Dolorez Sanchez* and her tenyear-old. The Power of Pro Bono. Nina Schuyler

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1 The Power of Pro Bono Nina Schuyler Dolorez Sanchez* and her tenyear-old daughter headed back to their apartment in the Mission District. They d lived in their studio apartment for years, and though it wasn t much two rooms, a bathroom, and no windows it was better than living with Sanchez s abusive husband. When they came up the rickety stairs, they saw a piece of paper stuck on their door. They looked at their neighbor s door. She, too, had a similar notice. As far as they could make out, it was an eviction notice. But why? For four years, they d paid their rent, always on time. As non- English speakers, they weren t sure where to get help. Sanchez eventually found her way to the Volunteer Legal Ser- 20 Spring 2013 vices Program (VLSP) run by The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) and attorney volunteer Michell Nuñez. The owner of the building had been foreclosed on, says Nuñez, who graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2009 and has her own practice. The building was sold to an LLC, and because the building was zoned for commercial, not residential use, they were evicting all the tenants for illegal use. The tenants were all non- English speakers. If we hadn t stepped in, Ms. Sanchez and the other tenants would have been out on the streets. With the economic downturn, law firms across the nation have reduced their pro bono efforts. Cutbacks to law firm departments and small or nonexistent sum- *The name has been changed.

2 mer associate programs are two reasons for the decrease in pro bono work. According to the Pro Bono Institute based in Washington, D.C., the average number of pro bono hours per attorney at big firms, with at least fifty attorneys, fell by 8.6 percent from 2009 to 2010 and showed little change from 2010 to Unfortunately, the downturn has occurred at the very time more people are being pushed into poverty and are in need of free legal services related to housing, eviction due to foreclosures, bankruptcy, consumer debt, and domestic violence. Pro bono is an absolute obligation of the profession, says Richard Zitrin, who has done pro bono work since 1977 and has volunteered with JDC s Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) for years. Lawyers have a monopoly on their services and so we must offer them to those who can t afford to pay. Jimmy Carter once said that 90 percent of the lawyers work for 10 percent of the people. Unfortunately, it s still true. Founded by BASF in 1977, the Volunteer Legal Services bono? Sign up for partial scope representation, in which you handle a part of a case, such as an unlawful mandatory settlement conference or a dissolution hearing. Or show up for one of JDC s monthly clinics and provide consumer debt advice. You have more time? Choose full scope litigation, in which you take a case from start to finish, conducting discovery, depositions, and trial preparation. Have you just graduated from law school and never been to trial? In an effort to increase the number of volunteers and address the growing number of unemployed or underemployed attorneys, on January 1, BASF launched the Mind the Gap initiative. New attorneys receive training, hands-on experience with case work, mentoring from JDC staff attorneys and other volunteers, and debt reduction information. The Mind the Gap program provides new attorneys with a range of skills, says Andrea Fitanides, supervising attorney and pro bono manager at JDC. They handle a pro bono case, and as they give back, they are learning valuable skills that make them more employable. The Mind the Gap program provides new attorneys with a range of skills. They handle a pro bono case, and as they give back, they are learning valuable skills that make them more employable. Andrea Fitanides Program, which was renamed the Justice & Diversity Center on March 14, 2013, provides a myriad of programs that make it easy for lawyers to do pro bono work. In 2012, VLSP (now JDC) staff and more than twenty-one hundred volunteers from the legal community assisted more than seventy-eight hundred clients with legal consultation and representation in areas such as eviction, housing, family law, tax, and consumer debt. This translates into approximately $18 million in free legal services. Do you have a finite amount of time to commit to pro For Nuñez, the foreclosure case was a great learning experience. She deposed the plaintiffs, handled a subpoena, and also a motion for summary judgment. Throughout the sixmonth case, she had a mentor, Cary Gold, JDC s supervising attorney for eviction defense cases. It was incredibly interesting to me, says Nuñez, who is also a licensed real estate broker and has set up her own practice representing real estate investors. I was rewarded in every way I could imagine. Now when I have a deposition, I m very comfortable. Over the past two years, Nuñez has handled more than a dozen unlawful detainer cases. THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO ATTORNEY 21

3 Miguel Soto has also taken his experience with JDC and launched his own firm. Shortly after graduating in 2010 from Santa Clara University School of Law, he began volunteering at the evening Consumer Debt Defense and Education Clinic. Bankruptcy and consumer debt experts are present and volunteers can consult with them regarding the clients cases. Prior to meeting with attorney volunteers, JDC screens clients for income qualification and issues. Debt Defense and Education Clinic, helping low-income clients with debt problems and litigation. For a couple hours, they help people respond to discovery, or file an answer, or just explain the legal system. As lawyers, we possess a translating skill, says Clark. The legal system can be very scary for people. They don t know what a lawsuit entails, what the process is, or what their options are. I had a client at the debt clinic who was concerned she might be served with a warrant and go to jail, says Prange. While at law school, both Clark and Prange volunteered at their law schools clinics. Clark, who went to UC Berkeley School of Law, worked at the housing rights clinic. Prange, Volunteering is a fantastic experience. You get one-on-one time counseling clients and the work you do usually has something to do with litigation. That s important substantive experience. Jaclyn Prange Soto continues to attend the clinic, which is held once a month, providing advice to clients, or drafting answers to lawsuits, fee waivers for filing answers, or discovery responses. He s also taken on full scope consumer debt defense cases. The usual case involves a third party who has bought the consumer credit card debt portfolio and is suing the JDC client for nonpayment. The plaintiff s evidence is often extremely incomplete, says Soto, who specializes in consumer debt defense and also mortgages and matters involving homeowners associations. A lot of these lawsuits have statute of limitations problems. Soto currently has eight full scope JDC consumer debt cases. I haven t lost one of these cases yet. By and large, the debts purchased by the third party were never verified. Most of the cases are under $10,000. That s not much to the debt buyer, but it s everything to my client. During the day, Sara Clark and Jaclyn Prange, both associates at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, practice environmental and land use law. But once a month, they become debt defense lawyers. Since 2011, they ve also volunteered at JDC s Consumer who went to the UCLA School of Law, volunteered for a variety of clinics, including providing services for the homeless. Consumer debt is far afield from environmental law, but both associates like that. On a daily basis in my practice, I deal with sophisticated users of the legal system, says Clark. The clients at the clinic are new to the system. Prange recently had a client who had two debt collection actions filed against her. The client spoke only Spanish and was having difficulty understanding the process. She came into the clinic several times. It turns out she hadn t been properly served, says Prange. The case has turned into a full scope litigation matter. Prange has since handed it off to another attorney. Volunteering is a fantastic experience, says Prange. You get one-on-one time counseling clients and the work you do usually has something to do with litigation. That s important substantive experience. For seasoned attorneys, pro bono has less to do with skill accumulation and more to do with a sense of obligation, 22 Spring 2013

4 even duty. Yet sometimes even an attorney who has been practicing for many years can run into a unique situation. Ciarán O Sullivan has been practicing law for fifteen years and doing pro bono for about as long, first with the Alameda County Bar Association and now with JDC. In September, he took on an unlawful detainer case, full scope, and the case, which is still going on, is raising a novel issue in the law. A man with AIDS was unable to work and had to go on disability. As a result, for six months, he couldn t come up with his part of the rent. The landlord got sick of it, says O Sullivan. He helped negotiate a complex settlement agreement, which included a high/low provision that determined the maximum and minimum recovery. As part of the agreement, the parties agreed that neither side would get attorney s fees. They submitted the agreement to the judge, who signed off on it. In the court order, the man with AIDS was allowed to stay in the apartment, but the judge also stated the plaintiff was entitled to attorneys fees. Now the plaintiff s attorney has filed a motion for attorney s fees, says O Sullivan. The novel issue is whether the settlement agreement will prevail or the court order. JDC s Gold trains volunteers for three main types of cases: (1) nonpayment of rent, (2) nuisance, and (3) breach of covenant. She also provides training in subsidized housing. With a limited scope case, the client already has been assisted by the Eviction Defense Collaborative, a nonprofit that helps tenants file their court papers. As a JDC volunteer, you meet with the client for twenty minutes and then represent the client at the settlement conference. For full scope, you work the case from start to finish. Some eviction cases resolve in four hours; others take sixty plus hours. We ve created a means for anyone who wants to do pro bono for tenants, says Gold. Early on in his work with the Homeless Advocacy Project, which provides legal and social services to San Francisco s homeless or those at imminent risk of homelessness, Zitrin handled a difficult case involving a woman who d lost her nurse practitioner license due to her husband s fraudulent activities. Zitrin and HAP helped her get her license back, which allowed her to work again. My law office handles a lot of big cases, says Zitrin, of counsel at Carlson, Calladine & Peterson and a law professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. I ve gone to trial, gotten million dollar verdicts, but nothing beats getting her license back. Why? Cases like these directly affect the lives of real human beings in need, who, without fault, have been harmed by the system. [Ciarán] O Sullivan specializes in civil litigation with an emphasis on trust and estates litigation and has made a resolution to do at least one full scale pro bono case a year. It s necessary, he says, it s the right thing to do. O Sullivan used to work at a big firm, which had a strong pro bono policy. Now as a solo practitioner, O Sullivan, who is also cochair of BASF s Estate Planning, Probate, and Trust-Litigation subsection, specializes in civil litigation with an emphasis on trust and estates litigation and has made a resolution to do at least one full scale pro bono case a year. It s necessary, he says, it s the right thing to do. In another matter, Zitrin had a client with serious mental illness who d been hurt in a shooting. The man wanted a copy of his police report from twenty years ago. He came in and saw me almost every Wednesday for a year and a half, says Zitrin. I helped him get the report. I didn t get him to a better place, but still, he thanked me and told me how much he appreciated my help. You don t do this to be thanked. You do this because you validate their existence by treating clients with dignity. JDC also has volunteer opportunities with its Family Law THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO ATTORNEY 23

5 Project. Rani Sengottaiyan Hurd graduated from American University, Washington College of Law in 2008 and began volunteering in She s handled cases involving child custody, support and visitation, divorce, and spousal support. So far, she s taken on five full scope cases. An uncontested divorce can amount to fifteen to twenty hours of work. A contested divorce, she says, can go on and on. Hurd, who founded her own family law practice, RHLaw, speaks Spanish and works with JDC s Spanish-speaking clients. It s a way to give back, she says, At the same time, I ve gotten a lot too. Some of the mentors involved with JDC are incredible. For new attorneys, Stephanie Bilinski, supervising attorney with JDC s Family Law Project, hands them simple divorce cases. There s not many road bumps, she says. Not much in assets or debts. Both parties are usually on public assistance. You ll go from the beginning to the end of the case. The more seasoned attorneys who volunteer handle the child custody cases. After six months, Nuñez won moving expenses for her clients, and instead of three days, they had a year to move. They had time to find a new place, rather than be thrown out on the street, she says. Not only did I learn an incredible amount, it was immensely rewarding rewarding enough that Nuñez keeps signing up for more cases. There s not enough attorneys for all the cases that JDC gets. And a lot of cases involve monolingual Spanish speakers, so I figure I can help. Nina Schuyler is a lawyer whose first novel, The Painting, was published in Her next novel, The Translator, will be published July She can be reached at ninaschuyler@hotmail.com. Business as usual? Not hardly. Now you can achieve a new level of productivity, and serenity, at the JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square Hotel. The Pacific Conference Center, a state-of-theart new venue, is the ideal spot for everything from depositions to war rooms to board meetings. Here, you ll be treated to unmatched service including a personal concierge, high-tech tools to ease the work at hand, and a sophisticated ambience, all at an all-inclusive daily price. Contact our onsite Sales Specialist, Roxy Stone for more information at or roxy.stone@marriott.com to learn more. 500 Post Street San Francisco, CA (415) JWMarriottUnionSquare.com 24 Spring 2013