12/14/2009
“It’s a great day to be a Jacksonville lawyer.”
Can’t you just hear Dan Bean saying that? Well, I have to say it, too. I want to tell you what 16 lawyers and two law students accomplished in three hours on Saturday, Dec. 5, at our latest “Ask-A-Lawyer” event. It was Jacksonville lawyers taking free legal services to people who may find legal consultation cost prohibitive. We worked with City Council member Reginald Brown, District 10, and City Council member Glorious Johnson, At-large, to arrange this event. The volunteers assembled at the Johnson Family YMCA on Cleveland Road at 8:40 a.m. (Three residents had gotten there shortly after 8 a.m. to be sure they’d be able to speak to someone about their legal issues. Do you remember how cold and rainy it was on that Saturday?) After a brief orientation and time to get a name tag and a cup of coffee, the attorneys got started at 9 a.m. and they didn’t stop until shortly after noon.
By the numbers, we served 64 people and addressed well over 70 legal issues. We had attorneys speaking English, Spanish, and Italian. They answered questions in these areas of law: family, criminal, employment, real estate, immigration, probate, foreclosure, bankruptcy, landlord/tenant, social security, workers compensation and personal injury. The dollar value of the time spent and services rendered amounts to approximately $12,000. Those are the numbers. What is harder to quantify is the response of the people who we served. Dan and I got to hear the comments, “This was wonderful.” “Thank you. The attorney I spoke to could not have been nicer or more professional.” “I feel so much better.” “I got all my questions answered. I can’t thank you enough.” “That’s exactly what I needed to know.” At least one woman left with tears of relief and gratitude.
This was a team of attorneys who accomplished exactly what we hope to accomplish with “Ask-A-Lawyer.” The goal is to provide legal advice in an atmosphere that is friendly, welcoming, and professional. This team accomplished that goal and consisted of these attorneys: Eric Bradstreet, Vanessa De Rosa, Adam Deli, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Ada Hammond, Paola Parra Harris, Maggie Jo Hilliard, Jamie Ibrahim, Leslie Scott Jean-Bart, Eric Kolar, Rick Lasseter, Valarie Linnen, Gordon Nicol, Elisabeth Ruiz, Zeina Salam, and Vanessa Zamora.
These law students assisted, as needed, and observed: Ralph Azoy and Diana Hansard. The attorneys represented these bar associations — The D.W. Perkins Bar Association, The Hispanic Bar Association and The Jacksonville Bar Association. More importantly, their commonality was a willingness to come together to share their expertise with people who needed their help. The attorneys’ comments included these, “That was so much fun.” “I will do this again.” “This reminds me of why I went to law school: to make a living, yes AND to try to make a positive difference for individuals in their everyday lives.” “Some of these people really didn’t need legal advice; they just needed someone to listen to their story.”
On behalf of the people served, I want to thank the attorneys who stepped forward. I should say, too, that the attorneys who served on Dec. 5 represent a third of the number of attorneys who have said they’ll help with future events. We have a list of over 50 attorneys who want to be notified of future “Ask-A-Lawyer” dates. Our sincere appreciation is extended to you all. Right now, we’re scheduling about 15 attorneys at an event and we’re targeting City Council districts identified by the Council members as areas with high numbers of low-income families. We hope to hold two or three more “Ask-A-Lawyer” events in the first half of 2010. If you’d like to be on the “future events” list, just e-mail me at kathy.para@jaxlegalaid.org.
For me, Ask-A-Lawyer is an example of our profession at its best — providing legal service that is highly competent and compassionate. Ask-a-Lawyer is a grassroots opportunity to serve our community by sharing our legal skills and expertise with people in crisis and for whom representation may be out of reach. With these economic times, the level of need is overwhelming. I’m proud to be part of a profession that responds.
