Volunteers

The Lawyers Clearinghouse relies on its volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono legal services. We could not achieve our mission to promote the development of affordable housing, reduce homelessness, and strengthen communities without the support and hard work of our volunteer attorneys. We are truly grateful for their generous donation of time and legal skills.

Volunteer Spotlight

In early 2002, Don Pinto of Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster volunteered to assist HAP, Inc., a Springfield non-profit housing agency, with a legal request made to the Lawyers Clearinghouse. HAP had received a Chapter 40B comprehensive permit to build 27 units of desperately needed affordable housing in Amherst, and that permit had been appealed by a large, well-organized, highly motivated neighborhood association. After extensive discovery and an important summary judgment decision in HAP’s favor (holding that the Amherst ZBA could issue a comprehensive permit even though the town had already reached the statutory threshold of 10% affordable housing), the case was tried in the fall of 2003. The Land Court ruled in favor of HAP and its co-defendant the Amherst ZBA on all issues, and upheld HAP’s comprehensive permit. The plaintiffs appealed, and last year the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the Land Court’s decision in all respects, holding that city or town that has reached the statutory threshold of 10% affordable housing under Chapter 40B can continue to grant comprehensive permits if a higher level of affordable housing is “consistent with local needs” in that community. The SJC’s decision is reported as Boothroyd v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Amherst, 449 Mass. 333 (2007).

While the Chapter 40B appeal was pending before the Land Court, one of the plaintiffs in that case, a direct abutter, filed a separate Land Court case in which he alleged that he had acquired a prescriptive easement across the middle of HAP’s land. Don agreed to represent HAP pro bono in that case as well. The case went to trial in the summer of 2004, resulting in a Land Court decision that the plaintiff had established the claimed easement. Don, on behalf of HAP, appealed, and the Appeals Court reversed the Land Court’s decision and dismissed the case. The Appeals Court’s decision is reported as Boothroyd v. Bogartz, 68 Mass. App. Ct. 40 (2007).

Don represented HAP in the two principal cases (the comprehensive permit appeal and the prescriptive easement claim) through trial on a pro bono basis. The value of his time, plus the related disbursements (which were donated by his firm, Rackemann Sawyer & Brewster) was over $225,000. Don agreed to handle the appeals in those cases, as well as two additional trial court cases spawned by the prescriptive easement claim, at a substantially discounted rate. The total value to HAP of that discount was about $25,000, bringing the total value of the contributed work to over $250,000.

In recognition of his extraordinary commitment to pro bono work over the course of more than five years which resulted in the SJC decision last year supporting a town’s 40B development decision, Don is our Pro Bono Superstar. This SJC decision will help numerous communities’ and nonprofit agencies’ efforts to maintain and increase the stock of affordable and sustainable housing across the Commonwealth for low-income people.