Lawyers Clearinghouse Newsletter

Summer 2009

Lawyers Clearinghouse 21st Annual Meeting

The Lawyers Clearinghouse celebrated its 21st Annual Meeting on June 9th at Nixon Peabody.  Event Co-Chairs Joseph Flatley, Andrew Stern,and Kurt James (back row left to right) are pictured here with honoree Esther Schlorholtz, Director of Community Investment at Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, special guest Governor Deval Patrick, and board member Cindy Rowe (front row left to right).

The Legal Clinic Coordinators from Brown Rudnick; Choate Hall & Stewart; DLA Piper US; Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge; Goulston & Storrs; Mintz Levin; Nixon Peabody; Ropes & Gray; and WilmerHale were also honored for their dedication to serving the legal needs of the guests of Pine Street Inn, St. Francis House, Cardinal Medeiros Center, and hopeFound.

We are very grateful to Nixon Peabody for hosting our event and to Forrest Milder for the wonderful pictures he has provided for us.

Finally, thank you to our Event Committee for their hard work in making the event such a great success:

Joseph Flatley, MHIC
Event Committee Co-Chair

Kurt A. James, Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster, P.C.
Event Committee Co-Chair

Andrew Stern, Foley & Lardner LLP
Event Committee Co-Chair

Sara E. Barcan, Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation
Nancy I. Blueweiss, Massachusetts Housing Partnership
Leslie J. Cook, Chicago Title Insurance Company
Steven M. Cowley, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP
Kim Martin-Epstein, Bartlett Hackett Feinberg P.C.
Evelyn Friedman, City of Boston, Department of Neighborhood Development
Aaron Gornstein, CHAPA
Douglas M. Henry, Sherin and Lodgen LLP
Mossik Hacobian, Urban Edge
Jeffrey R. Katz, Ropes & Gray LLP
Julia Kehoe, MA Department of Transitional Assistance
Karen J. Kepler, Goulston & Storrs, P.C.
Joe Kriesberg, MA Association of Community Development Corporations
M. Chrysa Long, Holland & Knight LLP
Gina Martinez, ETC Development Corporation
Josephine A. McNeil, CAN-DO
George W. Mykulak, WilmerHale
Theodore Noell, Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston
Stephen M. Nolan, Nolan Sheehan Patten LLP
Chris Norris, Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership
Kathleen M. Phelps, Bingham McCutchen LLP
Becky Regan, Boston Community Capital
Christian A. Rivera, Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP
Roberta Rosenberg, The Second Step
Cindy A. Rowe, Rowe Resources
Jeffrey W. Sacks, Nixon Peabody LLP
Rita M. Schwantes, Klein Hornig LLP
Naomi Sweitzer, HomeStart, Inc.
Paul Tremblay, Boston College Law School
Kathleen Tullberg, Massachusetts Community and Banking Council
Benjamin B. Tymann, Mintz Levin
Mark Winkeller, Caritas Communities, Inc.
Clark Ziegler, Massachusetts Housing Partnership

Thank You Jay Logsdon and Meredith Harrington

The Lawyers Clearinghouse is very grateful to our legal intern, Jay Logsdon, and office intern, Meredith Harrington, for their invaluable help this summer.

In addition to covering for staff during vacations, Jay assisted at the Massachusetts Legal Clinic for the Homeless, updated and improved the legal clinic database, contributed to the newsletter, and worked on our Annual Meeting program.  He also assisted clients and provided legal research on several matters including adoption, child support, intellectual property, and Social Security.  We will miss Jay and wish him the best in his second year at Boston University School of Law.

Meredith followed in her sister Carlie’s footsteps by volunteering at the Clearinghouse two days a week this summer.  She assisted us with data entry, case follow-up, and compilation of survey results.  She also was very helpful at the Annual Meeting and created a PowerPoint on the history of the Clearinghouse.  Good luck to Meredith in her final year at Loyola and law school to follow.

Pro Bono Spotlight – Emily Hodge, Esq.

Emily Hodge, an associate at Choate Hall & Stewart and Lawyers Clearinghouse volunteer for the past four years, took the time to answer some questions from our intern about what it is like to volunteer at the Lawyers Clearinghouse while managing life as a litigator at Choate.

How did you become involved in Pro Bono?

I’ve been involved in community service-type activities for years – I think I started doing the Walk for Hunger in fifth grade, thanks to a really inspirational teacher!  I participated in various charitable activities throughout college, and in law school at Georgetown I worked on a volunteer project for DC Prisoner Legal Services and spent a semester volunteering at Break the Cycle, an organization that educates youth and members of the community about teen dating violence.  I also participated in the Domestic Violence Clinic at Georgetown, which was an absolutely amazing experience.  After my clinic work I knew that my legal career would always include some sort of pro bono component, and Choate’s pro bono program was one of the things that drew me to the firm.

As I have gained experience as an attorney, it has become even more clear to me that our training as lawyers provides us with a certain skill set that is especially valuable to people who are trying to navigate an often overwhelming legal system, and I can’t imagine not feeling compelled to use my skills to provide pro bono services to people who otherwise could not afford representation.

How did you find out about the Lawyers Clearinghouse?  What was your first clinic experience like?

Choate has a long established relationship with the Lawyers Clearinghouse, and runs legal clinics at local homeless shelters twice a year.  As a 2005 Summer Associate, I had the opportunity to attend one of the clinics run by Choate at the Pine Street Inn.  I helped to conduct intake interviews with several clients that day, and continued to work on two of the cases that arose from the clinic.  One was an immigration case, and the other involved CORI issues.  I thoroughly enjoyed my work on those cases – and particularly valued the opportunity to get to know the clients and to use legal resources to positively impact their personal struggles.

When I joined Choate as a litigation associate in the Fall of 2006, I took on two LC cases involving Social Security benefits.  I was able to represent both clients in hearings before Administrative Law Judges, which provided me with challenging litigation work at a very junior level.  Since then, I have consistently handled LC cases.  As of last fall, I have acted as co-chair of the LC program here at Choate, and have now managed two clinics and the corresponding cases that arose from them.  The LC cases provide opportunities for very junior attorneys to gain valuable litigation experience that they otherwise may not get on traditional, more complex matters until later in their careers.  This experience includes extensive client contact, strategic decision making and representation at hearings – all of which enhance our skills as attorneys.

My own professional development certainly has been enhanced by my LC work.  Over the years I have represented clients in a wide range of matters.  Last summer I represented a client who was at risk of losing his food stamp benefits due to an error by the Department of Transitional Assistance (”DTA”).  We worked with our client to piece together all the salient facts and drafted a persuasive brief asserting that our client had not intentionally misrepresented any information, and that DTA made an incorrect decision.  Our success meant that our client could retain his much-needed food stamp benefits.  Our representation also provided him with an opportunity to have his voice heard.  Working with this client was a great experience.  He was diligent and responsible, and he was working very hard to turn his life around.

This past June, two days before we were scheduled to conduct a clinic at St. Francis House, I received a call from this client’s shelter counselor.  The client had undergone several surgeries in the past few years, and was experiencing significant complications.  He had been advised that the physician who performed the initial surgery may have made a serious mistake, but before he considered a malpractice claim, he wanted to understand the impact that a favorable judgment might have on his benefits, which he had worked very hard to secure, and without which he would not be able to survive.  We were able to meet with the client at the clinic that week, and it was wonderful to see him again.  With the help of a Summer Associate, we conducted the research the client needed, and met with him to review our findings and advise him about his benefits.  The client was extremely appreciative, and I had a sense that I had really made a difference for him.  Last week I received a thank-you card from the client and his shelter counselor, and it was a great feeling.

I am grateful for the professional opportunities that the LC provides me, am honored to represent the clients, and am proud to be a part of the program.

How would you compare the work you do through the Lawyers Clearinghouse to your work at Choate?

I think the work that I do for LC clients complements, and even enhances, the work that I do for traditional Choate clients.  In most instances, the cases I work on for LC clients involve more defined, less complex issues, but require more direct responsibility for the case outcomes.  I am able to gain management and strategic experiences on my LC cases, which make me more confident in these areas in my work for our traditional clients.

Working with LC clients also makes me a happier person, and thus, a better lawyer.  My LC work makes me feel accomplished professionally, and rewarded personally, and that sense of accomplishment certainly enhances my professional practice as well as my personal life.  Being a lawyer can be all-encompassing, and when your work is challenging and rewarding, this can be a great thing.

Is it manageable to be involved in Pro Bono while trying to do your job?

Fortunately, I work for a firm that really values pro bono work, so not only is it manageable, but it is valued.  Associates are encouraged to be involved in pro bono work while doing other work.  I consider my pro bono cases to be part of my overall workload, along with my traditional work.  When important deadlines or projects arise on any one of my cases, I put that case at the forefront, regardless of whether the case is traditional or pro bono.  A client is a client no matter who they are or how their case came to my desk.  There is, of course, a certain amount of balancing that goes on, and the more you practice, the more you learn about prioritizing and juggling an active caseload.  However, juggling cases and prioritizing matters and tasks is something that any attorney does, whether or not they do pro bono work.  So for me, my pro bono cases are part of my caseload and I manage them with the same diligence and attention with which I manage the projects on my other cases.

The Lawyers Clearinghouse is very grateful to Emily and Choate Hall & Stewart for their support of the Massachusetts Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Legal Clinic for the Homeless Schedule

The Legal Clinic schedule for 2009 – 2010 is as follows:

Friday, September 11 – Pine Street Inn
Friday, September 25 – St. Francis House
Friday, October 2 – hopeFound
Friday, October 23 – MedeirosCenter
Friday, November 6 – Pine Street Inn
Friday, November 20 – St. Francis House
Friday, December 4 – MedeirosCenter
Friday, January 29 – IMPACT
Friday, February 12 – St. Francis House
Friday, February 26 – Pine Street Inn
Friday, March 12 – Medeiros Center
Friday, March 26 – hopeFound
Friday, April 16 – St. Francis House
Friday, May 7 – Pine Street Inn
Friday, May 21 – Medeiros Center
Friday, June 11 – St. Francis House
Friday, June 18 – IMPACT
Friday, June 25 – Pine Street Inn