A Smile That You Could Not Say No To

Paul D. Bennett

"You just remember the smile." That's what J.T. said after Kathleen Sullivan (Kathy) died. And, in one form or other. That's what Torn said and David and Ban and Gregg and Andy and Peter and, well, everyone, really.

We had all been legal services lawyers with Kathy in upstate New York in the late 70s and early 80's. Before the onset of children and gray hairs and the creep of middle age spread and before clinical teaching, we all practiced la in the same cold and wet venue. On the phone, we reminisced and traded Kathy memories. Good memories. Good stories. Kathy images. I will try to share a few pre-clinician images as best I can. But J.T. nailed it best. Before and after everything else, you just remember that wonderful smile.

Or should I say "smiles"? For there were as many different Kathy smiles as there were people who received them. There was the fun smile: the reassuring smile the amused smile; the consoling smile: the smile with a touch of the devil: and the smile that said "Move a mountain? Why, of course we can."

I first met Kathy as a fresh-faced Vista lawyer - just out of law school and raring to go - when neither of us knew anything about anything. We didn't even know how little we knew. It was long before either of us ever thought we could teach anybody anything. You know that mixed look of bewilderment and anticipation that we see on the faces of new clinic students? That was our look.

Kathy was working in Elmira. New York -. Chemung County Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. - in a program I joined a year later, Kathy and Bart were the Vista lawyers. In those days, the client centered approach" for a Vista lawyer meant that you were eligible for food stamps right along side your clients. And in Kathy's case, you lived along side your clients as well. Kathy lived in Eastgate Apartments by the railroad tracks, a project of limited aesthetics and questionable management. Kathy drove a Mercury Bobcat, the alter ego of the Ford Pinto and not exactly a Beemer.

The Vista lawyers were sponsored by the Tri-County Action Council. In Elmira, the Vista lawyers worked on housing issues. They called themselves the CHU" Crew. CHU stood for the "Crack Housing Unit" - back when a "crack unit' meant something a little different than it does today. The first Vista team was Andy and Gregg; after them it was Kathy and Bart.

Andy and Gregg were good lawyers, But, as with everything she did, Kathy went at it with a special level of passion and spirit. She and Bart even wore green CHU" T-shirts. They called themselves the slum lords nemesis. And they were.

Elmira in the late 70s was a city that needed a CHU Crew. Inflation was double digit. The city was losing jobs left and Tight. Poor people were taking the hit, especially in housing. And there was Kathleen Ann Sullivan. oing to the slums, offering sonic measure ot hope. creating trust.

Now, there is no doubt that Kathy was a creative, diligent and passionate lawyer. So were they all. But there was something else that made it so that you lust couldn't say no" to Kathy. You ust eouldn t turn her down . Maybe it was that smile.

Andy says that it's because of Kathy that he is now raising his children in a nice home, At the time. Andy was about to get married. Kathy canie over to his apartment for dinner or a party or something. Kath became instantly upset and pulled him aside. She berated Andy, You can't have a wife and live in a place like this! You just can't do that. The next thing he knew. Andy was a homeowner, You just couldn t say' no" to Kathy.

Neither could Elmira City Judge Lawless, Kathy brought her style of passionate lawvering in front of Judge Lawless and soon enough, the phrase 'warranty of hahitabiiity' became something more than words in a statute. You couldn't say 'no" to Kathy.

Kathy worked in Elmira for only a short time, That was nearly twenty-five years ago. Yet everyone I talked to since her death vividly remembers a Kathy story or a Kathy fact. Gregg recalls that he and Kathy shared the same birthday - December 3rd Gregg was having a Thanksgiving style birthday dinner, Kathy asked if she could bring anything. Gregg said, How about bringing frozen squash?' Kathy showed up with hors d'oeuvres of little cubes of still frozen squash.

Tbey remembered that Kathy's favorite song was "America" by Simon and Garfunkel. "America" was about two young romantics - one of them named Kathy - at the beginning of a great adventure, It was a totally appropriate song for the romantic Kathy. They also remembered Kathy's Cavorite musician was that Western Ne York icon. Rick James. Some things are not explainable. When her Vista was up. Kathy moved on to North Country Legal Services, To this day, all the Elmirans remember the good-bye song that Andy wrote for Kathy.

You've picked a fine time to leave us Kathleen
Dave's up in Schuler and Gregg has no spleen
You've picked a fine time to leave us Kathleen
Bans got to study and Andy's work product's cruddy
You've picked a fine time to leave us, Kathleen.

At North Country Legal Services. Kathy worked out of a pair of rv's converted into mobile law offices, The offices were dubbed Chipmunk 1 and Chipmunk 2. The mobile law office was the idyllic but ill-conceived brainchild of a New York City legal services expatriate who received a grant to bring law to the hinterlands. In practice. Kathy provided most or the law. When Kathy would tell us how she rode from town to town, dispensing legal advice to the rural poor, it was like a surreal scene from the not-yet-written Northern Exposure. Kathys smile at that time was a display of bemused resignation. Yet she was always upbeat and positive whenever she described what she was doing.

Kathy eventually escaped North Country to work in Oneonta. New York. When she was in Oneonta, she got me involved in another episode of "you-can't-say-no-to-Kathy". After years of litigating whether New York State had to follow its own regulations and give a small additional AFDC benefit to pregnant women, the State finally relented,2 Sort of. The State finally gave the women their grants - and then calculated the grants as income to reduce their food stamp allocations.

At the time, I wasn't really big on federal court lawsuits. Ronald Reagan had just become President and we were struggling to meet our clients basic needs in the face of impending budget cuts. It was hard to justify the resources for federal litigation. However. Kathy talked ire into it. It'll be fun" she said. "We can all work together." By awe", Kathy meant Gregg, who shared Kathys birthday: Li. who worked for a different program in the next county: Kathy, who worked in a third program in Oneonta; and Barry, who was J.Ts and In\ former clinical teacher.

The only problem was that both J.T. and Barry are brilliant lawvers who ranked first and second (I won't say which was which) in the most-stubborn-human-being-in-the-universe rankings of 1981. I was, thankfully, not privy to all the strategy conversations between J.T. and Barry. Gregg and I were basically chickens and deferred to greater minds, but I can't tell you how many limes J.T. said to me, "If it werent for Kathy...". Although he never said so out loud. I am sure Barry thought the same thing.

That case brought out one of Kathy's amazing qualities. She could bring people together and, at the same time, bring out the best in them. Her warmth, optimism, humility, compassion and passion for justice made her that person to whom you could not say no. I recall a number of long drives to meetings - feeling every road bump in the Bobcat - where I would express mv doubts that I had ally clue about what I was doing. Kathy would invariably boost my resolve and leave me with a clearer sense of what I should do and with a little more confidence that I could do it.

That boost never really ended. Thirteen years later, when I attended my first AALS Clinical Teaching Conference knowing nobody and again not having a chic - Kathy made a special effort to include me in a dinner with her friends, She didn't have to, We had actually lost touch over that time. But that was Kathy, making yet another gesture that made a tremendous difference to me, as she had made tremendous differences in the lives of everyone she worked with.

Like all of us. I am going to miss Kathy. As I've been writing this. I've been haunted by another line from her old favorite song, America:

"'Kathy, I'm lost,' I said, though I knew she was sleeping. 'I'm empty and aching and I don't know why.'"

I think we all know why.