Walczak, Vic

Vic Walczak
From: AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF PENNSYLVANIA
FREE FOR ALL FALL/WINTER 2011 p. 3,5
Working on a Dream*
A national leader in the defense of civil liberties, Vic Walczak looks back on his first twenty years with the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
* Anyone who knows Vic knows we simply had to use a Springsteen reference. - Ed.
by LAURI LEBO
In his two-decade career with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Legal Director Witold "Vic" Walczak has earned a reputation as a formidable defender of civil liberties. He has famously tangled with creationists, immigration opponents, corrupt police forces and even a district attorney eager to prosecute under-age girls for texting clothed photos of themselves.
Those who know him say the state affiliate's legal docket reflects his commitment to defending the Bill of Rights, whether it is a high-profile church-and-state battle or the free speech right to swear at one's overflowing toilet in the privacy of one's own home.
He is a darling of the media, in Pittsburgh, throughout the state, and across the country. Reporters seek him out because they appreciated his always quick return of a phone call and his even quicker wit - a trait he has, admittedly taught himself to reign in a bit over the years.
In 20 years, he has not lost his understanding of the price of injustice, whether defending anti-war protesters or fighting for a single father whose children were seized because he had consensual sex with a woman of legal age.
But ask people what they most attribute to the state ACLU's success under Walczak's leadership and their answers are simple.
"People just like Vic," said Kim Watterson, a volunteer ACLU attorney at Reed Smith LLP and president of the ACLU-PA's board of directors. "I just think he's a real ordinary guy, who speaks very passionately about issues, and connects those issues to people's lives."
Cyndi Sneath, one of the 11 parents represented by the ACLU-PA in 2005's Kitzmiller v. Dover intelligent design case, said that she and her fellow plaintiffs were instantly drawn to Walczak. "People connect with Vic because he's warm and personable," she said. "When meeting him for the first time, it's an instant feeling of connecting with a person who is genuine."
"We're lucky to have him," said Mike Louik, an attorney with Rosen Louik & Perry and past president of the ACLU-PA board. "Anybody in the ACLU family would tell you that.''
In 1991, Walczak was a 30-year-old lawyer with five years of prisoners' rights experience under his belt and a commitment to civil liberties sharpened from time spent as a young college student in martial-law Poland.
He had followed his wife Kathy, a doctor, to Pittsburgh, a place reeling from the collapse of the steel industry. Roslyn Litman, a prominent local attorney and volunteer ACLU lawyer, spoke to Walczak about prospects at some of the city's high-paying private legal firms. But she was particularly impressed with his passion for and knowledge of civil liberties.
At the time, the ACLU in Pittsburgh Chapter operated relatively independently from the state affiliate, with a separate operating budget, governing board, and legal docket. The chapter's executive director was about to retire, but there were no openings yet in the small but active office.
But Litman, who sat on the Pittsburgh Chapter's board of directors and legal committee, did not want to lose Walczak to a more financially lucrative position. "He was so passionate, articulate, and committed to civil liberties," she said.
Litman contacted Louik, who chaired the Pittsburgh Chapter's legal committee, and urged him to meet with Walczak.
"I remember we were so impressed with his drive and commitment to the Bill of Rights," Louik recalled. "As far as he was concerned, coming to work for the ACLU in Pittsburgh was his dream job."
In order to hold on to him, a position for Walczak was carved from the sparse operating budget so that he might step into the executive director position when the time came a year later. For the next 13 years, he tackled cases in western Pennsylvania, establishing the ACLU's reputation as a formidable foe of authoritarian bullies. Before Walczak became the chapter's executive director, the Pittsburgh media rarely mentioned the ACLU, Louik said. Now, he gets sought for comment not only in local cases, but for national stories.
Those who have watched him over the years speak of how he has grown into the position. When he started, he was a talented skilled young attorney. But as he himself admits, he needed to learn how to control his message.
"Sometimes when I'm litigating, I get this cocky Jersey attitude that I've learned to control a bit," Walczak said. "Years ago, in an interview with the Legal Intelligencer about something Allegheny judges were doing or not doing, I made the response that they were 'full of shit' and the reporter printed it. I was mortified."
After serving 13 years as the Pittsburgh Chapter's executive director, Walczak became the state's legal director in 2004.
Watterson started practicing law at the same time Walczak was hired as Pittsburgh's executive director. She has watched him transform not only the Pittsburgh office, but the state affiliate into one of the most prominent ACLU legal operations in the country.
"To be a great state legal director, you need to be a great lawyer and great in the courtroom," Watterson said. "And it goes without saying that Vic is at the top of his game. But in addition to his legal work, he's also done a great job of getting the hearts and minds of folks who don't necessarily identify as ACLU supporters.
"He is able to communicate effectively in simple terms to someone sitting on their couch watching him on TV, or listening to him on the radio, about why they should care, about why this should matter to them. That's a rare quality for any attorney."
In 2003, he was named Federal Lawyer of the Year by the Federal Bar Association's Western Pennsylvania Chapter.
"Today, not only is he probably the most highly regarded civil liberties lawyer in western Pennsylvania," Louik said, "But he's gone from our assistant executive director to being a formidable civil rights lawyer on the national level."
Certainly, the high-profile cases that Walczak has successfully fought helped earn him that reputation. The trial over Hazleton's anti-immigration ordinance in 2007 was making national headlines three years before Arizona s SB 1070 grabbed the limelight. Kitzmiller v. Dover drew attention from around the world.
But, as Louik points out, Walczak has earned attention for the less glamorous cases, ones that nonetheless send out an important message to the public on free speech, privacy, and freedom of religion.
Unlike many other state ACLU affiliates, long-time board members say Pennsylvania is somewhat unusual in that it doesn't typically set its legal agenda in advance based on issues and then go after cases.
"Vic is very responsive to what's called brush fire cases," Louik said. "Vic's approach is that we must be very responsive to those cases that pop up here and there in communities across the state, like lawn sign restrictions for political candidates. He would take those cases, and he's very good at moving quickly, and the result is that he's sending out a message to the broader public about what is constitutional and what is not. Hopefully he's deterring others from violating the Constitution.
Louik also said that Walczak has an innate knack for cases that attract attention. He recalls the 2008 case of Babines v. Adams Township, in which a woman who taught pole dancing as a form of exercise was denied an occupancy permit by her municipality.
"I was like 'Vic, pole dancing? What are you doing?'" Louik said. "Next thing you know, it's being featured in The New York Times."
"We haven't had a docket over the last several years that hasn't come from our intake line," said Watterson. "Intelligent design, Hazleton, our detention cases, student free speech? That all comes from the people. But I think what drew them to pick up the phone and call us is that Vic has spoken so strongly about freedom of speech and the role government."
"He has a wonderful ability to talk civil liberties not only to other civil libertarians, but to other folks who don't get it," Louik said. "Additionally, he has won the respect and admiration of judges, not only because he's an eloquent spokes person, but they respect his legal talent."
"Vic is wonderful in dealing with the media," Litman said. "He's really good at sound bites and really good at interviews. He gets a lot of press because reporters know they can rely on what he says. He doesn't overstate. although he's passionate about his views and protecting client's rights. And that comes across."
Since he was a boy, Walczak had a finely developed sense of what it means to be an outsider. The son of a Polish Holocaust survivor, he was born in Sweden and came to the United States at age three. His first language was Polish and he remembers being raised with customs outside the realm of mainstream America. It was this kind of outside-looking-in that honed in him a sensitivity to those who struggle to fit into society.
His family eventually settled in New Jersey and he graduated from Colgate University with a degree in philosophy (and where he played Division l soccer) and Boston College Law School. In college, he traveled to Poland in 1983 at the height of the Solidarity Movement. While there, he experienced, firsthand, police brutality and suppression of free speech. After taking pictures of officers beating protesters, he was attacked as police tried to seize his camera and fellow protesters helped him escape. After sneaking the photos out of the country through the consulate, he was strip-searched by authorities at the German border. The experience left an indelible impression: as an American, he had taken civil liberties for granted. After returning home, he decided he would one day become an ACLU attorney.