Pro Bono is a professional responsibility.
If you know a Vermont lawyer who deserves recognition for their pro bono efforts, this blog’s for you. But you need to act fast.
Nominations for the Vermont Bar Association’s Pro Bono Award are due tomorrow. Nominations should be sent to me or Teri Corsones.
There’s never a bad time to recognize those who give of themselves.
Related posts:
Having spent time at the bar exam the past two days, I was reminded of the Basic Skills Seminar that the VBA presents for new lawyers. It occurs twice each year: the days before Mid-Year and Annual Meetings.
The agenda includes 2 hours on “Vermont Professionalism.” I open by discussing professional responsibility, then Eileen Blackwood hones in on the pro bono opportunities. Over the past few presentations, we’ve used “wellness” as segue from my presentation to Eileen’s. Specifically, Eileen has made it a point to mention that one of the most rewarding cases of her career was one that she took pro bono. While Eileen says it better than I can, the reward is the positive feelings that flow from helping someone who desperately needed it, for no other reason than because you could.
On the flip side, let’s leave no doubt: pro bono work is a form of giving that can improve another’s wellness. To that end, on Wellness Wednesday, I’d like to call your attention to the recipients of the VBA’s 2020 Pro Bono Award: Tom French & Samantha Lednicky.
I’ve pasted in the VBA’s official announcement. The link is here.
The Vermont Bar Association is proud to announce that Attorneys Thomas M. French and Samantha V. Lednicky will both be this year’s recipients of VBA’s 2020 Pro Bono Service Awards. The award is given annually to one or more attorneys who exemplify the best traditions of our profession by giving unselfishly of their time and skill to provide pro bono legal services to the poor and disadvantaged.
Thomas M. French is a pro bono emeritus attorney in Brattleboro who was nominated by attorneys James Valente and Thomas Costello for his work with military veterans. Following military service himself as a JAG attorney, French worked as a general practitioner in Windham County for 50 years, often serving clients pro bono. After retirement, Attorney French set up a pro bono program at his local American Legion post where he can be found every Tuesday and Thursday helping veterans obtain benefits they have been wrongfully denied. In 4 years, Attorney French has won 14 out of the 15 actions he brought for his veteran clients, securing nearly $500,000 in benefits for them.
Samantha V. Lednicky is with the firm of Murdoch Hughes Twarog and Tarnelli in Burlington. She was nominated by Hon. Helen Toor and Frank Twarog, Esq. who recognized her work in the rent escrow clinic in Chittenden Civil Division. Not only does Attorney Lednicky regularly volunteer to represent low income tenants at these clinics, but she frequently continues representation beyond the clinic to ensure that the tenants receive justice in the court process. Attorney Twarog also praised Lednicky for her successful pro bono efforts to win parenting rights for a low income, homeless parent in a case to which she brought “a fresh prospective and her usual diligence.”
Attorneys French and Lednicky will be presented with the VBA’s Pro Bono Service Award at our mid-year meeting luncheon on March 27 in Burlington.
Congratulations – and thank you – to Sam & Tom!
Related Posts:
Happy Law Day!
This year’s theme: free speech, free press, free society.
(Try saying that 3 times fast and learn why today might also be national tongue twister day.)
What’s this got to do with wellness? Let me try to convince you that it does.
Per today’s ABA Journal, there are “gaps in Americans’ civic knowledge.” The gaps were revealed by the 2019 ABA Survey of Civic Literacy. Honestly, the numbers don’t look terrible to me. Especially compared to numbers I reported in this space a few years.
In this post, I referenced this poll. 37% of those surveyed couldn’t name EVEN ONE of the protections in the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Free speech, free press, and free society indeed.
As I blogged back then,
Worse, per the same poll, only 1 in 4 Americans can name all 3 branches of government!
If 3 out of 4 don’t know the branches, how are we to impress upon the executive & legislative branches the importance of an independent & fully funded judicial branch?
Here’s a simple way to help: contact the Vermont Bar Association at info@vtbar.org Ask for a pocket constitution. Give the pocket constitution to a kid, or to a teacher, or to a client who is a school board member.
Or, do what a number of Vermont lawyers have been doing around the state: volunteering their time to visit schools and civic organizations to talk about the Constitution and civics. It might sound like a small step. It is. But small steps often lead in the right direction.
Earlier that week, I’d posted Constitution Day & Karaoke. In it, I laid down this challenge:
As I’ve mentioned at a few seminars, my initial exposure to the U.S. Constitution was during the Saturday morning cartoons I watched as a kid. Courtesy of the folks at Schoolhouse Rock!, that’s when, where, and how I first learned about the origins of the Constitution and the words to The Preamble.
Of course, if people are not able to access the legal services that they need to protect their rights, the Constitution might mean little to them. So, in honor of Constitution Day, if an attorney or firm donates $1,000 to the Vermont Bar Foundation’s Access to Justice Campaign by Friday, September 29, I’ll karaoke the Schoolhouse Rock! version of The Preamble at the VBA’s upcoming annual meeting.
Within days, the challenged was accepted and my singing debut finalized. At the October 2017 Annual Meeting of the Vermont Bar Association I subjected those in attendance to my rendition of the Schoolhouse Rock! song. How it has not gone viral is truly the 9th wonder of the modern world.
If picturing me singing The Preamble to a ballroom full of 300 as my parents looked on in abject horror doesn’t improve your mood, then I don’t know what wellness is.
Furthermore, last week, Eileen Blackwood and I presented on professionalism at the VBA’s Basic Skills conference. Eileen urged the new lawyers to consider pro bono work. Among its other benefits, Eileen shared a poignant story of how a case that she handled pro bono brought her a measure of personal satisfaction that she didn’t always find in her work for “paying” clients.
Her story is relevant today.
Pro bono is a professional responibility. The rule here. It states that a substantial majority of a lawyer’s pro bono hours should be provided to persons of limited means or to organizations whose primary purpose is to support persons of limited means.
After that, however, Rule 6.1(b)(3) indicates that additional hours may include “participation in activities for improving the law, the legal system or the legal profession.” Per Comment [8], this includes “taking part in Law Day activities.”
So,
Thus, volunteering to raise civic wellness might include the added benefit of improving your wellness.
Get involved. The rule of law needs lawyers, and lawyers need wellness.
Today is #GivingTuesday. It follows #CyberMonday, #SmallBusinessSaturday, and #BlackFriday. In this day & age, how Sunday escaped unnamed is beyond me.
Anyhow, for lawyers, pro bono is a way to give. So, I thought I’d share some old posts and links to pro bono opportunities.
Remember – you don’t have to solve the access to legal services problem on your own. Whatever you can give, it makes a difference.
“One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide. As he walked he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one.
Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, “I’m saving these starfish, Sir”.
The old man chuckled aloud, “Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?”
The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water and turning to the man, said,
“I made a difference to that one!”
Rule 6.1 of the Vermont Rules of Professional Conduct suggests that lawyers provide 50 hours of pro bono legal services per year. One area in which pro bono services are needed: helping our veterans.
Last Friday, and in anticipation of Veterans Day, President Bob Carlson blogged on the ABA’s work to ensure that our veterans can access legal services, including the services necessary to secure the benefits to which they are entitled. The post includes many tips on how to get involved in pro bono efforts on behalf of veterans.
For those of you who don’t know her, I’m proud to use this opportunity to introduce you to Katelyn Atwood. Katelyn practices law in Rutland and is a fellow member of the Vermont Bar Association’s Board of Managers.
From 2014-2016, Katelyn served as the Vermont Bar Foundation’s Poverty Law Fellow. She focused on establishing the Vermont Veterans Legal Assistance Program (“VVLAP”). Today, VVLAP remains an ongoing project in Vermont Law School’s South Royalton Legal Clinic.
Katelyn – today I thank not only our nation’s veterans. I thank you too – for your tireless efforts to raise awareness as to our veterans’ unmet legal needs.
Welcome to Monday!
Friday’s questions are here. The answers follow today’s honor roll.
Honor Roll
Answers
Question 1
Fill in the blanks. The same phrase goes in each blank.
When providing pro bono legal services, a substantial majority of the 50 hours should be provided to persons of limited means or certain organizations designed to serve persons of limited means.
That’s the phrase in Rule 6.1 For a definition, see Comment [3].
Question 2
This is a “what am I” question:
What am I?
I ama limited representation. See, Rule 1.2(c).
Question 3
Lawyer called me with an inquiry involving Client and Other. I listened. Then, I said:
“it’s ok as long as:
What is Other’s involvement with this situation?
Other is paying Lawyer. See, Rule 1.8(f).
Question 4
Later today, I’m speaking to the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
For a criminal defense lawyer, which rule should spring to mind if a plea deal is conditioned upon the lawyer’s client waiving claims of ineffective assistance of counsel? The rule on:
Several advisory opinions have reached the same conclusion: the criminal defense lawyer’s personal interests conflict with the client’s and, in addition, implicate the rule that prohibits a lawyer from asking a client to agree to limit the lawyer’s liability unless the client is represented by counsel. See, Rules 1.7(a)and 1.8(h). For more, see Pennsylvania Bar Association Formal Opinion 2014-100, provided by Thomas Wilkinson, a regular member of the honor roll.
Question 5
Speaking of Vermont & New Hampshire . . .
In 2012, Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The nomination was for his role in Lincoln. He played a Pennsylvania lawyer who was elected to Congress as a “Radical Republican,” chaired the Ways & Means Committee during the Civil War, and whose fierce opposition to slavery was instrumental in the passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments.
My favorite quote attributed to him? As a trial lawyer, and in response to a judge who warned that he was manifesting contempt: “Sir, I am doing my best to conceal it.”
Oh, by the way, the Pennsylvania lawyer was born and raised in Vermont, then attended college in New Hampshire.
Thaddeus Stevens.
Welcome to Friday!
And what a Friday it is!! Go Sox! I’d say the lock screen is working just fine.
As long-time readers know, when it comes to sports, I’m disturbingly superstitious. I truly believe that quirks like the lock screen will help Boston to win the World Series, perhaps even more than anything the players do on the field.
As I thought about the objective foolishness of the superstitions that I associate with “helping” my favorite teams, my mind wandered, scrolling through various notions of “helping.”
Then . . . it hit me, and my mind’s equivalent of a cursor stopped dead in its tracks on this realization: when it comes to some of the most critical help that needs to be provided, Vermont’s lawyers are the equivalent of a team that has won the World Series many times over.
I’m talking about pro bono.
Yesterday was the Vermont Bar Association’s Pro Bono Conference. I was fortunate enough to speak during the plenary session. As I did, I looked out over an audience of lawyers of all ages, firm sizes and areas of the state. Most were there to learn how to help. Others, the panelists, were there to teach how to help.
I was humbled & full of pride to be in the presence of so many lawyers so willing to give of themselves.
I was as proud to realize how far we’ve come on another topic: lawyer wellness.
The conference’s theme was serving vulnerable Vermonters. I opened my talk by reminding lawyers that, as a profession, we are a vulnerable population. Then, at lunch, United States Bankruptcy Judge Colleen Brown tied pro bono service to wellness.
Judge Brown stated argued that helping others lends itself to senses of purpose and satisfaction that can’t help but increase wellness. Quoting Winston Churchill, Judge Brown urged lawyers to remember that:
I agree with Judge Brown. In my presentation, I used this quote from Justice Sandra Day O’Connor:
Finally, after the day’s seminars ended, Vermont’s newest attorneys took the oath of admission in a ceremony in the well of the House chamber. In remarks delivered after administering the oath, Justice Harold Eaton urged lawyers to use their talents, skills, and position to help to provide & ensure access to justice. In addition, he stressed the critical need for lawyers to take care of their own physical and mental well-being.
Two weeks ago, I blogged about choosing to help. One way to help: pro bono work. When it comes to pro bono, there never has been and never will be a better time to help than now.
Indeed, next week is the ABA’s 10th Annual national celebration of pro bono. The focus is disaster relief. In a message marking the occasion, ABA President Bob Carlson urges lawyers to help with disaster resiliency efforts. (Many states relax their rules on unauthorized practice to allow nonresident lawyers to provide assistance in response to natural disasters.)
Closer to home, if you want to help but don’t know how, contact Mary Ashcroft. Mary is the VBA’s Legal Access Coordinator and can direct you to pro bono opportunities, as well as to low bono opportunities.
As I said, Vermont’s lawyers are champions when it comes to helping. And Mary Ashcroft is our MVP.
But, in sports, whenever any team wins a championship, there’s always the next season. Similarly, as much as Vermont has done for those who need but cannot afford legal services, there’s always going to be more to do.
All in all, yesterday reminded me that law is about helping, pro bono is about helping the most vulnerable among us, and, when it comes to lawyer wellness, we need to help ourselves to ensure that we are healthy enough to help others.
Choose to help.
Onto the quiz!
Rules
Question 1
Fill in the blanks. The same phrase goes in each blank.
When providing pro bono legal services, a substantial majority of the 50 hours should be provided to persons of _____________ or certain organizations designed to serve persons of _________________.
Question 2
This is a “what am I” question:
What am I?
Question 3
Lawyer called me with an inquiry involving Client and Other. I listened. Then, I said:
“it’s ok as long as:
What is Other’s involvement with this situation?
Question 4
Later today, I’m speaking to the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
For a criminal defense lawyer, which rule should spring to mind if a plea deal is conditioned upon the lawyer’s client waiving claims of ineffective assistance of counsel? The rule on:
Question 5
Speaking of Vermont & New Hampshire . . .
In 2012, Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The nomination was for his role in Lincoln. He played a Pennsylvania lawyer who was elected to Congress as a “Radical Republican,” chaired the Ways & Means Committee during the Civil War, and whose fierce opposition to slavery was instrumental in the passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments.
My favorite quote attributed to him? As a trial lawyer, and in response to a judge who warned that he was manifesting contempt: “Sir, I am doing my best to conceal it.”
Oh, by the way, the Pennsylvania lawyer was born and raised in Vermont, then attended college in New Hampshire.
Disclaimer: I serve as the chair of the Vermont Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee. Still, there’s an entire section of the Rules of Professional Conduct dedicated to pro bono. So, it’s a topic that’s eminently appropriate for this blog.
Here are my answers to some frequently asked questions.
What’s the rule?
It’s Rule 6.1:
The remainder of the 50 hours can be satisfied in any of the ways outlined in Rule 6.1(b).
Who qualifies as a “person of limited means?”
My client stiffed me, that’s pro bono, right?
I’m a government attorney, so I don’t have to do pro bono.
Ok Mike, I’m doing pro bono work, what other rules apply?
What about the conflicts rules?
How can I learn about pro bono opportunities?
Some opportunities are here. There’s also the Vermont Volunteer Lawyers Project. To learn more, please contact Mary Ashcroft or Angele Court.
Also, here’s a message that Navah Spero, President of the Chittenden County Bar Association, sent today: “in addition to the many wonderful opportunities available at non-profits in the area, the courts are always looking for volunteers to serve as guardians ad litem (Family Division), attorneys for proposed wards in guardianships (Probate Division), attorneys for the rent escrow clinic (Civil Division), and more. Be in touch with the court clerks directly for more information.”
There should be a conference on this.
There is. October 18, 2018, at the Statehouse. Save the date. The conference will include seminars on:
Thank you.
Welcome to Monday! This must be the nicest January ever.
Friday’s questions are here. Today’ s answers follow the Honor Roll.
I’m ecstatic to report that while there might not be many of us, there’s a committed contingent of us who don’t share what we intend to order with fellow diners & who order last.
Honor Roll
Answers
Question 1
How about a 50/50 to start?
There’s a rule that “a lawyer shall not engage in undignified or discourteous conduct which is degrading or disruptive to a tribunal.”
Does the rule apply to depositions? Yes or no.
YES. See, V.R.Pr.C. 3.5, Comment [5]
Question 2
By rule, when must a lawyer provide a client or third person with a full accounting of funds or property that the lawyer held for the client or third person?
V.R.Pr.C. 1.15(d) states that a lawyer “upon request of a client or third person, shall promptly render a full accounting of such property.” I’d put to you (Rake) that Rule 1.16(d) suggests that an accounting should be provided upon on the termination of the representation as well.
Question 3
True or false.
In an ex parte proceeding, a lawyer does not have a duty to inform the tribunal of material facts that are adverse to a client’s position.
FALSE. V.R.Pr.C. 3.3(d).
Question 4
Lawyer works at Firm. In addition, Lawyer often provides short-term legal services under the auspices of programs sponsored by nonprofits and a local court. When providing such services, neither Lawyer nor clients have an expectation of continuing representation.
As such, while providing the short-term legal services,
Question 5
When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.
Johanan Vigoda was a lawyer. In 1971, Vigoda helped a client who was a musician to negotiate a contract with a record company. Per the terms of the contract, the musician had to pay 6% in royalties to Vigoda indefinitely & forever, including to Vigoda’s heirs after Vigoda’s death.
Vigoda died in 2011. In 2013, the musician learned that the record company was still making royalty payments to Vigoda’s widow. The musician ordered the payments to stop. The musician sued, seeking an order that he was not required to continue to pay royalties beyond Vigoda’s death. The musician claimed that Vigoda had duped him into signing the contract, never telling him that it called for “forever” royalty payments.
Vigoda’s widow counter-claimed. She claimed that Vigoda’s regular practice was to read the terms of any proposal, agreement, or contract to the musician. Thus, she alleged that the musician had agreed to and signed the contract after Vigoda read it to him. She sought more than $7 million in royalty payments that had not been made between 2013 & 2015. Last summer, the musician and Vigoda’s widow settled the dispute.
Name the musician. (the writing should be on the wall.)
Stevie Wonder.
Good morning. Friday’s questions are here. The answers follow today’s honor roll.
As usual, I greatly appreciate the thoughts & stories that readers shared in response to the Friday intro. Remember: people care, help is available. If you (or someone you know) needs help, you can make a confidential inquiry of me, or, you can call the Vermont Lawyers Assistance Program.
Also, please remember this: when it comes to helping someone else, don’t think of it as whether you have a professional obligation to make a report. Think of it as helping another human being. As I blogged last March
Yes, I get it, we are reluctant to get involved. Some of these might sound familiar:
When we’re dealing with a number like 108, those reasons for reluctance don’t cut it.
Honor Roll
Answers
Question 1
Which is different from the others?
Question 2
There phrase “persons of limited means” appears four times in a single rule.
What’s the topic of the rule?
Voluntary Pro Bono Services – Rule 6.1
Question 3
There’s a rule that prohibits a lawyer from counseling or assisting a client to engage in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent. In 2016, a the Supreme Court adopted a Comment to the rule. The Comment makes it clear that lawyers may:
Rule 1.2(d). The order adopting the Comment is here.
Question 4
There’s a rule that prohibits a lawyer from doing something, unless it’s:
What’s the “something?”
Solicit employment by in-person, live telephone, or real-time electronic contact. Rule 7.3(a).
Question 5
Vincenzo Leoncavallo was an attorney and judge in Italy. In 1865, he presided over a murder trial that involved a love triangle: the victim was stabbed to death by a romantic rival. The victim was Judge Leoncavallo’s son’s babysitter.
Fast forward to 1910. It was then, 108 years ago, that the first public radio broadcast took place. The broadcast was of 2 operas.
One of the operas had been composed by Judge Leoncavallo’s son. It involved a love triangle in which Silvio was stabbed to death by Canio, a jealous romantic rival.
Name the opera.
Bonus: name the character for whom Silvio and Canio shared dueling affections.
The opera: Pagliacci
The character: Nedda.
