Disabled man's case gritty, ongoing

By: John Seay, Founding Partner, The Seay Firm

For the second time this week, Mr. Franklin is trapped outside in the rain. Like last time, his clothes are soaked and his wheelchair is pooling water in places water should not be pooled. Several hours have passed, and during that time Mr. Franklin (not his real name) has urinated on himself. What separates Mr. Franklin from the warm confines of his apartment is a roughly 16-inch-tall slab of concrete encircling the building. Therefore, unless another tenant from the complex sees him and offers to physically lift him up, Mr. Franklin is subjected to the elements. Thankfully it’s been a mild winter.

I first met Mr. Franklin at the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyer Foundation’s Saturday Lawyers Program. The Saturday Lawyer Program pairs pro bono attorneys with low-income clients who require assistance in the areas of consumer debt, landlord-tenant disputes, and unpaid wage claims. While my own practice focuses primarily on intellectual property and entertainment law, the Saturday Lawyers Program is where I perform my pro bono work.

That day, Mr. Franklin arrived in his wheelchair anxious to tell his story (fortunately the offices where the Saturday Lawyer Program is held are fully wheelchair accessible). I learned that before signing the lease, Mr. Franklin had asked the apartment management for a wheelchair-accessible unit, as well as to see the unit he would be leasing. They vaguely suggested he would have a wheelchair-accessible unit, but refused to show him the unit they had selected for him. Of course, once they placed him in a non-wheelchair-accessible unit, they promptly began ignoring his pleas for help.

Both as a human being and attorney, Mr. Franklin’s story affected me. I tried to help Mr. Franklin as best I could. I wrote letters on his behalf. I called once a day for a week. I was told that if Mr. Franklin wanted a ramp built, he would have to pay for it himself. And, because the building was certified for occupancy before 1991, Mr. Franklin’s options might be more limited. Of course, the advice “just move” doesn’t apply much to someone who can’t bear that additional expense. Advocating on behalf of Mr. Franklin is an ongoing process, although I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel (or ramp, as it were).

My experience with Mr. Franklin and other clients I’ve represented through my association with the Saturday Lawyer Program, has taught me that true pro bono work is more than just an afternoon of volunteering. Pro bono work can be messy, frustrating, and—in some (hopefully rare) cases—time consuming. However, those same characteristics are also part of what makes pro bono work the most rewarding kind of law practice there is. I love my intellectual property and entertainment law practice. But working with indigent clients facing very real problems has provided me with perspective. And that perspective ultimately makes me a better, more compassionate lawyer to all of my clients.

AVLF Faces Programmatic Changes in 2012

By: Tamara Serwer Caldas, Deputy Director, AVLF

Dear Friends of the Foundation,

In this first newsletter of 2012, we write both to highlight accomplishments from the year that has just ended, and to tell you about some significant changes we are experiencing as an organization as we begin the new year.

In 2011, AVLF’s Domestic Violence Project together with the Partnership Against Domestic Violence provided legal support to 2,452 survivors of intimate partner violence. AVLF trained 81 lawyers and other legal professionals to represent and advocate for survivors of domestic violence and provided full legal representation to 186 clients. Our Saturday Lawyer Program provided legal assistance to about 40% more clients in 2011 than in 2010, and increased by 50% the number of volunteers participating in the program. During the past three years, AVLF volunteers have secured almost a million dollars in judgments and settlements for clients in housing, consumer, wage and domestic violence cases. The organization’s Dollars for Judgments Program, an innovative project aimed at collecting difficult-to-collect judgments for clients of our other programs, has referred $260,000 worth of debt to experienced creditor attorneys since the program was initiated in September 2010. AVLF’s Housing Advocacy and Resource Center, a housing advice clinic located in the Self Help Center of the State Court of Fulton County assisted over 500 tenants since it opened in May 2011. More than 300 clients received bankruptcy referrals to pro bono attorneys – the highest number in a decade. Our Wills & Advance Directives Program expanded to serve more emergency personnel than ever before, and the Probate Information Center continues to be a model of successful court-based legal assistance.

In many important ways, 2011 saw meaningful improvements and significant increases in all of the services AVLF provides to our client and volunteer communities, and for that we are most proud. Coupled with these accomplishments, we enjoyed our most successful Winetasting fundraiser in the event’s history! It was an extraordinary year.

We improved our services in 2011 despite a substantial decline in financial resources that began shortly after the recession in 2008 and from which it has been very difficult for AVLF, like most non-profits in Atlanta, to recover fully despite the extraordinary generosity of law firms and individual contributors. Consequently, we begin 2012 having made some very difficult staffing and programmatic changes driven by our desire to remain fully focused on our core programs and organizational mission. Our long-term viability and continued effectiveness for our clients are, as always, our primary concerns.

The most substantial change in 2012 is the termination of the One Child One Lawyer Program (OCOL) at AVLF effective February 1, 2012. This decision was necessitated by budget considerations, and we are very sorry to lose such an important program. The good news is that the project’s director, Lila Newberry Bradley, will continue to represent the children that were served by OCOL. She will be joining the staff of the Office of the Child Advocate in the Juvenile Court of Fulton County, where she will continue the good work of this program.

The One Child One Lawyer Program began at AVLF in 2005, and since that time Lila has recruited and trained a very eager and effective group of volunteers to represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in legal proceedings in the Fulton County Juvenile Court. Since 2008, that representation has focused on children whose parents were participating in the Family Drug Court of Fulton County’s Juvenile Court, where the primary issue is the parents’ drug addiction and its impact on their ability to take care of their children. We are delighted that Lila will be in a position to serve the same children she has served for the past seven years, but are very sorry she will not be doing so with AVLF, and that there will no longer be an opportunity to volunteer for this program. Pro bono attorneys with existing cases will of course continue to be supported through the duration of their representation.

Responsibility for AVLF’s Guardian ad Litem program will shift to the director of AVLF’s Safe Families Office, Elizabeth Whipple, who will be assisted by program coordinator, Jessica Caldas, but otherwise there are no changes in the operation of this program.

Finally, AVLF’s very successful Wills & Advance Directives Program has been suspended as we retool our office with fewer staff. We will continue our Wills for Emergency Personnel Program, through which we partner with Troutman Sanders and others to assist local fire and police departments with wills and advance directives, but we will not be accepting new requests for wills from other members of the community until further notice. We will also not train or recruit volunteers for this program until we are able to support this program in its fuller form.

The balance of the Foundation’s pro bono programs remain intact, as does our commitment to serving the civil legal needs of Atlanta’s low-income families. We continue to seek ways to improve the quality and reach of our services to the most vulnerable in our community as we strive for the day that all people have access to civil legal assistance when their most basic legal needs are at stake. We have been able to sustain the majority of our work during difficult times because of your support, and we will only be able to continue because you choose to stand by us with your financial and volunteer contributions.

Please consider making a donation today so that 2012 can be a year in which we can build and strengthen AVLF’s programs instead of being forced to consider ways to cut back further in the year to come.

As always, we appreciate your continued support!

Thank You for a Terrfic Year!

Dear Friends of the Foundation:

Amazingly, we are but days from the end of the year. It has been a very difficult year for so many organizations that serve those in need of free civil legal services, and this note could speak to how the poor and working poor of our community- and those that seek to promote equal access to justice for them- continue to struggle. And the sadness and frustration of so many is an ongoing story that should be told, and in bleak, real terms.

But forgive me, fellow lawyers, if in the middle of the pain and strain I instead recount how well the pro bono programs of AVLF continue to serve those desperate for your and our help. I write of the success, rather than of the distress, because no matter the difficulty the AVLF staff and the Atlanta legal community have not backed down or looked away, so I am able to write from pride and from hope.

Although our funding from traditional grant sources has all but disappeared, we have managed to sustain and in some instances even improved every pro bono program. The Saturday Lawyer Program is revitalized, and in 2011 an average of 240 volunteer attorneys have met with and served an average of 320 clients with an array of housing, consumer and other civil legal concerns. Supporting the Saturday Program, in 2011 the new Dollars for Judgments Program, through which State Bar of Georgia Creditor's Rights Section members collect judgments secured by AVLF clients or their volunteer attorneys, became a reality: we believe that this is the first such project in the country. AVLF's Eviction Defense Program continued to borrow on the talents of volunteer attorneys primarily from King & Spalding, Troutman Sanders, Seyfarth Shaw and Carlton Fields to represent individuals in imminent danger of losing their homes. The value of this program becomes more evident every year, as more Fulton County residents now rent their homes than own them, and as foreclosures continue to overwhelm home owners and their frequently unsuspecting tenants.

In a development that had an impact in 2011 and holds even more promise in 2012 and beyond, the State Court of Fulton County opened a courthouse-based Self-Help Center that provides information to courthouse visitors about the judicial process: importantly, an AVLF attorney staffs that office 4 days a week to provide specific information and direction to tenants involved in landlord-tenant conflict. In the future, and especially when the State bar of Georgia passes Model Rule 6.5, we expect to have a volunteer attorney available to answer questions from Courthouse visitors every hour that the building is open.

With special help in 2011 from Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, Sutherland, DLA Piper and Arnall Golden Gregory, the Domestic Violence Project's Safe Families Officeagain saw over 2100 visitors. Through this Office, dozens of volunteer lawyers, paralegals and other supporters helped hundreds of victims of intimate partner violence secure Protective Orders, collect lost wages and medical costs and otherwise secure rulings to the benefit of the victims and their children. AVLF's Children Law Programs continued their excellent work in the Fulton County Juvenile Court and Fulton's Superior Court, promoting the best interests of children whose parents are in drug treatment programs and caught in custody disputes respectively. Members of the Estate Planning & Probate Section of the Atlanta Bar Association again staffed The Probate Information Center, giving free legal advice to individuals who have questions about the legal affairs of recently departed family members. AVLF's Wills Program trained lawyers to draft wills and advanced directives, and those volunteers served dozens of seniors and emergency services personnel.

Lawyers in Atlanta served and supported AVLF in other ways as well. Our signature fundraising event, the AVLF Winetasting, hosted in 2011 by King & Spalding at the firm's Atlanta office, set a fundraising record for the Foundation by raising over $400,000. Over 500 individuals and nearly seventy law firms, accounting firms and related entities made generous donations to the this 20th annual event, which this year also featured an exciting Silent Auction. Please mark November 1, 2012 on your calendar now for the 21st Annual Winetasting!

Perhaps the most significant evolution in the manner in which AVLF interacts with our lawyer constituency was the establishment of a Junior Board, headed by Brian Smith of Arnall Golden Gregory. This 16 member Board offered insight and energy to our volunteer work and fundraising in 2011, and promises to do much more of the same in 2012, tailoring its pro bono contributions to take real ownership of specific substantive issues.

We were significantly more effective in 2011 in reaching our friends in the Atlanta legal community with news, requests for volunteer assistance, requests for money and general information about the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers foundation. Our database was expanded to add the names of over 13,000 lawyers living in metropolitan Atlanta, and our monthly Newsletter to that group was instrumental in sharing information and securing legal help for our clients. We were active on Facebook, produced a video about the work of the Foundation and its volunteers, shared a Dine-Out for AVLF at La Tavola for 100 guests and improved our web site so that anyone interested in working with AVLF, or being represented by it, can access critical information about our pro bono programs.

But back to the malaise that engulfs us. There is uncertainty everywhere. Federal and local governments are beset by dysfunction. The economy is moribund. The Braves lost an insurmountable lead. Yet AVLF stayed the course, demonstrating commitment and responsive, effective public interest leadership to assure quality volunteer counsel for those with no other access to free lawyers when facing dire civil legal problems. For that, we thank our volunteers, our friends and our funders and ask you to stand with us again in 2012 as well. Best wishes to all through the holidays and the new year!
Warm regards,

Marty Ellin, Executive Director
Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation


***We've almost reached our end-of-the-year- goal of $5,000. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to AVLF's Domestic Violence Project by midnight on December 31st by clicking here. Any amount helps!!!

Client focus informs current practice

Year of service as a deferred associate deepens appreciation of need for relationships

By: Jared Welsh, Associate, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton

When I was offered the opportunity to spend a year working in the public interest prior to starting as a first-year associate at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, I jumped at the chance.

Like many people, I had become a lawyer in part because it would give me a unique ability to contribute to my community, and a year spent doing public interest work would give me a rare opportunity to focus exclusively on doing just that. At the same time, I hoped it would give me real, practical experience rarely available to first-year attorneys. My time at the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation more than delivered on these hopes and expectations; over a year working directly with clients to solve their most pressing issues, I developed skills and experience that have proven invaluable in private practice.

At AVLF, I focused on assisting low-income clients with housing-related issues. Almost immediately, I began working directly with potential clients, identifying legal issues in which we could provide effective assistance. And thanks to AVLF's tremendous expertise and willingness to invest time and resources in a new attorney, I soon was able to guide clients through the process of making a claim or answering an eviction notice with confidence. Before long, I was negotiating with opposing counsel, making court appearances and representing clients in mediations. I constantly was learning not just the law, but the practice of law—skills such as identifying the critical facts in a dispute, convincing opposing parties that compromise made the most sense for them, too, navigating unsympathetic bureaucracies and managing a client's expectations when the ideal solution was truly out of reach. Each day was challenging and exciting, and we always provided attentive, insightful, professional advice and assistance—something that I soon learned was incredibly valuable to our clients, even when we couldn't reach the result they hoped for.

My work at AVLF included many vivid, memorable cases. There was a couple who faced imminent eviction because of a simple clerical error at the eviction court and a woman who couldn't afford to replace all of her children's clothing and other belongings after moving into a bedbug-infested apartment. There were too many clients who had paid rent for months to absentee landlords, only to discover upon receiving an eviction notice that their homes had long since gone into foreclosure. With AVLF's help, many of these people were able to save their homes or obtain the recovery they needed to start over.

In one particularly moving case, I helped AVLF staff and a volunteer attorney enforce a court order to recover a client's property from his landlord, who had evaded service and refused to cooperate with counsel after an illegal eviction. We arrived at the apartment with marshals and a locksmith, gained entry to the property and recovered most of the client's belongings—and, when the landlord arrived to protest, we finally were able to serve him personally.

AVLF routinely achieves such extraordinary results for its clients, and it was a great privilege and a true learning experience to spend a year participating in its great work. But in some ways it was not these special cases that meant the most to me, but rather the day-to-day client relationships I developed, some of which continue even now. Working with clients over time, helping them confront ongoing legal issues and giving them advice based on the insight into their circumstances that only a sustained relationship can provide is at the core of a lawyer's service, whether his clients are low-income individuals or major corporations. Of all the legal skills AVLF gave me the opportunity to develop, this constant engagement with and focus on my clients' circumstances and needs has most deeply informed my private practice. This aspect of my experience as a public interest lawyer has given me a deep appreciation for this most basic part of our profession, which will continue to serve me well in private practice. And the knowledge of what a difference insightful, professional advice can make for anyone will help ensure that I continue to do pro bono work throughout my career.

First weeks on job were 'a crash course in juvenile law'

Deferred health care associate gains quick appreciation for responsibility
By: Diana Cohen, Associate, Arnall Golden Gregory


My very first client as a newly minted attorney was a four year old boy named Jamie,[1] and our initial meeting took place seated on his foster mother’s living room floor while he polished off a plate of chicken nuggets. At the time, I was working as a deferred law firm associate with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Association’s (AVLF) Once Child, One Lawyer Program. My law firm, Arnall Golden Gregory (AGG), has a strong partnership with AVLF and I have always been interested in juvenile law, so the One Child, One Lawyer Program was a perfect fit during my deferral period from the firm.

My first few weeks at AVLF were a crash course in juvenile law. I worked directly with Lila Bradley, the Director of the One Child, One Lawyer Program, assisting her with the docket of child deprivation cases that she handles through Fulton County Juvenile Court’s Family Drug Court program. On a typical day, I would attend hearings with Lila, try to keep pace during impromptu hallway meetings with various social workers and attorneys, and use any spare moments to catch-up on the complicated histories behind each case. One case involved nine children who were divided up and placed in several foster homes. Another case involved a teen boy who had to live in a therapeutic residential facility because severe emotional-behavioral issues had caused him to lash out physically against her foster mother. All the cases involved mothers with drug problems who were attempting to get back on track, with varying degrees of success.

By the time my first solo client meeting occurred, I’d shadowed Lila on countless other child meetings and interviews, but the task still felt daunting. My client, Jamie, had been living in a stable foster placement for as long as he could remember, with a grandmotherly figure who took great pride in his care. The initial case plan was for him to return to his mother’s custody after she completed drug treatment, but things had changed by the time I became involved. Jamie’s mother had dropped out of her treatment facility, stopped attending visits with Jamie and his siblings, and failed to return phone calls from her social worker. The new case plan was to terminate the mother’s parental rights, so Jamie and his siblings could move to permanent adoptive placements. That first meeting was just one of many where I would gradually try to ascertain Jamie’s feelings and preferences related to these difficult issues.

For the first five minutes of our meeting, Jamie stared intently at the chicken nugget crumbs on his plate, occasionally shrugging as I asked him about school. His trust would not be won easily. As I got to know Jamie better during subsequent meetings, I learned that he enjoyed visits with his six siblings (who were living in different foster homes), and felt especially attached to his three year old sister. From time to time, I would ask Jamie about his mother. He would look over at his foster mother, thinking perhaps I meant her. Jamie’s foster mother would gently remind him that his mother is the lady he sometimes sees on Saturday when he visits with his siblings. “Oh, their mother,” Jamie would reply, thinking he’d solved the riddle.

When I transferred from AVLF to my position at AGG as a healthcare associate, the firm adopted Jamie’s case on a pro bono basis so I could continue to work on it. During my first year at AGG, I represented Jamie and his three year old sister in the termination of their mother’s parental rights. Although termination of parental rights (TPR) is considered a last resort, Jamie’s case had been pending for years and, after initially working very hard in her drug treatment program, his mother had gone into a downward spiral involving drugs and prison, followed by close to a year of no contact with her younger children. The TPR hearing, which I handled on Jamie and his sister’s behalf, was expected to be relatively simple given the compelling facts in favor of termination.

I’ll never forget the pit in my stomach when Jamie’s mother appeared for the hearing. Despite her prolonged absence, she now wanted to make one last effort to maintain her legal status as Jamie’s mother. It would be my job to cross-examine her when she testified in the case – to ask questions that highlighted her track record of failing to care for her children. In the end, Jamie’s mother testified that she did not feel comfortable taking care of him and his younger sister; rather, she hoped to preserve her relationship with her older teenage children who were represented by another attorney. I was spared from having to ask many difficult questions, but it was a very close brush with one of the hardest tasks that any child advocate will have to face.

Months after the TPR was final, Jamie was transferred from his foster mother’s house – the only home he’d ever known – to a new adoptive home 60 miles away. Jamie’s foster mother felt that she was getting too old to care for him long-term and therefore felt that she could not offer herself as an adoptive placement. Although Jamie’s adoptive parents are completely dedicated, the transition was rough. Jamie began acting up in school and bedwetting. His adoptive parents are continuing to work with him, his teachers, and a therapist to help him adjust to the huge change in his life.

Although Jamie’s case closed when the adoption became final, I have continued to handle other pro bono One Child, Once Lawyer cases during my last two years at AGG. Certain critical legal skills are common to both my healthcare and juvenile law practices. In both areas, I have to listen closely to my clients, try to put myself in their shoes, and understand both the immediate issues and the bigger picture. The best regulatory advice comes from an attorney who understands a healthcare client’s business, just as the best child representation comes from an attorney who understands the child’s broader family relationships, educational concerns, and psychological issues. My One Child, One Lawyer cases have taught me that lawyers have a great deal of power, and that power needs to be handled with the utmost care and sense of responsibility. Life-changing decisions are made every day in Juvenile Court – when families are split apart, or new families are created. In my healthcare regulatory practice, our clients rely heavily on the counsel that we provide, and I take that responsibility very seriously.

AVLF and its programs embody a commitment to public service and a belief in the ability of committed attorneys to do great things for their community. I try to emulate these ideals in my current practice and believe they have given me an excellent foundation for a meaningful legal career.

Former AVLF Deferred Associate Recounts First Experiences in Court

Crucial law lessons learned from AVLF domestic violence work after receiving firm's deferral

By: Franklin Trapp, Associate, DLA Piper LLP (USA)

I entered my 3L year, 2008 – 2009, happy to have an offer from a law firm – DLA Piper. Then came the economic downturn, forcing many law firms to defer their future associates. When I initially learned that I too would be deferred from my original start date, naturally I was nervous about my future. However, DLA Piper handled the situation beautifully, helping me to find and obtain a fellowship position with AVLF’s Domestic Violence Project – a project to which my firm has dedicated many hours representing victims of intimate partner violence. As a Deferred Fellow at AVLF, my job was to work the DV Project’s intake center and represent clients in court. That is, instead of being out of work, DLA provided me with a generous stipend and I had the opportunity to both practice law and to help those in need.

One of my first clients, Susan, had been brutally beaten by her husband. One night, a few weeks after leaving her husband, Susan received an anonymous phone call. The voice on the other end of the line told her that something was wrong with her car. Susan went out to the parking lot to check it out. Her husband was waiting in the shadows and attacked Susan with a syringe, screaming that he was going to infect her.

I represented Susan in her attempt to get a 12-month protective order. The chilling facts of the case, combined with a history of violence, made the court’s decision open and shut. Afterward, thanks to AVLF’s comprehensive service to victims of intimate partner violence, I was able to represent Susan in her divorce. This was uncharted waters for me – the first divorce I ever handled. The process was contentious, to put it mildly. It was typical to leave status conferences with the husband screaming at me and my client. The husband also was able to delay the case significantly, so that it dragged on and on with little progress. However, we finally obtained the divorce, and on terms favorable to Susan. A year later, I checked in to see how she was doing. AVLF, she said, helped to give her life back to her. Now Susan is pursuing a degree in education and feels she is truly free from her husband’s abuse.

On another case, I faced an opposing counsel who, to put it mildly, had a great deal of difficulty behaving in a civil manner. This case forced me to develop a thick skin, and to do that quickly, too, while learning how to advocate for my client in the face of a truly awful opposing counsel. The opposing lawyer’s primary tactic to obtain favorable terms for her client was to bully me at every opportunity: yelling, filing false conflict letters and bogus “emergency motions,” barraging me with insults, even calling me names. I have to chuckle now, remembering the emails I received from this lawyer – whenever my name appeared in the text of the email, she actually would insert a devil-face emoticon next to it. Once in the lobby outside the courtroom, this lawyer was so loud and threatening that the court staff felt compelled to call in the Sheriff’s department to calm her down. To deal with this lawyer’s behavior, I found myself preparing more diligently and thoroughly than I ever had before. I wanted to cover every possibility and make sure that everything I presented to the court was airtight. The negative example and behavior of this opposing counsel taught me a great deal about procedure, ethics and civility. All along the way, my mentors at AVLF guided me and taught me how a real lawyer should act and how to truly and honestly represent my client, all the while playing by the rules and maintaining a poker face. The case was ultimately resolved in my client’s favor. Later, she obtained a divorce, thanks to the help of another AVLF volunteer lawyer. I haven’t seen that opposing counsel since our last court date, but her behavior during this case has made her the stuff of legend with the court staff.

Now, I am a second-year associate with DLA Piper, working mainly in construction law. I am constantly aware of how much there is to learn about this area of law, and about practicing law, period. But learning the ropes in a court of law, with real live clients whose safety may be at stake, and in an often intense courtroom setting, forced me to understand how to respond swiftly and how to think outside of the box. I truly believe those experiences are easing my path from naïve, wide-eyed associate to useful lawyer. I have a long way to go in this career, but I am very grateful to my firm and to AVLF for allowing me to start my practice with this experience. Serving as a Deferred Fellow turned out to be both incredibly useful and a great luxury: it gave me confidence, and it gave me the time and the support to learn skills I will always be able to use throughout my career.

They Were Always There When I Called

By: Michael Lucas, Director of Housing and Consumer Law Programs, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation

Ms. B arrived for her appointment at the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s (AVLF) Saturday Lawyers Program desperate for help in getting her, her daughter, and her four year-old granddaughter out of the deplorable living conditions they had been subjected to – and felt trapped in – for several months. After hearing of the severe structural, mold and mildew conditions leading to the counters collapsing and Ms. B literally falling through a wall left brittle by moisture, the insect infestation resulting in spider bites on the four year-old, and damage to personal belongings, David Zacks, Kilpatrick Townsend Partner and seasoned litigator, Hillary Rightler, first-year associate in Atlanta’s Complex Business Litigation group, and Nick Stanislo, the Firm’s Manager of Civil Investigations and recent recipient of AVLF’s annual “Making a Difference” award, jumped on board.

This team got to work immediately. Nick focused on unraveling a complicated ownership and management picture, and within a few days I was pulling into Ms. B’s apartment complex with David, Hillary, and Nick. The situation was worse than we expected: a several building, several-hundred unit, sprawling complex that – save maybe a half-dozen occupied units – looked like a ghost town with whole buildings roped off, boarded up, and likely full of squatters. The management office looked deserted, although the landlord still managed to collect Ms. B’s rent and threaten eviction. We quickly attracted the attention of the hapless “maintenance man” – apparently acting in that role in name only – who questioned our presence as Nick gathered photographic evidence for the case.

It was what happened inside, however, and the quick outcome that followed, that I will carry with me as an example of the Saturday Lawyer Program, Kilpatrick Townsend, and the Atlanta Bar at its very finest. The remarkable professionalism and skill with which David and Hillary gathered pertinent information, assessed the situation, and formulated a litigation plan was, for me, rivaled only by the level of respect they showed for Ms. B’s dignity and intelligence. Rarely do attorneys get both so right. Within a couple of weeks, Ms. B was able to move her family into a new apartment, thanks not only to the $2,500 cash settlement and lease rescission David, Hillary, and Nick secured, but equally to the confidence, support, and sense of empowerment their representation gave her. What looked effortless to – and came just in time for – Ms. B was actually the result of expert investigation, efficient research, and skillful negotiation. Having David Zacks taking the lead didn’t hurt either.

Last week, Hillary received a call from Ms. B. Ms. B wanted everyone to know that she was all settled into her new place in Decatur and that it was safe, quiet and clean. What left an impression was that Hillary reported hearing a significant change in Ms. B’s voice and mood, just from their short phone conversation. She seemed upbeat and ready to start over. While my position at AVLF exposes me to far too many dire situations like Ms. B’s, it also allows me to witness – and be moved by – the better angels of our nature reaching out to help. Our profound thanks to David, Hillary and Nick and to Kilpatrick Townsend for always saying yes.