Indiana Bar Foundation celebrates anniversary by awarding grants

At its 65th anniversary celebration dinner Nov. 6, the Indiana Bar Foundation announced more than $1 million in grants to legal aid and pro bono districts, marking the first time the statewide nonprofit had been able to award such a large amount since the economic recession.

The Friday evening event was held at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis and featured a keynote address by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward. An estimated 225 attorneys from around the state attended.

The foundation used the dinner to announce the recipients of the Bank of America settlement monies. Indiana received $584,646 from the national agreement reached between the financial institution and the U.S. Department of Justice.

The money is targeted for foreclosure assistance and community redevelopment.

In reviewing applications from seven nonprofits, the foundation’s committee, chaired by Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Melissa May, decided to provide some funding to all rather than fully funding only a few.

“We wanted to reach as many people as possible,” said Charles Dunlap, executive director of the foundation. “It seemed appropriate to give everybody something.”

The organizations receiving awards and the amounts are as follows:
•    Indiana Legal Services – $275,000
•    Indianapolis Legal Aid Society and Indiana Landmarks – $229,646
•    Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic – $25,000
•    Whitewater Valley Pro Bono – $20,000
•    Indiana Pro Bono District D – $15,000
•    Indiana Pro Bono District E – $15,000
•    Indiana Pro Bono District H – $5,000

Coupled with the $800,000 annual grant going to the 12 pro bono districts from the Interest on Lawyers Trust Account program, the foundation is awarding $1.4 million for civil legal assistance. This is the first time in six years the foundation has given out more than $1 million to legal aid and pro bono organizations.  

The highlight of the evening was Woodward, who with his reporting colleague Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. He spoke for an hour, answering questions and recounting stories about the politicians he has met and interviewed during his career at the Washington Post.

His most compelling anecdotes were about Watergate.

Woodward described his initial meeting with Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide who disclosed the secret taping system the president used in the White House. The Butterfield interviews and the treasure trove of previously unknown and historically significant documents he took from the administration is the basis for Woodward’s latest book, “The Last of the President’s Men.”

In particular, Woodward talked about a 1972 memo that included a handwritten note from Nixon to then-national security advisor Henry Kissinger. The president wrote the 2.9 million tons of bombs dropped on Southeast Asia had achieved “zilch.”

Further research of other documents and transcripts from the tape recordings reveal Nixon decided to sustain the bombing campaign because it was popular with  a majority of the voters and seen as key to helping him win reelection.       

“It is one of the most brazen cases, I think, in history of a president conducting a war … and acknowledging the bombing achieved zilch and to continue the war at that point is worse than shocking,” Woodward said.

Woodward also discussed his changing view of Nixon’s pardon. When President Gerald Ford announced he was pardoning his disgraced predecessor in September 1974, Woodward deemed it was the “final corruption of Watergate.” He was sure Ford had made a deal and agreed to let Nixon walk away while several others went to jail.

However, when he interviewed Ford more two decades after, Woodward learned his original conclusion was wrong.

Ford explained that Nixon’s chief of staff Alexander Haig had approached him about making a deal that included a pardon, but he rejected it because he felt the agreement would have been improper.

But after Nixon had left the White House, Ford received a memo from the Watergate prosecutor who was predicting that Nixon would likely stand trial and probably go to jail. The former president told Woodward that prosecuting Nixon would have continued the Watergate saga for another two years, and that was something he felt the country could not stand. Ford said he wanted to start anew and the pardon was the best vehicle to do that.

“For years I was sure it was the final act of corruption, and then you subject it to a neutral inquiry many years later and discover what looked like corruption is actually an act of courage,” Woodward said.