ITHACA, N.Y. — Tompkins County’s long understaffed assigned counsel program, which provides attorneys to those without the means to pay for their own, has finally begun to recover from longstanding staffing issues that have plagued the program for nearly the last decade.
Years of falling rosters have led to case delays for defendants. But recent legislative changes at the state level and intensified local recruitment efforts have helped turn the trend around.
Lance Salisbury, who is the supervising attorney for the program, said his office is on track to have around 50 attorneys actively in the program this year — a return to near the heights of the program before issues began to percolate in 2016. Salisbury said Friday the program has already added eight lawyers since the beginning of 2024.
In 2016, the panel comprised more than 50 attorneys, with more than 40 making up what Salisbury calls “the core,” or the most active lawyers in the program.
Salisbury said a slew of factors led to the program’s struggles. Over the years, attorneys were gradually scooped up by other jobs in District Attorney and Public Defender offices in nearby counties. Others moved out of the area. Salisbury said that in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic led others on the roster to reduce their workloads or eliminate them entirely — with several opting for retirement.
“This was a critical hit to the program and our ability to field top-notch attorneys in a timely manner for our clients,” Salisbury said.
During the pandemic, court cases were greatly reduced to maintain social distancing, which meant fewer opportunities to work — to the tune of $600,000 less in reimbursements in 2020.
“That was money that came straight out of our attorneys’ income, similar to what happened to many people during the shutdown,” Salisbury said. “That had a serious negative impact on attorneys’ ability to keep taking [assigned counsel] work. In addition, many firms in the region that had taken on assigned counsel work with us were forced to stop doing so due to the economic impact of the pandemic shutdown.”
By the time the dust settled in late 2020, the number of attorneys willing to take on assigned counsel clients had dwindled to just 25 core attorneys, with 10 focusing on family law and the rest on criminal law.
“The biggest problem for us was in family court and in more complex criminal cases, which both require a higher level of skill and which more often would have multiple defendants, which created conflicts and blocks in the ability to assign attorneys,” Salisbury said.
Several Ithaca law offices maintained their participation despite the myriad drawbacks the pandemic presented. Salisbury credits Schlather, Stumber, Parks and Salk; Coughlin and Gearhart; Shaw and Murphy; and Mayersak and Weiss for keeping their assigned counsel participation consistent.
In particular, Salisbury said the smaller roster of attorneys had to step up as courts began to open back up in 2021 and 2022, unleashing a flood of backlogged cases, mostly from family court, that had been paused during the heights of the pandemic.
The program had been struggling to recover until last year.
Salisbury attributes the increased participation to a statewide change in last year’s budget that significantly increased pay rates for lawyers working in assigned counsel programs.
Before 2023, lawyers could make $75 per hour working on felony criminal cases and $60 per hour on misdemeanor criminal cases. They now make $158 per hour, regardless of the level of criminal case. The new rate also applies to lawyers working family court cases through the assigned counsel program.
While that is still well below the typical criminal attorney rate, which Salisbury said is around $350 per hour in upstate New York, it has helped bridge the gap.
Additionally, for the first time, Salisbury said his office has expanded its recruiting reach. Previously, their attorney searches were largely centered on those practicing in Tompkins County. Now, though, Salisbury said the office is recruiting members from Syracuse and Cortland County, which has helped fuel the program’s renaissance.
“The increase in [state reimbursement] rates and our recruitment strategies are showing results,” Salisbury said. “It appears that moving forward our panel will be in a much stronger position than, say, a few years ago.”