At The Right Place at the Right Time

By: Martin Ellin, Executive Director, AVLF

Like so many who enter the Courthouse, she seemed forlorn and lost. But Ms. Jackson was searching for more than just the right room, and in her experience is another lesson in the value of the presence of helpful lawyers in the Courthouse.
Ms. Jackson is the mother of a 20 year old daughter with special needs. An Alabama judge had granted Ms. Jackson adult guardianship of her daughter, but her child had run to Atlanta where Ms. Jackson feared that the daughter was involved in the sex slave trade. Ms. Jackson had successfully petitioned the court in her home county in Alabama for an Order directing the sheriff to seize the child and to hand her over to the custody of her mother. Arriving here her finest clothes, Ms. Jackson was stunned to learn that the Atlanta Sheriff’s office would not simply ride out to the address where she believes her daughter is being held, possibly against her will, to retrieve her child. Unsophisticated about the legal process and unsure what to do next, she dissolved in tears and waited in the hallway, hoping for help and direction.

AVLF and its volunteer lawyers are now involved in four Fulton County Courthouse-based pro bono legal service programs. (One, the extremely exciting new Self-Help Center, will be the focus of next month’s blog.) Yesterday, Ms. Jackson was sent to one of those programs, the Safe Families Office, a partnership among AVLF, the Partnership Against Domestic Violence and the Superior Court of Fulton County Family Division that provides legal support and safety planning to victims of intimate partner violence and stalking. While Ms. Jackson’s matter did not involve her own abuse, she was sent there because the courthouse employee who referred her knew that someone with legal training needed to guide Ms. Jackson in some positive direction, and knew of no other resource to recommend to her.

The Safe Families Office attorneys are used to problem solving unusual concerns and make it their business to try to help each of the 2,500 annual visitors to that Office as possible. One of the attorneys present reviewed Ms. Jackson’s papers, discussed the status with her and called the Probate Court: the law clerk there discussed the process for the issuance of an Order to Attach, and Ms. Jackson was escorted to the second floor for assistance from that Court. (FYI, the Probate Court hosts another AVLF program, the Probate Information Center, where lawyers from the Atlanta Bar Association Estate Planning and Probate Section offer free thirty minute consultations every other week to those with questions about recently deceased relatives who have been screened by that Court.)

When the legally untrained walk into the Courthouse, many are immediately on the defensive- there may be no outright hostility to their presence, but there is also no real invitation. Almost every time I am in the Courthouse, because I am wearing a suit and tie and perhaps because I do not look intimidated, I am asked “Are you a lawyer? Could you help me?” We attorneys have so much information that is not generally known by people outside the fraternity, especially including the way the court’s systems work, and when time permits it is my and likely your pleasure to try to give people a push in the right direction. But how much better for all involved that there be specific places where lawyers work in the Courthouse for the very purpose of sharing helpful information!

It is not possible to overstate the value of the presence of lawyers in the Courthouse, those not there in the interest of their particular client but stationed in the building to address the range of the community’s questions about an array of specific substantive areas, those who can help Ms. Jackson go from weeping in the hallway to promoting the welfare of her child in a matter of moments. When the opportunity for you to volunteer in that capacity arises, please answer the call. You are a lawyer, and you can help.

Party With A Purpose!

By: Martin Ellin, Executive Director, AVLF

AVLF’s Summer Associate Party will take place from 5:30-7:30 pm on June 7, 2011, generously hosted by the law firm of Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker. Law firms and public interest entities from throughout the Atlanta legal community send their summer associates to a two hour meet and greet: it is most certainly a party, but as explained below, one with an important purpose.

When I began work at AVLF, I knew that encouraging the private attorneys of Atlanta to learn more about the meaningful pro bono opportunities provided by the Foundation was crucial. Helping the legal community to reflect on the legal issues faced by the city’s poor, and to consider what the presence of a lawyer can do to address some of those concerns, was (and remains) an important part of our mandate.

I assumed that the best time to approach private lawyers was somewhere in the range of their third year of practice. I reasoned that by then, most attorneys had found some degree of confidence in their abilities and their place in the legal process, and might be more comfortable being recruited to volunteer their services. I was wrong- it was later in the process than we should have been approaching possible volunteers. By the third year, many lawyers were wildly busy, were set in their practices and had not grown into their craft with an appreciation for the need to arrange schedules to be sure to leave time for pro bono legal work. And those who did volunteer work were frequently giving their time to worthwhile endeavors outside the legal field.

So we adjusted our sights and decided the best time to intersect the lives of possible volunteers was just as they joined firms. That way, AVLF could help frame the perspectives and expectations of the young lawyers as they launched their careers, encouraging them to make sure that volunteer legal work was considered an important component of the job description. Again, I was wrong- it was still later in the process than we should have been approaching possible volunteers. Simply put, we in the legal community should not allow very new lawyers to anticipate and even begin their new profession without a rich understanding of how important they can be to those with unmet civil legal needs.

Mindful of this, we now begin to interact with those who will be our pro bono volunteers while they are in law school. We do so by making presentations to law school classes, by hosting internships and externships, by supporting Public Interest chapters at the law schools and, to the point of the title of this blog, by taking time at the Summer Associates Party to talk to the law students about AVLF and our sister organizations in Atlanta, and about the roles they as volunteer lawyers will play soon in the delivery of free legal service to our larger community.

As noted, the party is largely a social event, but we stop the proceedings at some point to address the group, and speakers always include a representative from the host law firm and an AVLF attorney. On occasion we also have guest speakers: the message from two of those who spoke to the Summer Associates party attendees in previous years are of particular note.

Shirley Franklin, then-Mayor of Atlanta, attended the Summer Associates Party and asked the associates to return to Atlanta for every reason, including the support of the working poor, when they finished law school. “We need you- we need your minds, we need your knowledge and we need your energy in this City,” she told the law students. “Come to Atlanta to make your mark on this society.” The next year, another speaker the next year took a different tack: “When you receive your Bar card, with due respect, at first you will be not much more than a very high priced mouthpiece. You can’t really call yourselves lawyers until you assist someone in need at no cost who could not otherwise access an attorney. Then, and only then, will you demonstrate that you fully understand that ours is a service profession, and that making “equal access to justice” more than a slogan demands your participation in pro bono service.”

You might think the students would have responded differently to the distinct approaches. But the Mayor’s exhortations and the Bar leader’s challenge seemed to generate equally enthusiastic responses. We hope that every firm in the city will make a point to send all summer associates to the AVLF Summer Associate Party- we promise fun, food and camaraderie- and a liberal dose of invitation to join in the work of the most noble part of the legal profession.