Interview with Bob Sable, Greater Boston Legal Services's Retiring Exec. Director
By: Steve Grumm
The Boston Globe has a nice exit interview of sorts with Bob Sable, the executive director of Greater Boston Legal Services, who’s retiring after decades of service, helping those on society’s margins find meaningful access to justice. Some notable, and candid, quotes:
Q. What inspired you to go into legal aid?
A. This was the time of the War on Poverty, and what inspired me was the notion that lawyers could do for the poor what they had always done for the well-to-do. The guiding light of my career has been to use the law and legal tools to help people get out of poverty.
Q. What progress have you seen over 20 years, or has there been regression?
A. That’s a very tough question. The notion that government could deal arbitrarily with poor people was in retreat, but now we’ve seen a lot of setbacks. If you look at the ultimate question — Is the poverty rate lower now than it was? — the changes have been very marginal.
…
Q. You obviously don’t get rich at a job like this.
A. Our starting salaries are in the mid-40s, and associates in big law firms are earning $160,000. So there’s a huge gap. And on top of that the student loan burden is so great. I have a lot of admiration for young lawyers who are sticking with it.
