Happy 40th NOSSCR!

     The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year with a conference in New Orleans. The first NOSSCR conference was held in New Orleans 40 years ago. I was among the 75 or so who was present at that first conference. NOSSCR asked me to write a something about my involvement in NOSSCR. Here’s what I wrote:

​I had the good fortune of hanging out a shingle to practiceSocial Security law just before NOSSCR’s first conference. Without NOSSCR I don’t think I would have made a go of it.

​I started work for what was then the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals (BHA) as a staff attorney in February 1978. While I found that I liked the field of Social Security law, I did not like working for the federal government or anybody else for that matter. I opened my own law office on the Tuesday after Labor Day in 1979.  

While working at BHA was an excellent way of learning Social Security law, I realized as I was preparing to leave the agency that I had learned nothing about how to practice Social Security law. There was no one locally to learn from since no other attorney in the area did much Social Security work. I also discovered that I would now be a small business owner. That was a real shock.

     After I submitted my letter of resignation to Social Security, I talked with another staff attorney whom I had met in training. He worked in Atlanta. He told me that there was a new organization forming of attorneys who represented Social Security claimants. He didn’t know much about it but he gave me the telephone number of a Georgia attorney, Rudolph Patterson, who was involved in the effort.

    Rudolph was gracious when I called. He told me how to join NOSSCR and told me the newly formed organization would be holding its first conference in New Orleans that November. He sent me copies of the first two or three issues of NOSSCR’s newsletter. I pored over them. Even though my finances were tight, I decided that I had to go to the first NOSSCR conference. 

    I still regret one thing about that first NOSSCR conference. Rudolph invited pretty everyone to dinner at Antoine’s the night before the conference was to begin. Because of another commitment, I took a late flight and didn’t arrive in time for that dinner. I’ve been able to dine at Antoine’s since but I still regret missing that dinner on Rudolph’s dime.

     I couldn’t afford to stay at the conference hotel, the Royal Orleans, so I stayed at a barely adequate place on St. Peter Street a few blocks away. I remember walking over to the Royal Orleans at about 8:00 on the first morning of the conference and seeing bars open and serving drinks to customers. I knew that I was definitely not in Raleigh! At that time, you couldn’t even buy a mixed drink in a restaurant in Raleigh.

I was impressed by many things once the conference beganbut most by the obvious hunger for knowledge that everyone was exhibiting. Even though we were in a city that afforded endless temptations, almost everyone stayed for almost every minute of every presentation. This was the case for NOSSCR conferences that followed for at least several years. 

     Even though people at that first conference were meeting for the first time, there was almost instant camaraderie. In addition to meeting Rudolph for the first time, I met people like Nancy Shor, Steve Babitsky, Bob Crowe, Jim Brown, Carl Weisbrod, Steve Horenstein, Cliff Weisberg, Mike Glancy and Lyle Lieberman, all of whom became friends. I have learned so much from them over the years. 

    At that first NOSSCR conference I noticed that I had something to contribute. While I knew nothing about practicing Social Security law or running a law office, I had picked uptechnical Social Security knowledge that was in short supply in the early days of NOSSCR. 

     I couldn’t afford to attend the second NOSSCR Conferencebut for many years thereafter I didn’t miss another one. They were cherished opportunities to learn, to network with other Social Security attorneys and to contribute what I could.

     Those conferences and phone calls with other NOSSCR members were opportunities to feel less isolated professionally. I was used to working at BHA with other staff attorneys and ALJs but I was now by myself. While there are dozens of other Social Security attorneys in North Carolina now, at the time there was just myself, another attorney in Charlotte who was somewhat seedy and a few fine legal services people such as Mike Glancy. Other young attorneys in private practice in Raleigh at the time doing personal injury and workers comp didn’t understand the challenges I was facing nor did I understand theirs. I think I might have eventually given up without NOSSCR because it would have just been too lonely.

     In retrospect, joining NOSSCR and going to that first NOSSCR conference were the two best moves I’ve made professionally. NOSSCR has meant and continues to mean a lot to me. I hope I’ll be there for the 50th anniversary NOSSCR conference in 2029 and even the 60th in 2039. 

Keep this organization strong. It’s needed now as much as ever.