Part 2 of the 2025 Regular Donor Interviews: Is Donating Like Stanning a Celebrity? "Cheering" is Actually Crucial
Last edited: 2026-08-24
This interview record takes you into the "inner circle" of JRF. Through the perspectives of two lawyers who have long participated in organizational affairs and fundraising—Jen Hsiao-hsiang and Lai Chiu-hui—they pragmatically share why they are willing to carve out time from their busy legal practices to invest in this seemingly endless reform, and, in their eyes, the substantive weight behind every donation.
Curiosity and a Sense of Mission: Why Do Lawyers Also Want to Do Judicial Reform?
For these two lawyers, the catalysts for stepping into JRF were different. Attorney Lai's involvement began with the Wild Lily Student Movement (Note: refers to the 318 Sunflower Student Movement), at which time she joined the defense work as a member of the volunteer legal team. For her, engaging in public interest work is not an extra sacrifice, but a return to the original intent of the legal profession. She cited Article 1 of the Attorney Regulation Act: "Attorneys shall have as their mission the protection of human rights, the realization of social justice, and the promotion of democracy and the rule of law." She believes that "human rights lawyer" should not be a special label, because protecting human rights should be the shared responsibility and conviction of all lawyers.
Attorney Jen's start carried a bit of curiosity about how NGOs operate. During her internship at the Legal Aid Foundation, because her supervising lawyer participated in the rescue of the Hsieh Chih-hung wrongful conviction case, she began to come into contact with organizations such as JRF and Taiwan Association for Innocence. This experience allowed her to see how, beyond legal provisions, a single case can mobilize the collaboration and long-term commitment of multiple organizations. Later, upon the invitation of a senior colleague, she officially joined the executive committee of JRF. Despite her busy daily practice, she chose to stay in the "inner circle" to observe and support institutional change in a different capacity.
Unseen Invisible Engineering: Continuing Efforts Beyond the Limelight
The outside world often sees JRF holding press conferences or issuing statements, but in the eyes of these two public interest lawyers, the truly core work is often unseen and exhausting. Attorney Jen shared that every task at JRF takes a lot of time, especially wrongful conviction rescues; a case often requires years of investment without seeing results, while also facing the anxious inquiries and confusion of the clients. In addition, she pays special attention to the issue of overwork within the judicial system. She was impacted by the suicide of a judge and felt the closure and work pressure of the civil service system through her friends who are judges and court clerks. This made her deeply feel that judicial reform must not only focus on individual cases, but also on the soundness of the overall working environment.
Attorney Lai pointed out the dilemma of promoting "rule of law education." Unlike wrongful conviction rescues, which have a distinct narrative and a sense of rescue, rule of law education often lacks a sense of urgency in the eyes of the public and is even thought to be the business of schools. However, with the launch of the Lay Assessor system, she noticed that the public's anxiety about their own rule of law literacy has emerged. Concerns such as "I am not a legal professional; how should I adjudicate?" have instead become a new opportunity to promote concepts. She emphasized that whether it is campus promotion or adult education, these "root-deepening" works yield slow returns, but they are crucial to ensuring that every citizen has procedural fairness and neutral judgment when facing legal issues or participating in trials.
Pragmatic Considerations of Donating: Regular Donations as a Medium for Rational Observation
When talking about fundraising, Attorney Lai offered an interesting analogy: supporting JRF is like stanning a celebrity, going to concerts, and buying merchandise. We support stars not because they "lack money," but because we like their performances and hope they have the resources to continue creating better works for our enjoyment. Similarly, there are many issues in society that the public identifies with but cannot personally invest in. Entrusting donations to JRF means supporting professionals to promote reform and build a society that better aligns with our ideals, and these outcomes will ultimately benefit everyone. Attorney Lai also emphasized that the significance of regular donations lies in: "Just as we wait for an idol's next concert or release of work, this requires giving it some time." Viewed on a one-year regular donation basis, it is equivalent to giving oneself a year to observe, and after a year, evaluating whether it meets expectations and whether to continue supporting. This support method, which possesses the function of "observation and verification," cannot be achieved by single-sum donations.
Attorney Jen observed from her own practice environment that the current professional environment for lawyers is no longer what it used to be, and sources of large donations are increasingly fluctuating. Her choice to make regular donations stems from a pragmatic sense of "leading by example." When helping the organization fundraise, she believes she cannot ask others to donate regularly while failing to act herself. Therefore, she chooses to provide stable monthly support under the premise of not causing a burden. She also believes that single-sum donations tend to fluctuate with social enthusiasm, but for institutional and rescue work that requires long-term cultivation, stable donations are more conducive to the sustainable development of the organization.
Stability is the Cornerstone of Change: We Need More "Judicial Reform Supporters"
JRF is often misunderstood as being very wealthy or relying solely on a few legal elites. But in fact, these lawyers on the front lines are craving public recognition and participation even more.
Attorney Lai mentioned that regular donations are not just about money; they also represent a "social consensus." When the organization speaks out on unreasonable social issues and policies, the support of numerous regular donors is enough to forge a powerful force to move forward together with the organization, making it harder for the government to ignore the voices of civil society. Attorney Jen added that politics and law are closely related to everyone. In many occasions, there are unspoken rules to avoid talking about politics, but the existence of JRF acts as a precious dialogue platform, providing space for different stances to be presented and communicated. Because of this, we need more "judicial reform supporters" so that judicial reform is no longer just the professional language of legal professionals, but can coalesce into the most authentic civil consensus, driving legal systems that suit the times and genuinely protect people's rights in a constantly changing society.
JRF officially enters its 31st year this year. Regardless of when you started paying attention to JRF, thank you for walking with us until now. Currently, the proportion of JRF's regular donors remains extremely low, at a meager proportion of less than ten percent, bearing the heavy task of thirty million NTD annually across multiple judicial reform issues.
If you resonate with the stories of these donors, if you have also worried about the rule of law environment, or if you also want to make a long-term "venture investment" for the education of the next generation, we sincerely invite you to join the ranks of regular donors or recommend friends around you to participate together. As the interviewees said, transforming a little leisure in life into the substantive power to change society—as long as you trickle down persistently, we have the confidence to go further.
This article is an AI-generated translation of the original Chinese text. In the event of any discrepancy, the Chinese version shall prevail.