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The Tennessee Volunteer
Spring 2001
NewsletterArticles
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Law Schools and Equal Access to Justice
By Thomas C. Galligan, Jr.
In 1981, I went to work for what was then a large law firm in
Seattle, Washington — it had 85 lawyers. At the time MTV was being
born and the first video being played on MTV was a song called
“Video Killed the Radio Star.” I had no idea what the practice
of law would do to my little star. I also had no idea what I would
do in the practice of law. My father was a lawyer. He did labor
and advertising work for Colgate-Palmolive. So, I knew a little
bit about what lawyers did — at least lawyers who worked for corporations.
Additionally, while my father was a lawyer by day, he was also
a lawyer by night and on the weekend. The practice of law was
one of his hobbies. (Yes, I know what the mental health experts
say.) My father wrote wills for people, helped them buy and sell
their houses, helped them with divorces, and did various and sundry
other tasks for which he charged either nothing or very little.
Since my father did not drive a car, once I learned to drive and
turned eighteen, I was frequently called on to be a witness of
wills throughout the state of New Jersey.
But, that was my father’s career. What would I do? Who was I as
a lawyer? In my firm, I was joining a department called Commercial
Litigation, whatever that was. Early in my tenure with the firm
a man with thinning and not too carefully combed hair and a little
beard that we now call a van dyke came into my office. This guy
was moving in every direction at once. He looked a little bit
like the main character in the Trogg song “Wild Thing.” To make
matters even more confusing, the office in which I was working
was not really mine. It belonged to a senior partner in the firm
who had suffered a stroke. The partner had kept his office because
his doctor had said that it was good for him to have a place to
periodically go. I had been warned that if the senior partner
in whose office I was housed ever entered the building I was supposed
to get out of the office before he noticed I was in it. Believe
me, I felt welcomed. That day just for a second I was worried
that the person in front of me was the partner in whose office
I was bivouacked. But then it occurred to me that this guy was
a little bit too young and a little too frantic. In fact, he was
not the lawyer in whose office I was a squatter.
The person in my office was a partner in the firm named Matt Kenney.
Matt had been at the firm almost ten years. Before that he had
been an antitrust lawyer for one of Washington, DC’s most prestigious
firms. Matt said he was in my office to find out if I was a New
York Yankee fan. Matt was from Long Island — Billy Joel country.
I was from New Jersey — Bruce Springsteen territory. We were kindred
spirits. And, yes, I was a Yankee fan like him. But, what Matt
really wanted to know was when I was going to go to Evergreen
Legal Services. This was ELS, not ELO. Matt explained that two
times a month someone from our firm went to Evergreen Legal Services
to meet clients. If appropriate we would take the clients back
to the firm with us and open files. One of my former clients still
calls me.
Matt did not ask me if I wanted to go to Evergreen. He did not
ask me if I satisfied my pro bono obligation by doing something
other than representing those in our society who would not otherwise
be represented. He didn’t ask me if I preferred impact cases to
the kind of cases I would be handling through Evergreen. He asked
me, quite simply, when I would be going to Evergreen Legal Services!
Matt told me that it was my responsibility to go and represent
people who would not otherwise be represented. He told me that
our justice system depended upon it. He informed me that providing
legal services to low income individuals was my obligation as
a practicing attorney. I believed him then, and I’m still a believer.
I couldn’t change my mind if I tried. With Matt in my office that
day, I just signed up. Like the Rolling Stones were singing back
then “Start Me Up.”
Others asked Matt about billable hours at the firm. He told them
that their work through Evergreen Legal Services counted as part
of their billable hour requirement. Some asked Matt about staff
support. He explained to them that at our firm at that time all
our staff support services were available for our Evergreen clients.
Still others started to ask him more questions but Matt would
tell them that they would become better lawyers through their
representation of Evergreen clients. He told them that it was
a firm commitment. He didn’t care about political commitment;
he didn’t care what school you went to, what your upbringing was,
what your race was, what your gender was, or what your sexual
orientation was. He just wanted lawyers to handle cases through
Evergreen Legal Services.
A few years later after I left the firm to go into legal education,
Matt left the firm to join the Peace Corps. While Matt was away
the firm commitment to Evergreen Legal Services and to low income
individual representation/pro bono work dwindled. Now, Matt is
working for another firm but he still does pro bono work like
crazy. Now, he works the phones at the Pacific Northwest Justice
Center advising people about family law and domestic violence
issues. He is still doing his thing.
Matt Kenney has inspired many people. He lost many others, but
like Bob Seiger said, he’s “Still the Same.” He doesn’t focus
on the losses, he doesn’t focus on the gains. He focuses on the
individuals who call him on the phone and seek and need his legal
advice. Among those who Matt inspired is John McKay, the person
who is now in charge of the Legal Services Corporation. While
I will go on from here in this little piece to talk about what
law schools can do and The University of Tennessee’s Equal Access
to Justice Colloquium last fall, I’m writing this because of my
friend Matt Kenney. We need more Matt Kenneys. We need people
like Matt in law schools, in law offices, and in legal aide societies.
But now let me tell you a little bit about what we did at The
University of Tennessee on October 13 & 14, 2000. The Association
of American Law Schools is sponsoring a nationwide, nineteen colloquia
series on Equal Access to Justice. I’m proud to say that my colleague,
Professor Dean Rivkin, is the national project Director. Through
Dean’s hard work The University of Tennessee was lucky enough
to host one of the first colloquiums. Our colloquium was called
Building an Equal Justice Community. Our title reminded me a little
bit of the Jesse Collin Young and The Youngblood’s song “Everybody
Get Together.” Well, we did get together. The colloquium was extremely
well attended, particularly by many of the people who represent
Tennessee’s under-represented through Tennessee’s legal service
providers. The colloquium was a day of extremely good interchange
and conversation.
We had programs on perspectives on legal needs, directions for
law schools, community legal assistance networks, the impact of
the civil justice planning process on access to justice in Tennessee,
immigration advocacy, innocence projects, pro bono representation,
and forging new roles and relationships to promote equal justice.
We hope very much that over the two days existing relationships
were cemented and new relationships were born. We hope that we
provided a forum for us to talk about some of the most pressing
issues, and that we impressed upon you that we legal educators
want to play a role in what you do. But, what as legal educators
did we get out of it? Or, what more can we do? Like Steve Earle
says, “I ain’t ever satisfied.”
Basically, as legal educators, we all know that we do instill
values. At the colloquium, we were reminded that we legal educators
can have a profound impact upon our students’ views on public
interest work, legal service work, and pro bono work. While we
instill values we certainly do not all agree on everything in
the academy. That’s one of the things that makes us diverse, distinctive,
and devoted to what we do. But while we don’t all agree, we do
know that we can work hard to create a culture of service among
our students. Like Matt Kenney did at my law firm, we can do more
to impress upon our students the importance of public interest
work and pro bono work. Whether they go to work for a legal service
provider, a public defender, a prosecutor, or a large law firm,
our students can all do public interest work. They can all do
pro bono work. You can help us to create a culture of service
in the academy. On Friday, October 14, our students heard from
you, public interest and public service lawyers of the state of
Tennessee. It made a great difference to them. We thank you.
Moving from values to resources, we all have limited resources.
Legal service providers need money; we need money. But, by combining
our efforts we, together, have more resources than we have alone.
Law schools add resources to the battle to provide access to justice
for all. We provide real people who handle real cases. First,
we provide people through our clinics. At least three of the four
law schools in Tennessee have clinics. The UT clinic has been
open and providing legal representation to the needy since 1947,
the longest continually operating legal clinic in the United States.
Now, almost seventy University of Tennessee College of Law students
per year work in our clinic. That is almost one half of each graduating
class. In the clinic our students are supervised by our extremely
able faculty. The ratio is eight students to every one teacher,
or better. That is a serious and profound commitment of resources
to what we think is an important educational mission. Additionally,
at the University of Tennessee, like Tennessee’s other law schools,
our students participate in pro bono activity. One of the ways
the University of Tennessee’s students participate is through
our student led UT Pro Bono Project. The students work with the
Knoxville Legal Aid Society at its Saturday bar and with its domestic
violence project. They also work with faculty and others to provide
assistance at homeless shelters throughout the Knoxville area
and are now creating an Innocence Project. Other students work
through our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program to help people
with their taxes. We are working with Rural Legal Services of
Tennessee to develop a tax clinic, remember the Beatles and “Tax
Man.” While we do good work we can do better. We must sustain
our relationships with you. The pro bono directors of the legal
service organizations need to be with us more and we need to be
with them more. They need to be present in Tennessee’s law schools.
Our faculty needs to build relationships with you, too. There
are certainly ways in which those faculty who choose to do so
could help. We need to continue to “count” pro bono and we need
to publicize what our faculty and students are doing. We need
to talk to law firms about how important pro bono work is not
just to our system of justice but also to our students and how
it will enrich their lives.
We can also provide research resources. We have students who can
help with research on briefs, on pleadings, or in the development
of flow charts that would aid pro bono attorneys to understand
areas of the law in which they have not worked before.
We can help to build bridges with other departments within the
university. Now, our clinical faculty at UT are working with the
Department of Psychology to give clinical psychology students
the opportunity to work with clinic clients. Perhaps we could
build bridges to social work and language resources as well.
Of all we do, our core strength is teaching. Law schools could
help with training for legal service attorneys. We could provide
substantive training. We could provide assistance with trial practice
and evidence training. We teach; we can help you there. At The
University of Tennessee we have an Advocacy Center which has sponsored
programs with the Habeas Institute, the Tennessee Association
of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and more. In addition, we have put
on an ABA Section of Litigation program for legal services attorneys,
the largest of its kind in the country.
Like you, we are on the verge of a new technologically driven
environment. Together, we could learn more. Together, we could
learn more from those people who know more than us — our students.
What about some possible limitations on law school involvement
in public interest and pro bono work? First, there is a resource
issue and I have discussed that issue. Second, as in many law
school activities there is the issue of cycles. Interest in activities
ebbs and flows. As I mentioned earlier, our relationship with
legal service providers must not ebb. We must sustain it but it
will be a challenge as different student groups throughout the
years will be more or less interested in public interest or pro
bono work. We must work hard to even out the inevitable affects
of these natural cycles.
Another issue is actually one of our strengths. As I said earlier,
we are a diverse intellectual community. We all don’t believe
the same thing or feel the same way. A big part of what we are
about is tolerating those differences. One remembers the Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young song (yes, Young was in the group then)
“We Can Change the World” (Graham Nash sung it). Well, everybody
doesn’t want to change the world. Some work hard to avoid changing
the world. Consequently, personal relationships will be much more
promising and enduring than institutional commitments or slogans.
Personal relationships will do more to build meaningful programs
than philosophies or concepts, but then that’s my bias about how
the world works. I may be wrong.
Let me conclude with just a few ideas about law schools and Tennessee’s
legal service organizations. First, I am personally excited by
the task forces which you have built and which you continue to
build upon. These are state wide work groups that, at least to
this observer, show real promise. I would urge you to consider
trying to get more faculty involved in those task forces. Faculty
then could try to organize students into groups along the task
force lines. As a result the task forces would become rich, inclusive
groups. I’m thinking about Carole King and “Tapestry” here.
Secondly, I had the good fortune to be invited to the annual meeting
of the Tennessee Association of Legal Services to address you
last fall — actually, most of what I have written here is based
upon that talk. It would be a wonderful thing if clinical faculty
from Tennessee’s law schools and pro bono coordinators from those
law schools could join you at Fall Creek Falls as well. The relationships
that could be built would improve overall access to justice.
Finally, fellowships that would allow you to take a sabbatical
from your legal services work and come spend a semester with us
as a resource person for our clinical programs and our pro bono
efforts would be a phenomenal step in the right direction. Being
with law students energizes a person. It recommits us to why we
went to law school in the first place. Not only would the fellowship
have a positive impact for legal service lawyers but would be
a wonderful help to law schools. In conclusion, let us keep working
together. Let us build on our relationships and do even more.
Like the song says (or at least it should) ‘Let’s Keep on Rockin’.”
n
Thomas Galligan is the Dean of the University of Tennessee College
of Law.
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Predatory lending
By Margaret Barr-Meyers
There has been much in the news recently about “predatory lending”
and its devastating effects on the poor and the elderly. What
is predatory lending and what is being done about it here in Memphis
and throughout the country?
Beginning in the early 1990’s, the U.S. saw a proliferation of
loan-makers that were not regulated as banks are. These lenders
focused their efforts in geographic and ethnic areas that had
become underserved by traditional banks. Inevitably, the people
to whom these “subprime” loans were made were minorities and low-income.
Lenders justified charging high fees and interest rates, claiming
these types of loans were risky and likely to end in default by
the borrower.
After years of these practices, some subprime lenders and mortgage
brokers have become “predators” and simply victimize unsophisticated
consumers who want nothing more than to own their own home or
have some money to repair the home they already own.
We, at The Memphis Fair Housing Center, a part of Memphis Area
Legal Services, Inc., have seen two primary manifestations of
predatory lending in the Memphis area. The first targets persons
who are looking to purchase their first home. Typically, these
persons are African-American, and uneducated. They rely upon a
real estate agent, who purports to represent them in locating
and purchasing a house. The transactions are engineered to produce
income for the agent, the appraiser, the mortgage broker, and
others — by grossly inflating the price of the home and deceiving
the borrower about the price and the terms of the resulting loan
they receive from the lender.
The second, and probably more despicable practice, involves the
refinancing of and home improvements to the houses of long-time
homeowners. The victims in this type of predatory lending are
minority, elderly homeowners, most often women. They are bombarded
with solicitations from mortgage brokers and home improvement
companies, who promise that these consumers can consolidate their
bills, obtain needed repairs to their house, and have a low monthly
payment as a result. Unfortunately, by the time the elderly consumer
realizes that she has been deceived, she has a mortgage on her
house, shoddy repairs, and notes each month that she cannot afford.
It is all to heartbreakingly common for a victim in this scenario
to end up in foreclosure, after living for decades in a home she
thought she could one day pass on to her children.
The Memphis Fair Housing Center is currently involved in litigation
involving both types of predatory lending. The legal claims include
violations of the Truth in Lending Act, the Tennessee Consumer
Protection Act, race discrimination, fraud and conspiracy. The
tactics and practices of the numerous defendants are coming under
close scrutiny. We are hopeful that more litigation in this area
will help eliminate many of these practices that are used to harm
our clients.
A more permanent solution involves legislative changes — both
at state and federal levels. Some states, including North Carolina
and New York, have passed laws restricting the practices of subprime
lenders. Hopefully, with heightened public awareness and regulatory
changes, along with ongoing advocacy, predatory lending will become
a thing of the past.n
Margaret Barr-Meyers is the managing attorney of the Memphis Fair
Housing Center at Memphis Area Legal Services Inc.
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Guest Opinion: Where's the consideration?
By Michael Roebuck
Imagine this. You are a 75-year-old stroke victim, bound to a
wheelchair with difficulty communicating — all as a result of
your stroke. You are on fixed income — social security. You receive
a little over $830 per month to live on, which is not much, but
you manage — you barely manage, but you manage. You have a house
with a mortgage. The mortgage rate is around 8%. Your payments
are $220 per month, a little more than a fourth of your income.
You have a few small debts amounting to about $339, and you are
a little short of cash most of the time.
Then one day a telemarketer calls with what sounds like the answer
to your prayers — a loan that will not only pay off those debts,
but will also put some cash in your pocket. You need the extra
cash and it all sounds good so you tell them you are interested.
Shortly thereafter a “pretty lady” from the Tennessee Home Loan
Mortgage Corporation shows up on your front porch with $1,000
cash and a stack of papers for you to sign. She assures you that
she is there to help you, and you believe her. You sign the papers
not really knowing what you signing, relying on the assurances
of the “pretty lady” who says she is there to help you. She not
only gives you the $1,000, but also says she will pay off your
other bills totaling $339. The total value you receive is $1,339.
In exchange, you unwittingly agreed to allow the Tennessee Home
Loan Mortgage Corporation to refinance your home. To do this they
charged you $6,051.04 in settlement charges. Your mortgage payment
went from $220 per month, an amount you could barely afford, to
$347 per month, an amount you could not afford. Your interest
rate went from 8% to 12.762%. The difference in payments between
your old and new loans over the life of the new loan is approximately
$45,800 — a very high price to pay for a loan of $1,339.
It seems to me that $1,339 is inadequate consideration for a return
of $45,800. In fact, it seems to me that this deal is tantamount
to theft on the part of the Tennessee Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
Yet deals like this are being made every day in Tennessee. The
result is that many elderly individuals and others are losing
the one large asset that they own — their homes. Southeast Tennessee
Legal Services is hoping that it can help people like this elderly
gentleman. But there are too many of these transactions taking
place in Tennessee every day for legal services and pro bono programs
to help everyone. The result is that foreclosures are increasing
at an alarming rate.
Legislation is needed to help prevent these lending scams and
to provide remedies to their victims. Currently, there is a bill
pending in the Tennessee legislature (SB1158/HB1445) that would
do just that. The bill is sponsored in the House by Representative
Cole of Dyer. Senator Herron is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.
The bill is modeled after legislation that was passed in North
Carolina. I would urge your support. Information on the bill is
available under the Bills section of the legislature’s Website:
www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills.
Michael Roebuck is the executive director of Southeast Tennessee
Legal Services.
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Hamilton County Judiciary Promote Judicial Accommodation for Pro
Bono
By Amy Allison
T he Hamilton County Judiciary accommodates attorneys when they
are handling pro bono cases for Southeast Tennessee Legal Services
(STLS). Attorneys are busy people who don’t want to waste time
hanging out in courtrooms waiting for docket call or motion calls.
This is especially true if the particular case they are handling
is a pro bono case. The solution is simple too. All pro bono cases
accepted through legal services are called first at a trial, hearing
or motion. The procedure is simple enough. When attorneys are
handling legal services’ pro bono cases in Circuit or Chancery
court, they contact the Chancellor’s secretary or the Circuit
Court clerk and the case is placed first on the docket. The fact
that it is a pro bono case is known only to the client, the attorney,
and the secretary or clerk. The benefits of this accommodation
are obvious. The client still has advantage of free legal representation
but gains saved time and an attorney with a much-improved attitude,
the attorneys (on both sides) save time, and the judges promote
pro bono services.
Hamilton County’s judiciary should be commended for their continued
support for pro bono.
Amy Allison is the former pro bono coordinator at Southeast Tennessee
Legal Services.
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Building an equal justice community
By Linda Warren Seely
In response to the critical national need to provide adequate
legal representation to low-income persons, the Association of
American Law Schools (AALS) began a project calling on law professors
to work to improve universal access to the legal system. During
the 2000-01 academic year, the AALS is sponsoring 19 Equal Justice
Colloquium at various law schools across the country. One of the
Equal Justice Colloquia was held at the University of Tennessee
Law School on October 12-13, 2000. Attended by over 75 attorneys,
professors, judges, and law students the Colloquium, titled “Building
an Equal Justice Community,” began Thursday evening with a Keynote
speech by Jennifer Gordon, Executive Director of the Workplace
Project of Long Island, New York.
The program on the following day began with a plenary session
that focused on various perspectives of unmet legal needs in Tennessee
presented by panelists Gordon Bonnyman of the Tennessee Justice
Center, Neil McBride from Rural Legal Services of Tennessee and
Mariah Wooten, with the Federal Public Defender Services. A second
plenary was presented that morning featuring law school personnel
Frank Bloch from Vanderbilt Law School, Susan Bryant from the
City University of New York Law School and the Consortium Project
and Deseriee Kennedy of the University of Tennessee School of
Law. These law school professionals discussed the different directions
they had steered their students and several types of pro bono
and clinical requirements they had made of their law students
and how their ideas might be implemented in other law schools.
In the afternoon, registrants had the opportunity to attend one
of six workshops provided. These workshops included Building Community
Legal Resource Networks for Law School Graduates, Building an
Equal Justice Community Through Civil Justice Planning, Building
an Equal Justice Curriculum, Building A Justice Network for Tennessee’s
New Immigrant Population, Building an Innocence Project and Building
Pro Bono Representation. There was a final plenary entitled Paths
for the Future: Forging New Roles and Relationships to Promote
Equal Justice.
The 19 Colloquia to be held throughout the United States and the
Equal Justice Projects are the initiative of Professor Elliott
Millstein of American University’s Washington School of Law. The
Project, according to Professor Millstein, “seeks to inspire law
faculty to participate-through their teaching, scholarship and
service- in the tremendous challenges of providing effective representation
to the large numbers of people and communities left out of today’s
legal system.”
The Project is being funded by a grant from the Open Society Institute
in an effort to forge greater cooperative efforts between law
school faculty, students, legal services lawyers, public defenders,
nonprofit lawyers, public interest lawyers, and pro bono lawyers
with a focus of the issues of equal representation in the current
legal system. The Project Director is Dean Rivkin, a Professor
of Law at the University of Tennessee and author of Reflections
on Lawyering for Reform: Is the Highway Alive Tonight?, 64 Tenn.
L. Rev. 1065, (1997). According to Professor Rivkin, “The delivery
of competent legal services to many segments of our population
is reaching crisis proportions. Poor people lack proper representation
in our civil and criminal systems, our juvenile courts and in
the pervasive administrative tribunals that determine important
issues for people...Law schools have an important role to play
in helping solve these problems...”
The AALS Equal Justice Project has articulated five goals. They
are:
• To develop models that can be used in different law school settings
to encourage teaching, scholarship, and service activities that
support the provision of legal services to underrepresented groups.
• To stimulate throughout the law school, cross-cutting interest
in and commitment to the provision of legal services to underserved
individuals, groups and communities.
• To establish formal relationships between law schools and equal
justice communities aimed at promoting on-going support for the
provision of legal services to underserved individuals, groups
and communities.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the variety of models and approaches
that emerge from the Project with the goal of creating sustained
commitments to equal justice education, scholarship, and work
in law schools at the national and local level.
• To encourage collaboration among law schools and their faculties
in addressing the pressing issues and themes considered in the
Colloquia.
Linda Warren Seely is an attorney and pro bono coordinator at
West Tennessee Legal Services.
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Law school news: New initiatives at UT pro bono
By Douglas Blaze
U.T.Pro Bono, the student-directed pro bono program at the University
of Tennessee College of Law, has undertaken a number of new projects
and initiatives this year. Now in its seventh year at the College
of Law, UT Pro Bono works in cooperation with pro bono attorneys
and legal service providers to serve as a resource by providing
law students for research, educational, investigatory assistance.
Under the leadership of this year’s student co-directors, Jennifer
Lichstein and Steve Johnson, UT Pro Bono has established three
new programs and significantly increased student participation.
Over the course of the fall semester alone, more than 40 students
have participated in one or more UT Pro Bono projects, performing
more than 360 hours of service. The new projects include the Family
Justice Project, the Hispanic Assistance Project, and the Tennessee
Innocence Project.
Family Justice Project
The Family Justice Project utilizes law students to interview
and conduct legal “checkups” for families of elementary school
students at three schools in Knoxville. Each of the three schools
is a “full service school,” meaning that the schools go beyond
their traditional educational role to help provide needed social
services to students and their families. Many of the families
of the elementary school students have a variety of legal problems.
For example, the families may be unaware of, or having difficulty
obtaining, needed services or public benefits.
UT Pro Bono students, in coordination with the Knoxville Legal
Aid Society (KLAS), visit the schools to meet with parents and
families. The law students, under the supervision of KLAS attorneys,
help spot legal issues and problems and try to address those problems
by providing needed information, legal advice, or representation.
Rachael Moses is the student project coordinator and former-dean,
Dick Wirtz, is the faculty advisor.
Hispanic Assistance Project
The UT Pro Bono Hispanic Assistance Project (HAP) has evolved
out of participation by UT law students at “Second Sunday” — an
experimental monthly program at Sacred Heart Cathedral for the
growing East Tennessee Hispanic population. During Second Sunday
teams of attorneys and interpreters, such as law students with
Spanish language skills, answer legal questions, provide advice,
and refer matters to participating attorneys. The HAP student
coordinator is Verena Meiser; the faculty adviser is Fran Ansley.
Currently, the goal of HAP is to assist in organizing and scheduling
attorneys and interpreters for Second Sunday. In the future, student
volunteers will be involved in other ways. For example, students
will help develop materials on a range of legal topics. Students
will also be available to assist lawyers that accept case referrals
from the program.
UT Pro Bono HAP recently co-sponsored the visit to the University
of Tennessee of Diego Cadenas Gordillo, a human rights attorney
form Chiapas, Mexico. Mr. Cadenas spoke to students and faculty
about the civil rights and human rights struggles of the indigenous
peoples in Mexico.
Tennessee Innocence Project
Supporting the initiative of the Tennessee Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers (TACDL), UT Pro Bono has committed to providing
student assistance and office support to help establish the Tennessee
Innocence Project. The Innocence Project is part of a nationwide
initiative devoted to making certain, through utilization of DNA
technology and other methods, that no innocent person remains
in prison. Once the Tennessee Innocence Project is fully operational,
UT Pro Bono students will review applications for assistance from
the Tennessee prisoners, investigate cases, and provide research
assistance to the Tennessee Innocence Project volunteer attorneys.
An intensive student training program is planned for the spring
2001 semester.
The project is being spearheaded by student coordinator Steve
Johnson, TACDL President Ken Irvine, and faculty advisor Jerry
Black. All three of the project leaders recently attended a training
at Northwestern University conducted by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufield,
and Larry Marshall, all founders of the National Innocence Project.
UT Pro Bono, of course, continues to operate several other ongoing
projects. One of the most successful is the domestic violence
project operated in partnership with the KLAS and supported by
a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Students participating
in the domestic violence program help provide representation to
victims of domestic violence seeking orders of protections in
the Knox County courts. Students also continue to participate
in the KLAS Saturday Bar Program, and the UT Pro Bono Homeless
Project through which law students regularly visit local homeless
shelters to provide legal advice and case referral.
Much of the success of UT Pro Bono is due to the significant support
of the administration of the College of Law. Dean Tom Galligan,
in particular, has been very supportive of the program both with
his time and with financial assistance. This year, for example,
the College of Law has provided funding for three student fellows
to handle the day-to-day operations to the overall program and
to facilitate coordination between the various component projects.
In addition, Dean Galligan has established a new faculty committee
to facilitate and coordinate pro bono and public interest activities
throughout the law school.
Doug Blaze is the director of the UT Pro Bono Clinic.
10 year anniversary for Memphis Clinic
By Larry Pivnick
January 2000 marked the tenth anniversary of the University of
Memphis Legal Clinic, a unique joint program sponsored by the
University of Memphis Law School and Memphis Area Legal Services,
Inc. (MALS). The Clinic is staffed with third year law students,
pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 7, who are permitted
to represent indigent clients, assigned by MALS or by court order,
under direct supervision of Law School employed professors and
managing attorneys and/or MALS employed attorneys.
The Clinic began with eight students as a General Sessions Clinic
located at the C and Y Clinic (the former Collins Chapel Hospital)
in January 1990. I, as a professor of law at the University of
Memphis Law School, and Connie Ross and Mary Mayham, staff attorneys
at MALS, were the initial supervising attorneys at the Clinic.
Participants at the original Legal Clinic fondly remember interviewing
clients and conducting staff meetings in the non-air conditioned
surgical suites and patient rooms at C and Y. Karen Dennis, former
Executive Director of MALS, was instrumental in the creation of
the Clinic.
Through January 2000, the Clinic has expanded to three Clinic
units: a General Civil Litigation Clinic (including, but not limited
to, General Sessions cases), an Elder Law Clinic, and a Child
Advocacy Clinic. During this time, in addition to Connie Ross
and Mary Mayham, Clinic supervising attorneys have included MALS
attorneys Karen Tyler and Deborah Brooks, former MALS attorneys
Carl Seely and Bill Robilio, former Middle Tennessee Legal Services
attorney Donna Harkness, and Mark Ward, head of the appellate
unit of the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office. All of these
Clinics now operate out of MALS’ downtown offices, and these combined
Clinics currently train up to 24 students per Fall, Spring, and
Summer terms.
As the Clinic entered its second decade and the new millennium,
the Clinic added a new Domestic Violence Clinic in January 2000.
The Domestic Violence Clinic is a joint program sponsored by MALS,
the Law School, and the YWCA Abused Women’s Services, and is supported
by a grant from the United State Department of Justice. The Domestic
Violence Clinic has enrolled six students during each of the Spring,
Summer, and Fall 2000 terms, and has assisted MALS’ clients in
obtaining orders of protection, divorces, and other needed services.
The current clinic staff consists of Professor Lawrence Pivnick
as Clinic Faculty Director; Connie Ross as managing attorney/instructor
for the General Litigation Clinic; Donna Harkness as managing
attorney/instructor for the Elder Law Clinic; Bill Robilio as
managing attorney/instructor for the Child Advocacy Clinic; Ruth
Knote and Laura Relf, managing attorney/adjunct instructor and
staff attorney respectively, for the Domestic Violence Clinic.
Through November 2000, the University of Memphis/MALS legal clinic
programs have trained over 500 law students and have provided
needed legal services to more than 4000 MALS clients. Through
their participation as students at the Legal Clinic, a new generation
of young lawyers has learned to appreciate the great need for
pro bono representation for indigent clients and the great satisfaction
in providing these services. MALS and the University of Memphis
take pride that many of our Clinic’s graduates have chosen to
practice law as legal services attorneys, e.g., MALS attorneys
Nancy Kessler, Lucille Bond, and Brenda Oates-Williams, and CLC
Director Bruce Ralston. Many other graduates, now in private practice,
have generously volunteered to serve on MALS pro bono panels and
have otherwise provided pro bono representation.
Pro bono opportunities abundant for NSL students
By Tina Sitz
Nashville School of Law (NSL) students wear many hats. As a non-traditional
law school, most students are full-time employees, spouses and
parents as well as being students. Because of the multiple responsibilities
of the student body the traditional legal clinic found at most
law schools is not a practical possibility here. However, the
spirit of volunteerism is alive and well at NSL and you will find
a large number of the students contributing to the pro bono effort
in their cities and communities through programs offered by the
school and faculty.
There are many advantages to those students who choose to participate
in pro bono work. It often gives the students a great feeling
of pride in the profession, guidance for what areas of the law
they might want to focus on in their careers and often volunteer
jobs grown into potential job opportunities for the student.
One of the programs offered at NSL which offers opportunities
for pro bono work gives the student practical experience is the
internship program. This program provides for student credit for
performing a minimum of 50 hours of work for a district attorney’s
office, a public defender’s office or an approved legal services
organization. Students apply for and work with a limited license
pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 7. This provides a very symbolic
relationship in that it gives the student hands on experience
dealing with clients, courts and Judges, while providing much
needed assistance to often over-worked individuals in these offices
and at the same time providing much appreciated assistance to
individuals in need of legal services.
Another opportunity at NSL for pro boo activity is through the
Wills Project. Student in Mr. Harland Dodson’s third year Estate
Planning class are given the opportunity to work with a program
that benefits the YMCA Youth Action Program. Mr. Rocky McElheney,
NSL alumni, and chair of the project through the Young Lawyers
Division in Davidson County, explained that this was a good opportunity
for students to learn the mechanics of drafting a simple will
while benefiting a great organization. The way the programs is
that participants who desire to have a simple will drafted donate
$99 to the YCAP program. The volunteer students are assigned to
the participants. They meet with them, assess their needs and
draft their will. The wills are then reviewed by a panel of five
participating attorneys. The students then participate in the
execution of the will. This is another good opportunity for the
students to receive valuable experience, provide needed services
and benefit the community.
In the hustle and bustle of work, parenting, community involvement
and school, NSL students are still finding time to experience
the benefits of participating in pro bono projects. Hopefully
these experiences will ripen into heightened commitments to pro
bono work when they become practitioners in their own communities.
Tina Sitz is an attorney at Stephens & Stephens in Tracy City.
She is a NSL alumni and was the 1999 TBA Law Student Volunteer
of the Year Award winner.
Vanderbilt's clinic legal education program
Vanderbilt’s clinical legal education program includes clinical
courses on civil, criminal, and juvenile practice. Students enrolled
in clinical courses represent clients under close supervision
by members of the Law School’s clinical faculty. The cases are
handled through the Vanderbilt Legal Clinic, a legal aid office
located in the Law School building.
The general educational goals of the clinical program and its
clinical courses include teaching students basic lawyering skills,
such as interviewing, negotiation, case preparation, and trial
and appellate practice; introducing students to the operation
of the legal system and to the participants in that system; and
developing in students an understanding and appreciation of issues
of professional responsibility. Clinic students spend most of
their time on casework, learning from the experience of working
in a professional role.
Each of the three clinical courses presently offered at Vanderbilt
- Civil Practice Clinic, Criminal Practice Clinic, and Juvenile
Practice Clinic - are structured to prepare students for their
casework and to provide them with support and supervision in the
representation of their clients. All clinic students attend a
series of introductory classes that include readings, simulation
exercises, and group discussions related to selected basic lawyering
skills and the operation of the Vanderbilt Legal Clinic. In addition,
for each clinical course there are supplemental classes covering
issues of substantive law and procedure relevant to the types
of cases handled in that particular course.
Students in the Civil Practice Clinic handle a range of general
civil matters, including Social Security, administrative hearings,
landlord/tenant disputes, and special education cases. Students
in the Criminal Practice Clinic represent defendants in criminal
proceedings, including felonies, and in selected post-conviction
proceedings. Students in the Juvenile Practice Clinic handle the
full range of cases adjudicated in Juvenile Court, including juvenile
delinquency, child neglect and abuse, and child support. Clinical
faculty participate in and supervise the casework throughout the
semester. Individual and group case review sessions monitor the
students’ client representation.
Students may take any clinical course for either one or two semesters.
Clinical courses are offered for academic credit on a pass/fail
basis. Three credits are awarded for the first semester a student
is enrolled in the course, during which the student must attend
both the general and the clinic-specific introductory classes.
Two additional credits are awarded in the optional second semester
of the course when the student concentrates exclusively on casework.
Student caseloads are controlled carefully in order to create
an optimal environment for learning and to assure the highest
quality representation for the clients of the Vanderbilt Legal
Clinic. On average, clinic students are expected to devote approximately
eight hours per week to their casework. However, workloads vary
considerably during the semester in clinical courses with substantial
commitments of time required when a case becomes particularly
active.
This year, the clinic will be expanding to include the Child and
Family Policy Clinic. This clinic will be directed by former Davidson
County Juvenile Judge, Andy Shookoff.
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Access to Justice Award winners honored
The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) presented its 2001 Access
to Justice Awards at the opening of the new Tennessee Bar Center,
Jan. 19 in Nashville. The winners, chosen by the Access to Justice
Awards Committee, were presented by TBA President Katie Edge.
Jennifer Lichstein of Knoxville won the Law Student Volunteer
Award. This award recognizes a Tennessee law school student who
has provided outstanding volunteer services while working with
an organization that provides legal representation to the indigent.
Lichstein is a student at the University of Tennessee College
of Law where she is the co-director of the Pro Bono Project. Outside
of the law school she has interned and volunteered with organizations
like the Kennsington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia, the
Haitian Refugee Project in Miami and Lambda Legal Defense in Atlanta.
She was also a leader in the campaign to repeal the Spousal Rape
Exemption Law in Tennessee.
Cleveland attorney Debra House has won the Public Service Award.
This award is given to an attorney who has provided dedicated
and outstanding service while employed by an organization that
is primarily engaged in providing legal representation to the
poor. House graduated from Western Michigan University in 1981
with a degree in sociology. She earned her law degree from the
University of Tennessee College of Law in 1988. For the past 12
years, House has worked for Southeast Tennessee Legal Services
(STLS) where she currently serves as deputy director. She has
previously worked as the managing attorney for the Cleveland office
of STLS and the project director for the organization’s Elder
Law Hotline.
Clarksville attorney Gregory D. Smith has won the Harris A. Gilbert
Pro Bono Award. The Harris Gilbert award recognizes a private
bar attorney who has contributed a significant amount of pro bono
work and has demonstrated dedication to the development and delivery
of legal services to the poor. Smith is an active volunteer with
the Legal Aid in Montgomery County, serving on the board of directors
and chairing the Pro Bono Committee. His distinguished pro bono
record includes both civil and criminal cases. Smith graduated
from Cumberland School of Law in 1988 and earned a degree in political
science from Middle Tennessee State University in 1985.
This year the TBA will also present a special posthumous award
to William Edgar Eddie Simpson. Given in memory of Simpson’s outstanding
pro bono contribution to his community, this award recognizes
the importance of pro bono service in rural areas. Prior to his
death from injuries sustained in a plane crash in October 2000,
Simpson was in private practice in Selmer, Tenn., and an active
volunteer for West Tennessee Legal Services. He received the Pro
Bono Attorney of the Year for McNairy, Hardin and Chester Counties
in the summer of 2000.
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Tennessee Justice Center celebrates 5-year anniversary
By Suzanne Robertson
Curry Worsham wheeled his wife, Erin, into the Tennessee Bar Center,
as their 7-year-old son Daniel danced around them. They had come
to help celebrate and support the fifth anniversary of the Tennessee
Justice Center (TJC), an organization that changed their lives.
TJC attorney Michelle Johnson had helped the Worshams get needed
benefits restored through TennCare so Erin is able to continue
living at home with her family, although now confined to a wheelchair
by the disease ALS.
More than 150 lawyers, support staff and clients gathered March
7 for the event in Nashville.
“Nothing that the TBA does is more important,” TBA President Katie
Edge said of its support of the TJC as she introduced its Board
President B. Riney Green. Green thanked “two organizations that
were instrumental in helping us start and keep it going.” First
he mentioned the Tennessee Bar Association, especially former
presidents Howard Vogel, Dan Breen, Dan Nolan, Pam Reeves, Randy
Noel, as well as Edge, former Executive Director Gil Campbell
and current Executive Director Allan Ramsaur.
Calling them “stalwarts for justice,” Green said “the TJC is forever
in their debt. The TBA has always responded to and inspired the
Tennessee Justice Center.”
Green also thanked the Tennessee Bar Foundation and its executive
director, Barri Bernstein and its chairs who have served since
the TJC’s beginning: Lowry Kline, Ross Clark, Ed Lawwell, Scott
Brown, Collins Bonds, Connie Clark and incoming Dalton Townsend.
The Foundation has been a financial supporter since the TJC was
founded, providing $120,000 for each of its first four years of
operation and $160,000 last year and this year. “When the civil
justice infrastructure began to collapse, the Foundation responded
to the crisis,” Green said. Now “people have access to first class
justice because of what the Tennessee Bar Foundation has done.”
In introducing Managing Attorney Gordon Bonnyman, Green called
him “a true champion to the indigent and disabled in Tennessee.”
Bonnyman recognized TJC coworkers Michelle Johnson, Russ Overby,
Gary Housepian, Chris Griffin, Hugh Mundy, Jane Beasley, Amy Hurd,
Patsy Pollard and Mary Thom Adams.
“There is nothing similar in the South,” Bonnyman said of the
TJC. “Nowhere else was there the same coming together of the legal
community.” That kind of “self sacrifice and clarity of vision”
doesn’t usually overcome institutional interests, he said. “We
cannot tolerate taking rights away from the poor. We don’t want
our legal community to leave anyone out.”
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