Newsletter

Clearinghouse Expands Educational Program

The Clearinghouse’s educational program continues to grow with a number of new or expanded partnerships and collaborations. What started as a workshop on employment law for nonprofits in partnership with Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, is now a series of workshops on a variety of topics of interest to nonprofits including recent workshops on corporate governance for nonprofits and the new Form 990. This seminar series will further expand geographically through the regional offices of Boston Private Bank to make the seminars more accessible to nonprofits outside of Boston. We also continue to partner with the Boston Public Library to offer an annual nonprofit incorporation workshop there and to collaborate with Jericho Road Lawrence, a business referral organization in Lawrence, to offer seminars on risk management and Form 990. All of these programs have been very well attended.

The Clearinghouse has also expanded its collaboration with area law firms to offer training for prospective pro bono lawyers and in finding pro bono instructors. Goodwin Procter; Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; DLA Piper; Klein Hornig; PreventIt Law; Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green; and the CPA firm Parent McLaughlin & Nagle all contributed generously by hosting trainings and/or providing pro bono attorneys on a regular basis.

We have also partnered with many groups on other educational programs including the Boston Bar Association; Foreclosure ask Force; United Way; Urban Edge; Nuestra Comunidad; Real Estate Bar Association; City of Boston; DLA Piper; Sherin and Lodgen; MACDC; and CHAPA.

Finally, the Clearinghouse recently became the local host organization for a legal seminar series organized by Pfizer and DLA Piper. Through this series, the Clearinghouse will be offering several additional high quality legal seminars each year to area nonprofits on timely topics including the most recent program, Use of Volunteers in Nonprofit Organizations.

In total, over the past year, the Clearinghouse offered fourteen (14) legal workshops for area nonprofits, serving three hundred and thirty five (335) representatives of nonprofits, and four (4) lawyer trainings, serving one hundred and eighty (180) pro bono lawyers. This year, we hope to offer even more educational programs for nonprofits and pro bono lawyers in collaboration with our valued partners.

For more information about our educational programs, please visit our website at www.lawyersclearinghouse.org/events

Thank You to our Legal Clinic Partners

The Lawyers Clearinghouse operates the Massachusetts Legal Clinic for the Homeless (MLCH), a collaborative of eight of the state’s largest law firms, providing on-site legal services to the guests of the Pine Street Inn, St. Francis House, Medeiros Center, and hopeFound (formerly know as the Shattuck Shelter). The program, started in 1994, has served more than 1,800 homeless families and individuals. Last year alone, one hundred and eighty-one (181) homeless men and women received pro bono legal services at sixteen (16) clinics, with an estimated value of $450,000 in pro bono legal services.We are very grateful to our participating firms including Brown Rudnick; Choate, Hall & Stewart; Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge; Goulston & Storrs; Mintz Levin; Nixon Peabody; Ropes & Gray; and WilmerHale. In addition, thank you to Connie Browne, Bob Burdick, Judy Diamond, and Lois Knight from Boston University Law School Clinical program; Julie McCormack from WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School; and Ellie Hertzberg for their continued support.

Volunteer lawyers from Goulston & Storrs and Brown Rudnick are pictured below at legal clinics at Pine Street Inn and hopeFound.

Pro Bono Spotlight – Kate Beattie

Kate Beattie, an associate at Mintz Levin, along with her colleagues, Katrina Kropa and Liliane Ndong, met with a wheelchair-bound client at Pine Street Inn in June 2007, as part of the Clearinghouse’s legal clinic program. A local housing authority had denied the client’s application for housing two times, citing her previous criminal activity and substance abuse as the reasons for denial. In July 2007, Kate submitted a request for reconsideration of the housing authority’s denial, arguing that the mitigating factors weighed in her client’s favor and that the housing authority had cited irrelevant regulations. A victim of sexual and physical abuse for years, the client’s criminal activity had been precipitated by her substance abuse. Furthermore, much of her criminal record was more than ten years old, she had not been involved in criminal activity for two years, and she was sober. The reconsideration request was denied in December 2007.Not deterred, she then filed an appeal of the decision with the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. In April 2008, Kate and her colleague, George Price, represented the client at a hearing before a DHCD hearing officer. They presented several references and recommendation letters from the client’s peers, neighbors, and counselors. The client also testified about the steps she had taken to improve her life.

The DHCD issued its decision in May 2008. The DHCD hearing officer refused to uphold the housing authority’s decision and remanded the case back to the housing authority. The hearing officer reasoned that the housing authority’s notices (of the grounds of the client’s disqualification) were defective. On remand, the hearing officer recommended that the housing authority consider the new mitigating evidence presented at the hearing, and conduct any necessary follow-up investigation.

In August 2008, Kate and her client met with the housing authority tenant selector for a new housing interview. The client did well, and the tenant selector herself remarked how much she had transformed since she first interviewed for housing. As an illustration, when our client first applied for housing at the housing authority, she was 7 months sober – she was now 31 months sober and working on her GED, with plans to go for a counseling degree at Massasoit Community College in the Spring.

The housing authority soon after approved the client’s application for housing. When Kate contacted the client to tell her the good news, the client was beyond thrilled and said that Kate and her associates at Mintz Levin had “changed her life and that meeting them at the Pine Street Inn legal clinic was a true blessing”. Kate’s client has now moved into her own 1 bedroom apartment.

Kate commented that, “It has been such a rewarding experience for me to work with this client to achieve her dream of having a place to call home. She really taught me so much about resilience, courage, and faith”. She recognized those from her firm that worked with her on the case including Katrina Kropa, Liliane Ndong, Sarah Herlihy, George Price, and Sue Finegan, and thanked them for providing invaluable insight, encouragement, and know-how.

On behalf of the Lawyers Clearinghouse and the homeless clients we serve, thank you to Kate, her colleagues, and our Mintz Levin clinic coordinators, Jehanne Bjornebye and Colin Van Dyke.

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On a budget of only $200k, we are able to provide the community with over 4 million dollars of donated legal services. The nonprofits that receive our services are then able to provide extensive services in their own communities.