Pro Bono Partnership announces three new signature projects
By Lisa M. Wolfe
For The Lawyers Journal
June 23, 2006—The Pittsburgh Pro Bono Partnership announced the creation of three new signature projects at its annual breakfast meeting on May 11, 2006.
The meeting, held at the law offices of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, was an excellent opportunity to update the partnership’s 23 member firms and corporate legal departments and to inform potential members of the benefits of joining the partnership and participating in new and innovative pro bono opportunities.
Since its inception, the partnership has focused on efforts to increase pro bono where it is most needed, establishing signature projects that provide direct pro bono legal services to the poor.
Signature projects are ongoing collaborative efforts between two or more law firms or corporate legal departments which are designed to address an identified need for pro bono legal services. These projects may be structured to provide legal service to a particular community or in a specific area of the law, but they generally have as common threads the commitment of multiple firms to work together. A rotation of attorneys from each firm staffs the project on an ongoing basis.
“Signature projects are important because they allow firms and corporations to leverage their collective resources to meet pro bono needs that are larger than any one organization would be willing or able to address on its own,” said Jeffrey Heeter, Chair of the Pro Bono Partnership. “In this way, we are able to address large gaps in the provision of pro bono legal services that might otherwise go unfulfilled.”
Lorrie Albert, ACBF Pro Bono Coordinator and partnership administrative board member, announced the addition of three new signature projects at its annual meeting last month. “We have worked diligently with the community, legal service organizations, and the Court to identify and develop three very important projects,” said Albert.
Two of the projects involve family law issues. Partnership board member Barbara Kern identified family law cases as the most critically under-represented area of legal assistance for low-income families, not only in Allegheny County but throughout the country.
After dispelling the myth that non-family law attorneys had no empathy for these cases nor the ability to handle them, she went on to state, “if we as a partnership join together to take on this responsibility, we will be unique not only as we now are in the structure of our organization and the means through which we provide pro bono assistance to the poor, but also in our willingness to meet a nationally unmet challenge.”
Family law attorneys will be a valuable resource as mentors for these projects. David S. Pollock, the incoming chair of the ACBA Family Law Section, committed the Family Law Section to providing mentors for the new programs.
The first family law project will give volunteer attorneys the opportunity to use their negotiation skills and enter into a limited appearance to represent indigent parents in custody conciliations. These cases require minimal preparation and a one-time court appointment, which generally lasts for one and a half hours.
The project is an attempt to help the parties come to an agreement without the necessity of a hearing and will give indigent parents the ability to have attorney representation at a point in a custody case where settlement can be achieved.
The second family law project will allow attorneys to serve as a guardian ad litem (GAL) for children whose parents are involved in custody disputes. Often, children involved in custody matters suffer from a lack of information, support and advocacy during the custody proceedings. Attorneys participating in the program will be appointed to cases the court believes will benefit from a GAL.
"An effective guardian ad litem can provide a safety net for children in custody matters who are at risk due to their parents' animosity," said Administrative Judge Kim Clark. "The Allegheny County Family Court is grateful that the bar association has stepped up to meet this need."
In the third signature project, attorneys will team up with the Education Law Center to represent students at school board expulsion hearings. All cases assigned to volunteer attorneys will be screened for merit prior to assignment.
Attorneys involved in the program would be expected to represent students at expulsion hearings before their local school boards, in order to create a record for the case, and to file a statutory appeal if the board finds against the student.
"Without a complete record at the time of the statutory appeal, the Court has nothing to review, and the outcome can have devastating consequences for a student's educational career," said Judge Judith L.A. Friedman. “A court's decision is also usually too late to help a child.”
Other ideas for upcoming projects included a senior attorney project, the creation of another community legal clinic at the East Liberty Family Services offices, and a project which would in effect provide a panel of attorneys experienced in estate and/or elder law who could take referrals from the legal services organizations and programs to assist in drafting simple wills.
The partnership is open to new ideas and offers to work with anyone who would like to venture into initiating a new pro bono signature project for their firm or legal department.
The three existing signature projects have resulted in hundreds of low income Allegheny County residents receiving direct legal assistance from volunteer attorneys.
Recognizing the importance of the Lawyers on Loan project which was initiated in 2005 by Thorp Reed & Armstrong and Dickie McCamey & Chilcote when they each provided Neighborhood Legal Services Association (NLSA) an attorney for a full year, the partnership continues to recruit firms to continue the effort. Reed Smith recently joined the project by providing two attorneys; each will work at NLSA for six months during 2006.
The McKees Rocks Community Clinic, which is staffed by attorneys from Alcoa’s corporate legal department, Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling and Burns, White & Hickton and the Anti-predatory Lending Clinic, which is staffed by the United States Steel corporate legal department and attorneys from Pietragallo, Bosick & Gordon, provide one-on-one counseling to the client, as well as the ability for lawyers to team-up and work together.
The meeting generated a lot of excitement among the attendees. UPMC officially joined as a new member of the partnership and many members have invited the partnership to their offices to present more details about the new programs and ideas.