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Jerry Smith
Retired judge, legislator helps former Soviet Bloc countries establish new judicial systems
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While former legislator Jerry Smith was making his mark in California, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in 1989, and the Soviet Union along with it. New Eastern Bloc countries were desperate for legal structures and law reform. The president of the American Bar Association saw that American legal knowhow could be a major help to these emerging democracies. He and the ABA conceived a kind of legal peace corps--the Central and Eastern European Legal Initiative program (CEELI). Through CEELI, American lawyers volunteered (expenses paid only) to help these countries write constitutions and set up law codes, law libraries, bar associations, law school accreditation, continuing legal education, and canons of ethics for judges and lawyers. In what he calls "an impulsive act of professional idealism," Smith volunteered in 1996 for CEELI as a short-term specialist.
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Around Town
LG Museum of Fine Art
Bay area artists open provocative double exhibit of 'memory boxes,' abstract acrylics.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
