Michael Lucas |
The YLD Review, Summer 2012, Vol. 53, Issue 4
By: Michael Lucas, Esq., AVLF Director of Housing and Consumer Program
At our best, lawyers are highly-skilled problem
solvers. We are fortunate to have some
great law schools in Georgia – including right here in Atlanta – but no school
can teach all the things that go into successfully solving real problems for clients.
At AVLF, problem solving is precisely what we and our
low-income clients expect volunteers to do.
Thousands of people call AVLF every year with a problem, looking for
help with landlord-tenant disputes, unpaid wages and debt disputes, among
others. Getting help with these problems
is critical for those trying to pay bills, take care of a family and maintain a
home. Through the Saturday Lawyer Program, volunteer attorneys spend Saturday
mornings with me at the downtown office of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society to meet
– and possibly take on – prescreened clients.
Instead of asking our volunteers simply to show up and receive cases,
AVLF asks volunteer attorneys to partner with us from the outset in assessing
the problem the client is facing and determining whether a case is a strong
candidate for referral for full representation and whether they want to be–
with our support –the lawyer and problem-solver on the case.
For our clients, the efficiency of our programs and the
responsiveness of our volunteers is critical, as the problems can really start
to add up if not addressed. Even one
missed paycheck can be the difference between a roof over their children’s
heads and an eviction. Overzealous and
sometimes fraudulent debt-collectors can wreak havoc on the lives of seniors on
fixed-incomes and other low-income individuals trying to get back on their
feet. Low-income tenants too often face
illegal evictions, unlawful withholding of security deposits, or abhorrent
conditions that go unaddressed by their landlords, all leading to extreme
hardship for them and their families. AVLF’s
Saturday Lawyer Program provides volunteer attorneys to pursue these unpaid
wage claims, defend individuals being pursued for debts they do not owe or by
people they do not owe them too, and to help thousands of low-income tenants
obtain justice in these types of landlord-tenant disputes. The Saturday Lawyer Program is an incredible
resource for low-income clients.
And while it is the good feelings that come from helping
someone in her or his time of need that motivates our volunteers to step up and
keep coming back, the program has other direct benefits for our volunteers as
well – especially for our younger volunteers.
AVLF is an excellent avenue for attorneys who are interested in learning
new areas of law or for those who would like the opportunity to interview a
client, practice other core lawyering skills, and potentially to appear in
Court. There is an opportunity to gain
experience in nearly every aspect of the actual practice of law, all while
being thoroughly supported by experienced attorneys and AVLF’s extensive
litigation resources – from investigative resources and process servers, to pro
bono mediators and assistance with judgment collection.
But beyond experience drafting demand letters and Complaints
and – in some of our cases – discovery
and even taking a case to trial, perhaps the most valuable skill set you have a
chance to develop is one that is rarely taught in law school or even early in
any lawyer’s career – if it can be taught at all. With our cases, volunteers manage their own
case – with support, from start to finish – and while working these cases, they
get invaluable experience in problem solving.
They are responsible for helping their client navigate a crisis and come
out on the other side as close to reaching their goals as possible. This type of client service requires that
young attorneys really learn to listen, develop and test their instincts, make
judgment calls, develop and change their strategy as needed, discern the truth
– from clients and opponents alike – and deal with all sorts of opposing
counsel. In formulating a plan of action
and revisiting it throughout the representation as new facts develop, a good
attorney must fully understand her client’s goals and be adept at calculating
and articulating to her client the relative risks and benefits of any decision
or action. That is as true in any
attorney-client relationship as it is with AVLF landlord-tenant disputes where
just the initial decision of whether to pick that fight with one’s landlord is
wrought with myriad calculations and hard decisions about whether to stay or
leave, sue or try yet again to work cooperatively, risk eviction or not.
Through these experiences a young attorney begins to develop
“a gut” for the many assessments and judgment calls that being a real counselor
and advocate – whether for a low-income tenant or Fortune 500 Company –
requires. Again, at our best and most
evolved state, lawyers are problem solvers for our clients. Many of our cases at AVLF aren’t so much
about an application of law to facts – something many lawyers can do just fine – but rather require truly discerning and
understanding where our clients want to go from here – even when they may not
be so sure themselves – and helping them make the right decisions to get
there. That is also what paying clients,
corporate or otherwise, pay for. That is
what all clients need in their time of crisis, and to a large extent, this
ultimately applies to transactional work – negotiating a contract or a merger
or acquisition – just as much as it does to litigation, to negotiating the
settlement of a personal injury claim just as much as it does to brokering a
deal.
The most important reason AVLF runs the programs we do – and
the most important reason our amazing volunteers give so generously of their
time and considerable expertise – is to help the single mothers whose landlords
illegally withhold the security deposit, the hardworking truck driver or
painter whose employer repeatedly treats paying wages due as optional, the
shocking number of victims of illegal evictions who lose all of their family’s
belongings, or the disabled senior whose slumlord gets her social security
disability check sent to them in return for deplorable conditions and no
repairs. Every Saturday, our volunteers
meet individuals with these types of issues and begin the process of problem
solving and hopefully making the individual whole. It is a powerful thing to watch. But we know that we are also helping Atlanta attorneys
develop, hone, and refine those skills that they don’t teach in law school but
which are at the very heart of being an effective counselor and advocate.