Page 8 - Lawyers Who Lead by Example

LAWYERS WHO LEAD BY EXAMPLE

LIFETIME

ACHIEVEMENT
It was Attica prisoners who asked to meet with him post-riot. ‘You could feel

the anger and frustration,’ he said, adding that the best part of his job is to

continue to address the criminal justice issues he has worked on for 60 years.

By Phil Albinus
Dunne was willing to be a bridge builder,
he said. “It’s a little hard to reconstruct
JOHN
the events of that time other than it was
an annealing process for everyone JOHN DUNNE, 84
involved.”
Senior Counsel,
“It’s always a pleasure to talk about Whiteman, Osterman
John,” Whitman said. “He brings optimism,
DUNNE
energy and good humor to work each day. & Hanna

He also brings a million acquaintances and
friends and a breadth of experience where Other experience:
other lawyers can sit and talk with him on Assistant Attorney General

all kinds of issues. Having him on your team for Civil Rights,
brings gravitas to the effort.”
U.S. Department of Justice
Dunne graduated from Yale Law School
New York State Senate
IT’S COMMON FOR AN ATTORNEY to visit a in 1954 and served in the New York State Former partner, Rivkin,
client in prison. It’s far less common for an Senate from 1966 to 1989. In the early 1990s, Radler, Dunne & Bayh
attorney to walk into a maximum-security he was the assistant attorney general for

lockup after a bloody riot that left armed civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, Appointments/Activities:
prisoners in control and dozens of guards arguing cases in federal appeals courts and
and civilian employees held hostage.
before the U.S. Supreme Court. For his work, New York State Bar
Association, past member
But that’s what John Dunne did
he received the Edmund Randolph and
along with New York Times reporter Tom the John Marshal awards for distinguished House of Delegates;
Wicker and Assemblyman Arthur Eve
service.
chairman, Legislative
Policy Committee,
during the 1971 siege at Attica Correc-
He is also willing to evolve his thinking.
tional Facility. It was one of the most As an original sponsor of the Rockefeller Committee on Judicial
divisive and searing events of the post-1960s drug laws in 1973, Dunne later argued for Independence
decade and Dunne, then a state senator, changes to the strict New York sentences.
Fellows of the New York Bar
played a key role in those heady events.
He also sponsored the New York law that Foundation, chairman
He listened to prisoners’ demands for protects the conidentiality of HIV/AIDS test
better living conditions and more political results.
Nassau County Bar
Association, past president
rights. And though his recommendations to Whiteman said he is impressed with Trustee: he College of
then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller Dunne’s conduct inside their law ofice.
were ultimately ignored, Dunne’s skills as a “John does something that nobody else in Insurance, he College
of Saint Rose, Albany
level-headed and sensitive negotiator worked this irm does: Virtually every day, when he
for him that day.
gets to the ofice, he walks around and greets Institute of History & Art,
“Oh, you could feel the electricity
everyone in the morning. Me, I come in and WAMC Northeast Public

and the frustration and the anger among
hide in my ofice.”
Radio, Columbia County
the prisoners. And that was it,” Dunne Dunne said the best part of his job is that Historical Society
recounted in “Justice in New York: An Oral he can continue to follow areas of criminal Director: Everest Group,

History,” sponsored by John Jay College
justice “to which I have devoted the last 60 Ltd.; Prisoners’ Legal
of Criminal Justice. “But I was kind of a go- years of my career.”
Services of New York;
between. The Observer’s Committee was
When asked what keeps him going,
Committee for Modern
in one room, and because I was an elected Dunne said, “The enormity of the uninished Courts (vice chairman)
oficial, a Republican, I had access to the war- agenda of bringing a better degree of fairness
den’s ofice where Bob Douglas [Rockefeller’s to the justice system. I’m not a philosopher
Education:
representative] and the others from Albany but I get up every morning, listen to my call, LL.B., Yale Law School, 1954
were meeting.”
and try to respond.”
Dunne, 84, who is senior counsel at White- Dunne says he has seen improvements A.B., Georgetown University,
1951
man Osterman & Hanna, said the events of particularly in the public’s awareness
those days are seared in his memory. “It was of the need to improve the system.
a once in a lifetime opportunity. The prison- “My only concern is that the public

ers asked me to come in.”
awareness has not been communicated
According to Michael Whiteman, co- to the policy makers and legislators
founder of Whiteman Osterman, his colleague who can do something needed in

felt strongly that bridges needed to be built.
response.” ■

6
October 2014
Photo by Tim Roske