other people’s money.  So why kick in for this?

As it turns out, it wasn’t just the NYSACDL that put out.  So too did the New York Criminal Bar Association, the Jersey and Connecticut groups, and even Nassau County Criminal Bar Association. I’m sure these groups are all very impressed with being allowed the opportunity to bask in the reflected glory of the NACDL, “Liberty’s Last Champion.”  I can’t help but wonder how the  New York Council of Defense Lawyers and New York State Defenders Association manage to survive without being an NACDL affiliate.

The answer finally came to me today.  It seems that the members of the association, the ones whose money was gifted to pay for the NACDL cocktail party, are given the great opportunity to pay $50 to go to the cocktail party their money paid for.  On the other hand, the Board of Directors, the ones who approved the gift of the members money, get to go for free.  It’s all become very clear to me. 

I realize that I may be nitpicking these days, but it has all gotten terribly tedious to watch one small group of people happily squander the money entrusted to them by other people without their knowledge.  On the other hand, I truly don’t know that the people whose money is being spent on parties to which they’re not invited really care.  And if they don’t, then what difference does it make that their money is being spent and they derive no benefit from it whatsoever.  You get what you deserve.