Her mission is making sure southern Nevadans who can't afford a lawyer get the representation they need.

Barbara Buckley, Executive Director of Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Originally from Philadelphia, the first work she found in Las Vegas was as a maid.

Taking classes at night, she'd become the first person in her family to graduate from college and, later, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Nevada State Assembly.

Her entire legal career has been spent at the nonprofit she's led since 1996.

Barbara Buckley, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

(Barbara Buckley) Thank you for having me.

-So what brought you to Las Vegas from Philadelphia?

Well, my best friend moved to Las Vegas and had a baby, so I flew out to see the baby when she was born.

And the baby is now 45 years old, and I never left.

I just fell in love with Las Vegas.

-What did you think of it?

-You know, I felt like it was a place where anything was possible.

And growing up in Philadelphia, there's a lot of poverty in Philadelphia, a lot of intractable problems that just, you know, that defied solutions.

So I found this sense of hope here, so I never left.

-"Defied solutions."

It's interesting to hear you say that, when you have made a career of finding solutions that seem impossible, I would imagine.

-I love problem solving.

Loved it in the legislature, and I love it at my work at Legal Aid Center Southern Nevada, you know, where I've spent 35 years, but figuring out a way to get things done.

And I think Nevada has always had that kind of spirit about it.

-Is there something you can point to in your career where a lot of people said, you know, we've been trying to fix that problem for a long time, and it's just really complicated, and maybe try to find something else, and you refused?

-So many, so many, whether it's pieces of legislation or programs that we grew at Legal Aid Center, you know, like our children's attorneys project, where we're representing kids in foster care.

At a time, kids in foster care were kicked out at age 18.

And we worked both at Legal Aid Center and at the legislature to allow kids to have the foster care payment themselves until 21.

So we just didn't chop off that tree branch.

We gave them a lifeline to adulthood, something I'm very proud of.

-Did people tell you, you couldn't do that?

You shouldn't do that?

-Oh, yeah.

It wouldn't work.

But you know, to succeed, you have to just say, sure it can.

Let's work together.

We can do better by these kids, can't we?

And then when you put it like that, people are like, well, okay, let's look at it.

-And you made being a maid work as your first means of income in Las Vegas?

-Absolutely.

It was at the old MGM and hardest job I ever had.

And you know, it helped fuel me too.

You know, I wasn't treated very well by some of the hotel guests, looked down on me because I was a maid, housekeeper, and I remember that because, you know, especially in Las Vegas, guest room attendants are the backbone of the community.

And I never forget to tip the maid.

[laughter] -That's something I think we all need to be reminded about.

-Absolutely.

I'm the same person I was as a housekeeper as I was as the first Speaker, first woman Speaker of the Nevada Assembly.

I was the same person.

So I think making false assumptions about people is, you know, just not a very good trait to have.

-What would be maybe one of the biggest misconceptions about the work you currently do?

-Oh, I remember when I first ran, someone said, Well, why should we support you?

You're probably going to give all the taxpayer dollars to the homeless and to kids in foster care.

And I was like, Well, I can be a responsible legislator too.

I can care about people and balance a budget.

And they were like, Oh, okay.

[laughter] -And you have talked about your first experience at the legislature.

It was not as a legislator, but as someone going to try to get a certain bill passed, correct?

-Yes.

-And some people didn't give you the time of day, right?

-That's right.

I remember running after people in the hallway, but I didn't represent anyone with money.

I wasn't a high paid lobbyist, and so I couldn't get the time of day.

And then other people cared about what I thought or what I'd seen.

And I got to see both kind of legislators, and I was inspired.

I said, you know, I could do this, and I could be respectful and listen to everyone and be kind and thoughtful and study and then make the decision on what's right for my constituents in the state.

So it did inspire me, seeing both the good and the bad.

-Did you ever get to meet those legislators who didn't give you the time of day once you did become a legislator?

-Oh, absolutely, and I always remembered.

-But did you remind them of what happened?

-No.

-Why not?

-You know, no need.

It's kind of a waste of energy.

If someone isn't kind of doing things for the right reason, you just need to go around them to enact good public policy.

You don't need to waste your time with them.

-But you may have to work with them to get their vote.

-Right.

So, you know, instead of reminding them of their bad behavior, then you're extolling the virtues of the good legislation.

-I see.

When you talked about being recruited, former Clark County Commissioner and former State Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani said it was she and her late husband who helped recruit you.

-So Chris' late husband, Gary Gray, yes, they were part of the team.

Larry Spitler was another really important person.

Gary managed my campaigns for many years, a wonderful, wonderful man and power couple.

-What did you think of Chris Giunchigliani back then?

-Oh, my goodness.

The same thing I think today.

She's amazing, and, you know, just boundless energy, always trying to do the right thing for people, you know, just a big fan.

-And she said that you were more practical than she was, not as liberal as she was, also a protector of the underdog.

And then she said, Ask her about the Tailhook scandal hearings.

We talked a little bit about that off camera.

How would you summarize that experience and what you did?

-Yeah, there was a big scandal my first session, and Paula Coughlin was a Navy Lieutenant.

She was a victim of sexual groping in Las Vegas.

There was an effort to take away her jury verdict, all done on the sly, through a piece of legislation.

Well, we all found out about it halfway through the process, and I was asked to be the one to kind of reveal it, fix the legislation, and handle the crisis.

And it was an honor to do so, and I ended up meeting her and working with the governor on how to fix that situation.

But it really kind of catapulted my career at the time in working on such a high profile issue.

-I imagine.

So much you have accomplished in the legislature.

What stands out to you?

I mean, there's payday loans that you've worked to reform.

There's also the Patient Bill of Rights.

Implementing full-day kindergarten?

-Yeah.

All of those things.

And I think what I remember, too, the most is the wonderful people I got to meet and work with along the way, whether it was a mom of a kid with autism, watching her turn her life's mission into helping other moms and passing legislation.

Her name is Jan Crandy.

Whether it's the late governor, Kenny Guinn.

We disagreed on so much, but then we ended up being fast friends.

I remember him signing a piece of legislation allowing importation of prescription drugs from Canada.

He said, Barbara, I hate this bill, but there's no legislator who's worked harder with me on other issues, so I'm signing the thing.

So memories like that are just immeasurably important to me.

-Have you ever wanted to go back- -No.

- -to politics?

No.

[laughter] Not the way it looks like right now.

I mean, I learned from stalwarts like Speaker Joe Dini, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, where they, Republican and Democrat, would work together.

It's not like that anymore.

So I kind of grew up in more or less the Golden Age.

And at a state level, of course, it's so much less partisan than at the federal level.

You know, I, I don't see those same, you know, that ability to work together like that anymore.

-Do you think it'll ever return?

-You know, good people should never stop trying.

But the way things are going right now, I don't think so.

-What about in your efforts with the Legal Aid Center?

What is it like being on the other side where you're going up there?

I guess it's full circle, back to trying to promote your interests and what will be good for the clients that you serve.

Is there a moment within that history that stands out to you?

-Yeah.

I mean, you're right, it's full circle.

I lobbied for Legal Aid before I ran.

Then I served and worked at Legal Aid for 16 years.

And now I'm on that other end.

So I enjoy working with new lawmakers.

Right now, we have a bill that we're working on to help kids in guardianship action and to make the process better.

So I love saying that.

I love seeing our lawyers working with the new generation of legislators to enact great new public policy changes.

-But then, when you come across someone who may be super new, are you thinking, oh, gosh, I mean, I could run circles around this person?

-Yeah.

I mean, whether it was in the early days or now, when someone's, you know, running or serving because they get fancy dinners or get highlighted somewhere and they're not there to actually do the hard work, it's disappointing.

That just means we have to do our best to elect people who run for the right reason.

-Do you think you're pretty good at sniffing that out?

-Oh, yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, because in the legislative days, we called them work horses and show horses.

Is someone more interested in getting the credit or seeing the policy changed?

Well, if they're more interested in seeing the policy changed, you see what they've produced.

That's how you know.

-Okay.

Also that getting full-day kindergarten, back when you were promoting that, it was considered a woman's issue?

-It was considered a woman's issue.

It was, Oh, kindergarten is just baby sitting.

So I battled my state counterpart, Republicans, who did not want to see it happen.

We made a lot of progress, and then a Republican governor said, I want to support full-day kindergarten.

And so the final portion went through.

So it's very interesting to see the changing tides.

-Yeah, I'll say.

You also said that, you know, One day I hope that we're not talking about being the first this as a woman, being the first that as a woman.

Do you think we've reached that, or it's still important to note?

What do you think?

-You know, we've made some progress.

I mean, when I was in high school, my guidance counselor said, Don't try to-- don't try for college.

You know, Be a legal secretary.

And so I took typing and shorthand in high school.

And when I was the first Speaker in the Nevada State Assembly and a lawyer, I'm a pretty fast typist.

[laughter] But, you know, I long for a day when there's no more firsts, when people are elevated and are represented in all categories, regardless of their race or their gender, and we're not there yet.

I mean, you look at the boards of major corporations, you look at the Presidency, and Nevada hasn't had a woman governor yet.

So I long for the days when there are no more firsts.

-Barbara Buckley, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.

♪♪