Dennis J. Gounley, of Greensburg, received a 2011 Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Award on February 6, 2012 at a Westmoreland County Bar Association program presented by longtime WBA and PBA leader Dick Galloway. Gounley was honored for his assistance to pro bono clients with debt collection and bankruptcy issues. The Pennsylvania Bar Association Legal Services to the Public Committee has presented awards to lawyers deserving special recognition for voluntary efforts to provide free and reduced-fee legal representation to low-income Pennsylvanians for the past quarter century.

At a time when Pennsylvania is dealing with a civil legal aid crisis which sees far more than half the people who make it to a legal aid office and qualify for legal aid being turned away from receiving such help because of a lack of resources, Gounley’s commitment to legal aid and support of pro bono service is a tremendous example for judges, other lawyers and the public at large.

Despite special fees and a loan forgiveness program for civil legal aid attorneys now in its second year, the justice system just does not have the professional resources to meet the growing need for such services in these tough economic times. Gounley knows how important it is that pro bono lawyers take cases and provide donations to significantly extend the resources of legal aid available for the neediest among us and that civil legal aid lawyers continue to work hard despite growing obstacles.

There are nearly 70,000 attorneys licensed in Pennsylvania. According to recently released data from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Program, pro bono services by Pennsylvania lawyers provide the annual equivalent service of 61 full-time legal aid lawyers.

Pro bono service cannot replace the work of fully funded legal aid offices. It is only within a well supported legal aid system that there is a structure for organized pro bono service to make a difference. Difficulties abound. As funding for legal aid programming faces cuts in these hard economic times, including a 10% cut in state funding at the start of the new year, the number of persons needing such service continues to grow.

However, thanks to the service of lawyers like Dennis Gounley, and the work of both civil legal aid and pro bono attorneys around the Commonwealth, there is access to justice for many who otherwise would be without legal representation.

 On Friday, January 20, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference and the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Program (CBAP) jointly awarded Pepper Hamilton attorney J. Gregg Miller the inaugural David T. Sykes Award.

Mr. Sykes was the head of the bankruptcy practice group at Duane Morris for many years and was one of the founders of CBAP. Mr. Miller has been a long-standing member of CBAP’s Board of Directors and served as president of the board from 2006-2008.

CBAP was created by a group of consumer and business bankruptcy lawyers, members of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference, Community Legal Services, Inc. and the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Volunteers for the Indigent Project(VIP) as a Pennsylvania non-profit organization. These attorneys, paralegals, and law students, volunteer to provide direct, pro bono legal representation to the indigent seeking to obtain Bankruptcy Court protection.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is announcing eight recipients of its newly created Pro Bono Award. The award honors legal professionals, students and institutions that exemplify excellence in the practice of law through offering volunteer legal services to the poor, disadvantaged or exploited.

The eight recipients of Super Lawyers first annual Pro Bono Award include practicing attorneys, law firms, law students and law programs. The winners were chosen by a review committee which evaluated each application based on several factors including legal effort, personal contribution, impact to the law and innovation. Law students and law programs were evaluated on the additional factors of community outreach and leadership.

From providing free legal counsel to Hawaii’s most vulnerable citizens, to combating human trafficking, to aiding Native Americans in drafting wills that adhere to the unique needs and laws governing Indian reservations, the tireless work of each award recipient embodies the very spirit and purpose of pro bono legal service, and the award itself.

In addition to the honor, each winner will receive editorial coverage in a 2012 edition of a Super Lawyers magazine, also published on superlawyers.com, and a cash prize.

“All of us at Super Lawyers were inspired by the nominations for the Pro Bono Award, and we’re proud to recognize and reward these law students and lawyers for their impactful work in support of the poor and underrepresented. We look forward to sharing their stories – examples of selfless commitment to bring justice to those who need it, not just those who can afford it -- throughout the year,” says Barb McGivern, vice president and general manager, Super Lawyers.

The Super Lawyers Pro Bono Award was divided into three tiers: There is one first-place award, one second-place award, and six honorable mentions. The eight award recipients are highlighted below:

• Attorney Paul Alston of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing in Honolulu is the recipient of the first-place award. He was nominated for his work providing pro bono legal counsel in 2011 in several cases in which he led teams of lawyers from his firm that represented poor and vulnerable citizens in complaints against the State of Hawaii, for infractions such as failing to maintain public housing complexes, failing to provide equal access to healthcare and failing to process food stamp applications in a timely manner.
   
• Law student John Rafferty, of Villanova University in Villanova, Pa. is the recipient of the second-place prize. He witnessed the effects of human trafficking while serving overseas as an officer in the U.S. Navy and since then has dedicated his time and legal talents to anti-trafficking advocacy and training in Ecuador, the Republic of Georgia, Washington D.C. and in his home city with the Philadelphia Anti-Trafficking Coalition.
   
• Attorney Amelia McCarthy of Gass Weber Mullins in Milwaukee is a recipient of an honorable mention prize for her work on a mission in Namibia, where she helped strengthen an organization that serves over 450 children who are orphans or otherwise vulnerable as a result of HIV/AIDS. She also helped Namibia’s Legal Assistance Center and lawyers and judges from across southern Africa overhaul Namibia’s child care and protection laws.
   
• Law student Andrea L. Johnson at Columbia University in New York City is a recipient of an honorable mention prize for organizing a “spring break pro bono caravan” of law students to assist attorneys in rural northern Wisconsin in helping Native American clients draft wills that comply with unique Indian estate planning laws.
   
• Loyola University School of Law in Chicago is a recipient of an honorable mention award for the pro bono work done through its Life After Innocence program, which seeks to help innocent people after they have been exonerated by the justice system.
   
• Michigan State University College of Law in East Lansing is a recipient of an honorable mention award for work performed by law students involved in its Law Clinic, which consists of eight separate programs. Law students worked on a variety of issues, including immigration/human trafficking, First Amendment, housing and child advocacy. Also in 2011, the law clinic added a mobile unit to help provide services to disadvantaged people who are unable to drive to East Lansing for consultation.
   
• Davis, Polk & Wardwell, LLP, in New York is a recipient of an honorable mention award for the firm’s pro bono efforts throughout 2011, which primarily involved matters of criminal defense. In one instance, the firm’s lawyers were able to secure a new trial for a man on death row in Tennessee.
   
• Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern, LLP, in Los Angeles is a recipient of an honorable mention award for the firm’s work on behalf of a lawfully married same-sex couple denied the right to file a joint bankruptcy petition by the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The firm’s work resulted in an opinion signed by twenty California bankruptcy judges declaring the law unconstitutional, and a new federal policy of not challenging joint bankruptcy petitions filed by lawfully married couples anywhere in the United States.

To learn more about the Super Lawyers Pro Bono Award, visit http://www.superlawyers.com/about/probono_award.html.

Nominations are now open for the 2012 Harrison Tweed Award presented by the American Bar Association.

Named for an outstanding leader in the promotion of free legal services to the poor, the Harrison Tweed Award was created in 1956 to recognize the extraordinary achievements of state and local bar associations that develop or significantly expand projects or programs to increase access to civil legal services to poor persons or criminal defense services to indigents.

Pro bono programs, legal services offices, public defender programs, individual lawyers and the public are encouraged to nominate state or local bar associations for the award. Such bar associations may also submit their own applications.

Nominations are sought for any local or state bar association in the United States that has:

1. Developed or significantly expanded a project or program for providing access to legal services for the poor or
2. Demonstrated long term excellence in maintaining projects or programs providing such access.

Bar associations may apply or be nominated as long as such bar association has not been a recipient of the award for the same or a substantially similar program within the past 10 years.

Nominations are particularly encouraged with respect to associations that have developed programs for joint involvement of the private bar with organized legal services or public defender programs.

The Award will be presented at the August 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association in Chicago, Illinois, in recognition of work accomplished during the year beginning April 1, 2011. Projects which began prior to that date will be considered if substantial services have been provided during the April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012 period.

Click here for complete information on the Nomination Application Requirements. Nomination forms and all supporting materials must be sent via e-mail by the close of business on Monday, April 2, 2012.

The Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) on January 19 will honor volunteer lawyers and organizations for their pro bono contributions to LSC-funded legal aid programs in California during the Board’s meeting in San Diego this week.

Dave Jones, Insurance Commissioner for the State of California, and Jon Streeter, President of the State Bar of California, will be among the speakers at the event honoring the pro bono volunteers.

Deanell Reece Tacha, Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law, will address the LSC Board’s luncheon on January 20. Dean Tacha previously served as a Judge and Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

The pro bono service award recipients are:

• Ana de Alba, Associate at Lang, Richert & Patch, and a Board member of Central California Legal Services.
   
• Cooley LLP, which has a long history of providing support and pro bono services to the Legal Aid Society of San Diego.
   
• John F. Davis, retired Partner at Lewis, D’Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard who has volunteered for 11 years at Legal Services of Northern California.
   
• Diane Dodds, a founding Partner of Jennison & Dodds LLP who provides pro bono assistance to clients of Greater Bakersfield Legal Services.
   
• Derek Milosavljevic, an Associate in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a Board member of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County.
   
• Michael Soloff, Partner with Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, a volunteer at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.
   
• Victor M. Torres, an attorney in San Diego who provides pro bono legal services to clients of California Rural Legal Assistance.
   
• Young Lawyers Division of the Orange County Bar Association, for their pledge to assist the Legal Aid Society of Orange County in providing legal representation to qualified tenants facing eviction.

The LSC Board and its committees will meet January 19-21. The times and locations of the Board and committee meetings may be found in a notice published in the Federal Register. Members of the public who are unable to attend may listen to open sessions of the Board and Board committees by telephone, using the instructions in the notice.

LSC was established by the Congress to provide equal access to justice and to ensure the delivery of high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. The Corporation currently provides funding to 135 independent nonprofit legal aid programs in every state, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

LSC grants help address the civil legal needs of the elderly, veterans, victims of domestic violence, individuals with disabilities and others with pressing civil matters. More than 60 million Americans have incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line and qualify for civil legal assistance—an income of $13,613 for an individual and $27,938 for a family of four.

ABA Military Pro Bono Project
2012 Winter Newsletter
Military Attorneys

 

The ABA Military Pro Bono Project, www.militaryprobono.org, accepts case referrals from military legal assistance offices anywhere in the world on behalf of junior-enlisted servicemembers with civil legal issues, and it places these cases with pro bono attorneys where the legal assistance is needed in the United States. The Project also includes Operation Stand-By, through which military attorneys may seek attorney-to-attorney advice from civilian attorneys to receive guidance to help them further assist their servicemember clients.

 Thank You For Using the Project Resources!

Many of our servicemembers are troubled with legal needs that can distract them from their missions and can make their already difficult daily lives even more challenging. Thank you for registering with the Project to use the Project’s referral system, Operation Stand-By and website resources to further help our servicemembers.
 

Cases Referred for Pro Bono Legal Assistance

Since the Project’s establishment in late-2008, we have served the pro bono assistance needs of nearly 500 servicemembers and their families with over $2 million in donated billable hours from our pro bono attorney volunteers. We are proud to report that nearly half of the case referrals submitted to the Project are approved by the designated supervising military attorneys and successfully placed with volunteer attorneys. Thank you for your help by submitting case referrals!

You can find the Project’s updated referral guidelines after logging onto the website. We will be counting on you to refer only those most meritorious and deserving clients. Additionally, the thoroughness of the information submitted with case referrals, the substantive and geographic areas of cases, and other factors can influence how quickly or successfully referred cases will get placed with volunteer attorneys.

 
Acknowledge Our Volunteers and Spread the Word!

New: Salute to Pro Bono!

Did a volunteer attorney, located by the ABA Military Pro Bono Project, help one of your clients with a legal matter? If so, take this opportunity to make a quick note to acknowledge and thank a volunteer for his or her pro bono help! Click here to find further information and leave a note.

We depend on volunteer attorneys throughout the nation who are generously willing to provide pro bono help to our servicemembers who are in need of pro bono assistance. After we gather and screen submitted comments, your comment may be posted on the Project website, so website visitors can see how our volunteer attorneys are helping servicemembers with legal needs. Note that your comment may be edited so the name of your client or other personally identifying information will not be included in the post.

Spread the Word about the Project

Over 1,500 attorneys and pro bono coordinators have registered with the Project with an interest in helping our servicemembers and/or providing advice through Operation Stand-By. However, our volunteer roster must continue to grow so case referrals can be successfully and quickly placed with volunteer attorneys throughout the nation. Do you know others who might be interested in helping servicemembers with their legal needs—perhaps former law firm colleagues, law school friends, or connections within your community? Please spread the word to your networks about the Project. Encourage them to register on the Project website so they can stay up-to-date about the pro bono opportunities on behalf of our servicemembers.

 
Using the New Operation Stand-By

The Project also includes Operation Stand-By, through which you may contact civilian attorneys with legal questions relating to their geographic areas and substantive areas of expertise for attorney-to-attorney advice, so you can receive guidance that will allow you to further assist your servicemember clients.

In working with your clients, there may be times when you need state-specific legal information, or perhaps deeper analysis of a legal area with which you are less familiar. For example, due to your client’s unique facts, you may have questions about the proper jurisdiction for your client’s case, whether there is a potential legal remedy for your client’s issue in a certain state, or how a particular remedy in an unfamiliar legal area can be pursued.

Through the new Operation Stand-By lists, you may connect with civilian attorneys who can advise you on these issues. The lists are accessible by military legal assistance attorneys who are registered with the Military Pro Bono Project. Make sure that you read the Operation Stand-By guidelines, noting that clients should not communicate directly with Operation Stand-By volunteers, you may not provide any information on the Operation Stand-By lists to your clients or other individuals, and you may not contact these attorneys to seek pro bono representation for your clients.

Thank you to the ABA Family Law Section’s Military Committee, which partnered with the Project in the creation of the new Operation Stand-By in 2011.

 
New Resources and Updates on the Project Website

Project’s Online Library

Did you know that the Project has an online library filled with resources that focus on legal issues faced by servicemembers, veterans, and military family members? Log onto the website and visit the Project Library. Thanks to the Georgia Online Justice Community, about 100 new resources were recently added to the Project Library.

New Website Organization

The Project’s public website, www.militaryprobono.org, was recently reorganized so it can better accommodate potential future expansions to the Project. With the new organization, we also hope that you will find the public website easy-to-use when making case referrals and utilizing Operation Stand-By and other website resources.

 

ABA Home Front: Legal Resources for Military Families

ABA Home Front is an online resource, on www.ABAHomeFront.org, designed to help military members, veterans, and their families find legal information, referrals, and representation for civil legal matters. The ABA Home Front website includes the following:

Directory of Programs

The Directory of Programs is a national, state-by-state guide to the free and low-cost legal service programs available to assist veterans, servicemembers, and their families with all types of civil legal problems. The Directory features contact information and descriptions for military legal assistance offices, legal aid and pro bono programs, lawyer referral services, and military-specific programs.

Information Center

The Information Center provides current legal information on a variety of topics affecting military families. The legal content in the Information Center is exclusive to the ABA, adapted from a number of publications issued by ABA entities, and is written in a manner that is easily understood by non-attorney users. The Information Center features short articles on matters of interest to military members, including: (1) considerations when hiring a lawyer; (2) eligibility for free services through military legal assistance offices; (3) family law matters; and (4) legal protections available under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

 
Survey: Assessment of Judicial Training on Military Issues

An online survey is being conducted by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) with funding support from the Vivian Phillips Charitable Trust. NCJFCJ is requesting help with a very important needs assessment regarding training and technical assistance for juvenile and family courts on military issues. This survey is brief and will take less than 10 minutes to complete. NCJFCJ is asking for survey responses by January 17.

Click here to participate in the survey.

Your answers will remain completely confidential. If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Dr. Shawn Marsh at smarsh@ncjfcj.org or (775) 784-8070.

 
Dialogue: Fall 2011

Read the latest article in Dialogue— the magazine of the ABA Division for Legal Services, which brings you news and topical information about the delivery of legal services to low and moderate income people—featured by the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP): Youth in Military Families: An Invisible At-Risk Population, by Justice Bobbe J. Bridge (ret.), Merina Bigley, and Hathaway Burden.

Would you be interested in writing an article to be published in Dialogue? Review the Dialogue Writers’ Guidelines or contact Jason Vail at jason.vail@americanbar.org for more information. 

 
Recently Released Books

A Judge’s Benchbook for the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

A Judge’s Benchbook for the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, by Colonel John S. Odom, Jr., USAF, Retired, is designed to acquaint judges of all levels regarding the provisions that protect servicemembers while they serve on active duty, because many judges are unfamiliar with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The Benchbook is available on the ABA Web Store.

 

The Military Divorce Handbook

Now completely revised and expanded, the new edition of The Military Divorce Handbook, by Mark E. Sullivan, is a timely and much-needed addition to a family lawyer’s library. Both comprehensive and practical, it covers all aspects of representing servicemembers and their spouses in divorce in an accessible, easy-to-use format. This book is available on the ABA Web Store.

ABA Members may purchase these books at discounted prices!

 
Free and Discounted ABA Membership for Military Attorneys

ABA membership delivers resources that help Judge Advocates develop professionally both during their service and as they transition to civilian life.

FREE ABA Membership

Did you know that you are eligible for a free ABA membership if you are currently an active-duty Judge Advocate and have been licensed to practice law for five years or less? See further information about this membership offer!

Membership Discount

For those not eligible for a free membership, the ABA is offering a new, lower group membership rate for active-duty military lawyers, retired JAG officers, and reservists. Military lawyers can now join at the group rate for only $70 per year and pay individually through the online form.

 
Thank you to the Project’s Star Ranking Supporters!

The ABA Military Pro Bono Project depends on financial contributions from Project partners, law firms, corporations, and private individuals to further its mission to connect active-duty servicemembers and their families to attorneys willing to donate their time to deliver high-quality, free legal services. Financial support of the Project, through the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education, a 501(c)(3) entity, helps to ensure that our servicemembers receive the legal help that they need.

Special thanks to the following Star Ranking Supporters:

AM General
Bechtel
General Dynamics
Lockheed Martin
Rockwell Collins

And thank you to all of our Star Ranking Supporters acknowledged on the Project’s website.

 

Immigrants seeking legal help can now access a new website that provides information about more than 900 free or low-cost nonprofit immigration legal services providers in all 50 states. The most comprehensive resource of its kind, ImmigrationLawHelp.org helps low-income immigrants find legal help by geographic area, type of legal assistance provided, and languages spoken.

The website was created by the Immigration Advocates Network (IAN), a collaborative effort of leading immigrants’ rights organizations, and Pro Bono Net, a national nonprofit that works to increase access to justice through innovative uses of technology, and one of IAN’s founders. It was developed with support from the Four Freedoms Fund.

ImmigrationLawHelp.org is a unique resource that helps address the lack of information available to low-income immigrants by providing reliable, up-to-date listings of nonprofit immigration legal services providers. In addition to basic contact information, the website allows users to find organizations by languages spoken, types of legal and other services provided, and specific areas of legal assistance. The website is available in English and Spanish.

”ImmigrationLawHelp.org illustrates the potential of technology to distribute critical information to those in need,” said Mark O’Brien, Executive Director of Pro Bono Net. “The site will also enable librarians, social services providers and others to more easily assist immigrants looking for legal services.”

“This is an important resource that, for the first time, opens the door to the hundreds of charitable legal organizations for low-income immigrants seeking legal services online,” said Matthew Burnett, Director of the Immigration Advocates Network. “ImmigrationLawHelp.org provides a comprehensive resource to ensure that immigrants in need of legal assistance find the services that meet their specific needs.”
 

About Immigration Advocates Network

Immigration Advocates Network (IAN) is a collaborative effort of leading immigrants’ rights organizations designed to increase access to justice for low-income immigrants and strengthen the capacity of organizations serving them. IAN promotes more effective and efficient communication and collaboration among immigration advocates and organizations by providing free, easily accessible and comprehensive online resources and tools. IAN’s partners include the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, American Bar Association Commission on Immigration, American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, ASISTA, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, National Immigration Law Center, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Pro Bono Net, and the Advocates for Human Rights. For more information, visit www.immigrationadvocates.org.

About Pro Bono Net

Pro Bono Net is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to justice through innovative uses of technology and increased volunteer lawyer participation. Pro Bono Net uses innovative web-based platforms—www.probono.net, www.lawhelp.org and www.lawhelpinteractive.org —to recruit and support volunteer lawyers and provide direct information and tools for self representation to low-income communities. For more information, visit www.probono.net.

 

The holiday get together for North Penn Legal Services Bethlehem Office had a little extra celebration on Wednesday, December 21, 2011, as lawyers and staff of the Northampton County program joined the Pennsylvania Bar Association in honoring local attorney Michelle DeWald for her pro bono service as DeWald was honored with the 2011 Pennsylvania Bar Association pro Bono Award.

DeWald volunteers at North Penn’s Bethlehem office every Tuesday to assist as needed with bankruptcy, consumer, and mortgage foreclosure cases. She is also available to staff there whenever they have questions in these areas of law.

“At a time when Pennsylvania is dealing with a civil legal aid crisis which sees more than half the people who make it to a legal aid office and qualify for legal aid being turned away from receiving such help because of a lack of resources, DeWald’s commitment of pro bono service is a tremendous example for other lawyers and the public at large,” noted Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Coordinator David Trevaskis as he presented DeWald with her award.

“Despite special fees and a loan forgiveness program for civil legal aid attorneys starting its second year, the justice system just does not have the professional resources to meet the growing need for such services in these tough economic times,” Trevaskis explained. “The commitment of pro bono lawyers like Michelle DeWald significantly extend the resources of legal aid available for the neediest among us.”

There are nearly 70,000 attorneys licensed in Pennsylvania. According to recently released data from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Program, pro bono services by Pennsylvania lawyers provide the annual equivalent service of 61 full-time legal aid lawyers.

Pennsylvania Bar President Matt Creme knows that pro bono service cannot replace the work of fully funded legal aid offices. “It is only within a well supported legal aid program, that there is a structure for organized pro bono service to make a difference,” Creme stated. “As funding for legal aid programming faces cuts in these hard economic times and the number of persons needing such service grows, the work of attorneys such as Michelle DeWald and others around the Commonwealth provides access to justice for many who otherwise would be without legal representation.”