It’s National Pro Bono Week. I’m presently involved in two pro bono cases: United States v. Drew and McCane v. United States. It might be interesting for our readers who are lawyers to say what pro bono matters they are involved in right now; I hope they will consider telling us in the comment thread.
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Matthew says:
This is a great idea for a post.
I’m involved pro bono in a number of speech-related prosecutions of animal rights activists, including as amici in United States v. Fullmer, and as counsel in United States v. Buddenberg and California v. Olliff (no good link, but essentially a ten count indictment for home demonstrations which included, among many chants, “what goes around comes around; burn the fucker to the ground,” which the state claims constitutes a true threat).
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October 27, 2009, 1:39 amJim Tyre says:
Hepting v. AT&T (currently on appeal); and Jewel v. NSA; both arising from the NSA’s unlawful domestic warantless wiretapping program.
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October 27, 2009, 1:54 amMark Arnold says:
I am representing an inmate on death row in a habeas petition before the Supreme Court of Missouri. The client was not the killer, merely an accomplice. The actual killer was originally sentenced to death but his sentence was later reduced to life in prison. The principal argument is that the state Supreme Court has a continuing statutory duty to review the death sentence to assure it is not disproportionate and that, as a matter of law, an accomplice cannot be executed if the actual killer receives only life.
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October 27, 2009, 10:31 amRecent Grad says:
I am representing myself to prospective employers as a candidate for employment...
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October 27, 2009, 10:36 amU.Va. Grad says:
A few matters:
–Drafting parts of the brief in a veterans’ benfits case now pending before the D.C. Circuit.
–Representing a Cameroonian asylum applicant who fled his home country after being imprisoned, tortured, and raped by prison guards for being in the wrong political party.
–Helping with the representation of a high school student expelled after getting in a fight. The school board’s expulsion ruling was procedurally improper: Client had a hearing on certain charges, but the expulsion ruling found the client “guilty” of those charges plus others that were never mentioned at the hearing. On appeal, the Department of Education remanded for a new hearing to consider the extra charges. Rather than hold a hearing, the school board simply excised the offending paragraphs and said it had never actually considered those charges in the first place when deciding to expel the client.
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October 27, 2009, 11:24 amJay says:
U.Va. Grad–Based on my clerkship experience, the school board’s procedure sounds a lot like something that would be employed by the BIA in an immigration case. I hope your asylum client wins before the agency.
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October 27, 2009, 11:40 amGM Roper says:
Although I’m not a lawyer (I’m a psychotherapist) I do a lot of pro bono work because not everyone can afford therapy when they need it. I’m currently working with two cases pro bono and am of the opinion that all professions such as attorney’s and therapists/psychologists/psychiatrists should do pro bono work.
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October 27, 2009, 11:50 amGabriel McCall says:
I’m sure the singer from U2 feels it is entirely proper that there’s a week dedicated to his fandom. Me, I’m holding out for national anti-Bono week.
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October 27, 2009, 12:33 pmBZ says:
Maryland has an aspirational requirement and an annual PB reporting requirement. I usually have about 200 hours counseling nonprofit organizations on corporate and tax matters.
In addition, for the last four years, I have been working many hours each week PB on the renovation of a local community from strip-mall, parking-lot dominated suburb to a walkable, sustainable, transit-oriented New Urban community. http://www.whiteflint.org. (And, no, I have no financial interest; just think it’s the right thing to do.)
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October 27, 2009, 12:41 pm24AheadDotCom says:
If any lawyers want some pro bono work that doesn’t involve legal matters, consider helping raise the level of debate in the U.S. above that of people ranting at meetings by “cross-examining” pols at their events. That would also help undercut the MSM and encourage pols to promote more effective policies. Details here. I’ve been pushing that plan since February 2007, and I’ve gotten almost zero help with it. Some people — especially libertarians — have even tried to dissuade people from doing that. If you want to help out, encourage others to form local groups to follow the plan.
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October 27, 2009, 2:08 pmC-M Grad says:
I am representing homeowners in three separate foreclosure actions, attempting to negotiate loan modifications with the lenders.
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October 27, 2009, 4:53 pmMichael Wagner says:
Unfortunately, as I read the information on your link, I don’t think it will do much to “raise the level of debate”, insofar as it appears to focus on political mendacity. From what I learned from the Jesuits in dusty days long ago, the argument that your opponent is lying or malicious is not in fact a strong argument, but an extremely weak argument.
For example, I support concealed carry for law abiding citizens. However, I do not ascribe evil or dishonesty to politicians who want to limit concealed carry. We probably share a goal — protecting individual citizens from becoming victims of violent crime — but we differ as to methodology.
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October 27, 2009, 7:01 pmBABH says:
Working on two asylum cases.
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October 27, 2009, 9:32 pmBrian G. says:
I am representing pro bono a 9-year old girl seriously injured in a car accident. There is a limited amount of insurance coverage available ($300,000) with no other means of recovery and the federal government is seeking reimbursement of medical expenses in excess of that. What I am doing is working to put together all of the expenses paid and then will reduce the repayment amount as low as possible, hopefully getting a full waiver, but if not using the Alhorn v. Arkansas U.S. Supreme Court decision to lower her repayment obligation by building up her total damages and having a court make an allocation that the government will not like.
The first two attorneys her family consulted wanted 1/3 of an already made policy limits offer and told them that they would have to pay back 2/3 of the medical bills. (They were referring to the common fund doctrine under state law and very likely had no idea on how to allocate under federal law). That would have left her with next to nothing. When they came to me, I knew I owed pro bono work to the commnity and this case felt like the perfect one for me. I have two young daughters myself. Plus, my wife is a teacher, and doing these kinds of things has always made my wife proud of me, which we all know is a good thing if you want to keep a good marriage healthy and strong.
I learned all about federal reimbursement statutes, allocation, etc., when I was an insurance company defense attorney and was assigned a serious of opinion letters on a major injury case soon after Alhorn was decided. This girl was hurt badly and lost nearly two years of her childhood due to hospitalization and medical treatment. I could not in good conscience ask for one-third and refuse to do anything for her if not. I had the skills to help her, and decided this was the time for pro bono work.
I decided to share my example because it seems every other example has someone doing civil rights or constitutional issues. There are other ways you can help people who need pro bono help, i.e. helping them to keep money, as in the case of this little girl. Interestingly, they did not come to me asking I do it pro bono. They came to me because someone told them I have done this type of work before for several attorneys that hired me for this specific purpose. They were shocked when I reviewed their case and told them I would take it pro bono.
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October 27, 2009, 11:14 pm