BP PLC said Monday that it has made an initial deposit of $3 billion into a $20 billion spill-recovery fund.

BP said it was making the deposit earlier than the originally scheduled Sept. 30 deadline to show its commitment to restoring the livelihoods of people affected by the worst offshore oil spill in history. The company said it would make an additional $2 billion deposit in the fourth quarter.

In June, BP agreed to set up the fund following a meeting between company Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and then-Chief Executive Tony Hayward with U.S. President Barack Obama and senior administration officials.

BP said the account would be administered by a newly established trust overseen by former U.S. District Judge John Martin and by Kent Syverud, dean of the Washington University School of Law. Citigroup Inc. will serve as corporate trustee.

"We are pleased that BP made an initial contribution and has taken an important step toward honoring its commitment to the President and the residents and business owners in the Gulf region," Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli said in a statement. "We have made clear that the company still needs to ensure that the necessary funds will be available if something happens to the subsidiary that established the trust and we look forward to completion of an appropriate security arrangement in the near future."

Lawyers who represent children in dependency proceedings say it’s time for these children – regardless of which state they live – to have a right to legal counsel.

Meeting yesterday at the 2010 American Bar Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, a panel of children’s rights advocates discussed eliminating the barriers that prevent lawyers from representing these children in life-impacting legal proceedings.  

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services there are more than half a million children in foster care and under the jurisdiction of family courts.  These are children who have been, for example, removed from their homes, placed in temporary shelters and possibly separated from siblings.

When it comes down to who is looking out for the rights and interests of the children in the courtroom – a lawyer, a guardian ad litem or an attorney ad litem -- there is no clear-cut, uniform answer.

“Every state has a different model,” says Hilarie Bass, a Miami commercial litigator who does pro bono work representing foster kids.

She points out the obvious — that there are too many children who need help, without enough money in the system to serve them.  Despite those hurdles, Bass, who is also incoming chair of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, says she expects the section to make a recommendation on the right to counsel for children that should come up for debate before the ABA’s policymaking body in 2011.

“It would be a recommendation to provide for counsel and representation of children in delinquency and dependency proceedings,” says Bass. 

ABA President Carolyn Lamm says the ABA is an association interested in promoting the best interest of children and finding solutions “before we have a crisis situation.”

Lamm adds, “These citizens are the most vulnerable of course, in terms of no one to defend their legal rights.  The ABA does so much work in the public interest.  This is a segment of the public that needs us and we are strong and forceful advocates for children and the rights of children to be represented."  

So far, the U.S. Supreme Court has not spoken on the issue of whether children have a constitutional right to counsel in dependency proceedings.

Georgia attorney Trenny Stovall directs the DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center and represents children in dependency proceedings every day.  She says children who don’t have their own lawyer do not have a voice.

“When children don’t have a lawyer, their ability to be considered a living being with rights is vastly diminished.  Without representation, they become a widget in the eyes of the court,” says Stovall.

Children like 16-year-old Trevor Wade — who has been through the dependency court system — will tell you that having a lawyer makes a difference.  He says his lawyer fought against a system that would have placed him back with an abusive father.  These days he’s an intern in a public defender’s office, helping kids who are going through the court system.

Wade hopes to go to law school and is zealous in his advocacy on this issue.

He says that when states and courts make decisions not to provide lawyers for children, the question that needs to be asked is, “What is the price of a child’s success?”

Zack -- who will make his announcement during a speech to the association’s House of Delegates -- says it is important to include lawyers from all political persuasions and areas of the legal profession to examine the issue of access to justice.

“Our system of government was created with the basic belief that the doors to our courts would always be open to all citizens.  Equal justice under law is the birthright of Americans.  It is a promise enshrined in our Constitution and written over the entrance of our Supreme Court.  We need to make good on this promise,” says Zack.

Zack will outline his core presidential initiatives during his speech, as well as announce additional blue-ribbon participants for the ABA entities that will focus on the following topics: 

▪ access to justice and the underfunding of the judiciary;

▪ the need for increased civic education in our schools and society;

▪ Hispanic legal rights; and

▪ the ABA’s work in the area of disaster response and preparedness.

Zack’s official investiture as president begins at the close of the ABA Annual Meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 10.  He is a partner in the national law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, and will be the first Hispanic president of the ABA in its more than 130-year history.

Additional information about Zack’s initiatives

The Task Force on the Preservation of the Justice System will be composed of talented and distinguished attorneys and judges from across the country.  Zack will call on them to highlight the fiscal crisis that has resulted in budget slashes to courts nationwide.  In particular, Zack will call attention to the devastating result of underfunded courts:  a decline in access to justice.

The Commission on Civic Education in the Nation’s Schools will draw on the combined talents of attorneys, judges, educators and organizational leaders.  Their role will be to promote civic education as a national educational priority, highlight and enhance existing civic education efforts and create opportunities for innovative civic education programs throughout the United States.

The Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights will identify important legal issues that represent barriers to full participation by, and daily contributions from, Hispanics living in the United States.  The work of the commission and its advisory committee will help focus and foster an environment that welcomes and recognizes the contributions of Hispanics in our society and ensures their human rights. 

The ABA Special Committee on Disaster Response and Preparedness will be charged with conducting “tabletop” exercises to assess the association’s readiness for a natural or manmade disaster, and will develop a comprehensive crisis plan.  In particular, Zack would like the committee to address how uncertainty can and might affect our way of life, our Constitutional guarantees and our system of justice, and to develop responsive measures that will help safeguard the future.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.