The UPLJ’s Interview With Margaret Gold, Esq.

Margaret Gold, Esq. for UPLJ

By: Madelyn S. Ferrans and Tracy Osawe (Ed.)

January 16, 2023

Margaret Gold is a distinguished attorney who has practiced public interest law for over fifty years. Margaret has fought for the protection of marginalized individuals with a focus on the Native-American community. Today, Margaret resides in Pittsburgh, PA where she works with children in foster care.

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UPLJ: Can you describe your career as a lawyer and explain how you decided to practice public interest law?

Margaret: I have always loved the legal profession. It demands learning about unrelated topics and perfecting skills in oral and written advocacy. After graduating from Cornell Law School in 1970, where I was one of only four females in the class, I accepted a job at the Corporation Counsel’s Office of the City of New York. One of the cases I handled turned into a published decision, Monnell v. the Department of Social Services of the City of New York. The case reached the United States Supreme Court, where the justices held that the Civil Rights Act does in fact apply to municipalities. That holding represented a significant expansion of the scope of the Civil Rights Act. The challengers, who were pregnant women arbitrarily terminated from their employment, gained the right to bring a Constitutional claim against the local government. This case was also my first contact with William Kunstler. Mr. Kunstler was considered the “father” of the civil rights movement, most known for his defense of the Chicago Seven, Martin Luther King Jr. and Leonard Peltier. I worked with Mr. Kunstler when he represented Leonard Peltier, a Native -American who has been serving a prison sentence since the 1970s for his alleged involvement in the murder of two FBI agents on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

UPLJ: And what happened after this?

Margaret: In 1983 I met Anna, Standing Deer’s wife. Standing Deer was in prison in Marion, Illinois. At that time, it was the highest maximum-security prison in the federal system. When Anna asked for my help with Standing Deer’s case, I traveled to meet him in Marion. Standing Deer described a riot that occurred in October 1983 where two guards were killed. As a result, prisoners were locked in their cells for twenty-three and a half hours per day. He also mentioned that the prison denied Native-Americans the right to practice their religion. In opposition to those policies, Standing Deer, Leonard Peltier and another prisoner, Albert Garza, initiated a protest. They fasted for over forty days. They were eventually transferred to the Medical Center Prison in Springfield, Missouri where they were threatened with forced feeding. They were also kept in solitary confinement for over one year.  I continued to fight for the rights of Native Americans.

UPLJ: Is that what sparked your interest to improve the plight of Native-Americans in our justice system?

Margaret: Yes, as well as a book about Leonard Peltier’s case. The book is called In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen. The book documented the wretched living conditions and the conflicts at the Pine Ridge Reservation. It also exposed the abuses that characterized the government’s prosecution of Peltier after his co-defendants had already been acquitted by a different trial judge. I was fascinated by the resilience of the people fighting to protect their land from big oil companies and the government.

UPLJ: What has been the most rewarding part of your career?

Margaret: One of the most rewarding moments was helping to persuade fifty Congressmen to sign an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on Leonard Peltier’s behalf.  Even though the court ultimately ruled against Peltier, Judge Gerald Heaney, an Eighth Circuit judge who sat on two of the appeals, “took the extraordinary step of writing to the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs urging it to grant clemency to Peltier in 1991”. Despite all the challenges, I am motivated to help people and use the law to bring justice to underserved communities.

UPLJ: What advice would you give to future attorneys interested in pursuing human rights and/or public interest law?

Margaret: Follow your heart and use your legal education to fight for justice. If you are unhappy in a job after a year, start looking for other options. My legal career may have been challenging but it was filled with passion.