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Calling All Mentors!

20 August 2015   Blog | Tags:

By Alexis Applegate & Giovanni Di Maggio

Last year, we had the chance to participate as mentees in the Washington Council of Lawyers Mentoring Program. We both benefitted tremendously from the experience: our mentors helped answer many of our questions and gave us useful advice about legal practice and public interest work in Washington, DC. In addition, the program’s events provided even more tips and perspectives that will help us throughout our legal careers.

We enjoyed the mentoring program so much that we agreed to coordinate it this year. And our first job is to recruit a great class of mentors for the 2015–2016 mentoring year. (More…)

2015 Awards Ceremony: Calling All Nominations

18 August 2015   Blog | Tags: ,

Our annual Awards Ceremony gives us a chance to recognize the outstanding contributions of lawyers who perform exceptional pro bono and public-interest work. Our 2015 Awards Ceremony will take place on the evening of Thursday, December 10.

Looking Into Low Bono: Additional Resources

13 August 2015   Blog | Tags:

Our Looking into Low Bono series addressed an often-overlooked question: how do we provide legal services to people who are above the poverty line, but who would struggle to pay for legal services at the market rate. According to the ABA, in 2012 nearly a million people had their legal needs unmet due to “insufficient resources.” In 2013 –2014, the D.C. Bar convened a group to examine models for addressing these unmet legal needs. And in August of 2014, the American Bar Association urged its House of Delegates to adopt a resolution exhorting bar associations, courts, law schools, legal services organizations, and law firms to advance initiatives that encourage and equip newly-admitted lawyers to meet the legal needs of “underserved populations.” Looking into Low Bono promoted a community-wide discussion about various approaches to increasing the provision of “low bono” legal services aimed at clients who are ineligible for free legal assistance. If you weren’t able to make it for these events, or if you were but still want more information, we’ve collected some of the key resources that were identified or discussed at our Looking Into Low Bono series. And if you’d like to find out even more, or join our Google Group, please email our Executive Director, Nancy Lopez. Intro to Low Bono/The Justice Gap American Bar Association, Be the Change (video) Modest Means Programs (October 2014) Further Reading (October 2014) Supporting Reduced-Fee Lawyers D.C. Bar Practice Management Advisory Service: A free and confidential service of the D.C. Bar to provide practice management information and resources to members. It offers a variety of services, including telephone consultations for practice guidance and ethical questions. All consultations are confidential. It also offers trainings, such as Basic Training and Beyond, Successful Small Firm Practice, Lunch & Learn opportunities, confidential counseling services for stress and substance abuse, and an attorney-client arbitration board to aid in settling fee disputes. Civil Justice, Inc: A nonprofit organization that offers a lawyer referral service. Attorneys who participate in the Civil Justice Network are solo and small firm Maryland attorneys who receive referrals, mentoring, and networking opportunities that allow them to expand their own practices while increasing access to legal assistance for traditionally underserved members of the public. Reduced-Fee Lawyer Referral Services Washington State Bar Association’s Moderate Means referral program: Washington State Bar Association partners with the law schools of Gonzaga University, Seattle University, and the University of Washington to operate this referral program. Access to Justice Lawyer Referral Service (coming soon): This service will be launched by attorney Steven Krieger and will connect reduced-fee lawyers with modest means clients in Virginia. Montgomery County Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service D.C. Bar, Courts, Lawyers, and Administration of Justice Section, 2011 Report on the Proposed Code of Judicial Conduct Incubators Incubator and post-graduate residency models developed by law schools, bar associations, and private firms help low-bono lawyers develop the skills necessary to represent individuals, families, and businesses: The Affordable Law Firm of DC: A partnership between Georgetown Law, DLA Piper and Arent Fox to create a non-profit law firm, staffed by new Georgetown graduates, to provide affordable legal services to modest-means clients American Lawyer, Georgetown Pairs Up With DLA Piper, Arent Fox to Open Low Bono Firm Chicago Bar Foundation, Justice Entrepreneurs Project: Trains lawyers interested in running reduced-fee law practices Arizona State University Alumni Law Group incubator program Using Technology Technology can help reduced-fee practitioners (and even pro se litigants) get valuable information and do legal work more efficiently. Presentation by Billie Jo Kaufman, American University Washington College of Law Presentation by Briane Cornish, Responsive Law Presentation by Tanina Rostain, Georgetown Law on using apps to help litigants find information Debt & Eviction Navigator: An app that supports social workers serving home-bound elderly; built by Georgetown Law and Jewish Association Serving the Aging New York City Earned Sick Time Advisor: A self-help app to determine user’s entitlement to paid sick leave under NYC law; built by Georgetown Law and A Better Balance *** We’ll continue to look into Low Bono in the coming months. Our next event takes place on September 21, and it’s free and open to all. If you’d like to find out even more or join our Google Group, please email our Executive Director, Nancy Lopez. Finally, if you’d like an even more detailed summary of our low bono series and these resources, our low bono working group has put together a longer Compendium of Resources.

Housing Victories in Congress Heights

02 August 2015   Blog, East River of the River Profiles | Tags:

By Domonique Williams and Gavette Richardson On a hot day in late August 2014, a group of law students from Howard and Catholic Universities, along with supervisory attorneys from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, converged east of the river to meet our new clients—a group of tenants in a Congress Heights neighborhood who reported serious health and safety violations in their apartments. These residents had come together as a tenants association and had engaged with the WLCH to stand up for their rights and bring about change. Along with our colleagues at Catholic’s clinic, we were asked to represent seven tenants facing numerous housing code violations. Although we had been given a brief overview of the situation in our clinic classes, nothing quite prepared us for the breadth of violations we encountered, or the stories that the tenants told us about their fight to improve their living conditions. We inspected each unit and found multiple violations— including infestations of mice and bedbugs, hanging and exposed electrical wires, lack of exterior lighting, broken locks on exterior doors, leaks, floods, and more. As the late afternoon turned into evening, our group of students and lawyers stood outside to do a final assessment of the building’s conditions. We found standing water and sewage in a common hallway, rust in tubs, mold on walls, and a building-wide water heater that stopped working every time it rained (the basement flooded, extinguishing the pilot light). We also took note of the rats playing in large trash piles of old couches and dilapidated furniture outside the building, and the lack of proper safety lighting in the back. We were left asking why any property owner would allow residents to live in such conditions. Considering that the communities surrounding Metro stations are some of the most coveted residences in the city, why would any owner allow buildings to fall into such disrepair? The WLCH lawyers suggested a horrifying answer: the worse the living conditions in the buildings, the higher the number of tenants who leave on their own, ultimately making it easier to redevelop the apartment buildings. After notifying the housing provider of the numerous violations and receiving no response, we filed a Housing Conditions suit in Superior Court. At our initial hearing, the housing provider’s lawyer admitted that the buildings were unlivable but suggested that, because the buildings were slated for redevelopment, the housing provider should be responsible for making only the most basic repairs—even though the redevelopment could be years away. We objected to the idea that when housing providers hope to raze or sell a building they somehow become exempt from the housing code. Many of our clients spoke up to describe the horrible conditions in their building, and it was their voices that seemed to persuade the judge that enforcement of the housing code should not turn on the housing provider’s redevelopment plans. In the months after our initial hearing, we worked tirelessly for our clients. We sent letters to property managers, participated in court-appointed housing inspections, worked with opposing counsel to organize repair efforts, and represented our clients in court. Ultimately, all of the conditions were abated, but the redevelopment of the area is still pending. In light of this experience, we have also tried to amplify our clients’ voices in the redevelopment process; we recently testified at a Zoning Commission hearing related to the redevelopment. Our experience representing these clients was invaluable. It not only gave us courtroom experience but also opened our eyes to the severity and ubiquity of housing problems faced by DC residents, particularly those in disadvantaged neighborhoods east of the river. We still think about these tenants and wish them the best in their ongoing efforts to protect and enforce their right to safe housing. Domonique Williams and Gavette Richardson are rising third-year law students at the Howard University School of Law. They represented tenants from the Congress Heights neighborhood in housing litigation as part of their work with Howard’s Fair Housing Clinic.

A Marathon Hearing on Language Access … And Next Steps

19 July 2015   Blog | Tags: ,

On July 1, 2015, the DC Council held a joint public hearing on the Language Access for Education Amendment Act of 2015. The 75 public witnesses on the witness list included:

Attorneys who have helped clients to bring language access complaints after being denied language access under the law;

Law professors who supervise student attorneys who have written reports on the state of language access in the District, and who have worked with clients whose language access rights were violated;
Community members who have brought language access complaints and received favorable determinations through the process at the DC Office of Human Rights, only to continue to have their rights violated afterward;

and

Students at DC schools who have had to interpret for their parents at parent-teacher conferences, despite the schools’ legal obligation to provide interpretation.

Book Vending Machines Provide Free Summer Reads for EOTR Kids

19 July 2015   Blog, East River of the River Profiles | Tags:

A heartwarming, summer-reading true story about free books being put into the hands and homes of children in Anacostia. Book vending machines in three locations East of the River are providing kids with their choice of books to enjoy over the break, with the goal of handing out 100,000 books by summer’s end.

East of the River Casehandlers Meeting: July 29!

09 July 2015   Blog, East River of the River Profiles | Tags:

Practicing Public Interest Law East of the Anacostia River: 5th Annual Summer Panel Discussion with the East of the River Casehandlers Wednesday, July 29, 2015 12:30 pm – 2 pm Deanwood Neighborhood Library 1350 49th Street, NE Washington DC, 20019 Metro: Deanwood (Orange Line) The Program The East of the River Casehandlers group invites all legal interns, summer associates, law students and pro bono attorneys to come find out more about practicing public interest law east of the Anacostia River. This informal panel discussion will feature attorneys from DC legal services providers that serve the low-income residents of these diverse and vibrant neighborhoods. Imoni Washington from the DC Bar Foundation will join us after the provider panel to discuss the Loan Repayment Assistance Program for public interest lawyers working in the District and the recent grants the DCBF has made to legal services providers east of the river. We will also have information available on fall student internship and pro bono opportunities with EOTR legal services providers. Panelists We anticipate having panelists this year from Whitman Walker Health, NLSP, Bread for the City, the Public Defender Service, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, Washington Lawyers’ Committee, Childrens Law Center, Covington & Burling LLP, and more. Registration To register, contact Heather Hodges at (202) 269-5100 or hhodges@nlsp.org. This program is intended to be highly interactive and driven by your questions. We encourage you to submit any questions you have with your registration request. About Us The East of the River Casehandlers meet every three months at the Anacostia Library to share program information and discuss strategies for dealing with issues of common concern to our low-income clients in Wards 7 and 8. We also conduct legal information programs for community members and legal services attorneys. If you would like to join our listserv, please send an email to EastoftheRiverLawyers-subscribe@mail.lawhelp.org.

Bread for the City Plans East of the River Expansion

28 June 2015   Blog, East River of the River Profiles | Tags:

Exciting long-term news! Bread for the City plans to double the size of its Southeast Center, on Good Hope Road in Anacostia, to provide more medical, legal, and social services to people living East of the River. Read more about the plans to expand East of the River services at Blog for the City.

Meet Our Summer Intern!

28 June 2015   Blog | Tags:

Hello! My name is Alex Kurtz, and I am excited to be interning this summer with Washington Council of Lawyers.

I am an undergraduate at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, and I am pursuing a degree in Political Science with minors in Economics and Spanish. In my free time, I am active in my student government association; I currently serve both as a senator and my class Vice President. I am also the Vice Delegation Chairperson of my college’s delegation to the Maryland Student Legislature, which is a model of the Maryland state legislature. I love helping other students, so I have also become a Peer Consultant in the Writing Center and a Peer Mentor, where I assist incoming freshmen.

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