Ashley Rose Haden, an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, has provided pro bono services to VOLS clients through the VOLS Elderly Project and, most recently, the VOLS Healthcare & Frontline Workers Initiative. For National Pro Bono Week, we invited Ashley to share her story on how pro bono service has allowed her to serve home-bound seniors by preparing vital life planning documents (wills, powers of attorney, etc.).
Why were you initially interested in helping seniors and health care workers obtain their life planning documents?
During my 1L summer, I worked at a law firm in Pennsylvania and they had a trust and estate practice. I worked on that all summer and I really enjoyed it. When I had to get my 50 volunteer hours for the New York bar, I reached out to the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I went to law school, and I spent my 50 hours — all 50 hours getting trust and estate experience.
When I came back to New York, I worked with VOLS and the pro bono coordinator at my previous firm to start a trust and estate pro bono program in the firm’s New York office. They now do mostly Elderly Project work, but they also do some Frontline & Healthcare Initiative work.
I was happy to learn that Fried Frank is also involved in the VOLS Frontline & Healthcare Initiative and has encouraged me to continue that work.
I’d say that I’m drawn to this type of work, specifically helping seniors, because of how close I am with my grandparents. This work also makes me feel like I’m really helping individual people. Seniors are just so grateful for the assistance – they know how difficult it can be to get help. And they always have amazing stories.
Next, I want to hear a bit more about your experience with volunteering for either of the VOLS programs that you have worked on in the past. Were there any client interactions that stood out to you?
I think my first project working with VOLS was before the pandemic and was likely the hardest pro bono project I’ve ever had. My clients only spoke Cantonese and I do not speak Cantonese. They were homebound and we couldn’t even speak on the phone with a translator because they were really hard of hearing. So, we had to go to their apartment every time we had a question. I saw how difficult it was for them to communicate with the outside world and live their lives in a country where they couldn’t speak the language.
They were having problems with their doctors because they couldn’t really tell the doctors what kind of care they would like without an interpreter. If there was an emergency, one might not always be available. So just preparing the health care proxy, especially, was important for them.
This work also makes me feel like I’m really helping individual people. Seniors are just so grateful for the assistance – they know how difficult it can be to get help.
How would you say your experience as an attorney has been enriched by the time you spent volunteering?
I think the most important thing for me is the individual client interaction. I’m an executive compensation and employee benefits attorney in my regular practice and I work with large companies the majority of the time. It is a really nice change when I can help individuals.
What would you say or how would you engage others to pursue a similar line of volunteer opportunities working with the elderly or our healthcare workers?
This has happened many times. I had to recruit lawyers for an Elderly Project training at my previous firm which, unlike Fried Frank, did not have a trust and estate practice. No one was trained to do this type of work. I think attorneys are always worried if they don’t know a specific area of law before they take on a pro bono project. They are often concerned about not knowing what exactly they’re doing and want to provide the best level of service.
I always pitch to people who aren’t sure about this opportunity by talking about the time commitment — this isn’t an immigration case — most of these matters take five to ten hours. While the time commitment can certainly be longer based on individual needs (whether a client is homebound, requires a translator, has special wishes or medical needs), VOLS is normally quite good at placing new volunteers with cases they can handle and being upfront about any special factors to take into consideration. VOLS, unlike some other pro bono partners, also reviews all of the documents and is always responsive when volunteers ask for help, so volunteer attorneys never have to worry about incorrectly drafting the documents. VOLS is also very upfront about whether the client’s needs are urgent. Taking on these matters may be more flexible than other types of pro bono cases.
I feel like if I can convince attorneys to take just one of these matters, they will really fall in love with the work and the unique clients that it brings with it. I just need to get interested attorneys to take on that first client.
In light of COVID-19, why do you think this type of work is especially important today?
One of the issues with COVID-19 is isolation. And, I mean, this is an already isolated population to begin with. It’s an even more isolated population now that many are in quarantine. Seniors are particularly vulnerable right now, so they are the least likely to want to leave their homes. Many seniors are too afraid of the consequences of getting the virus. My grandmother, for example, has COPD and she hasn’t left her apartment except to go to the doctor since March because she’s too afraid of the consequences of contracting COVID.
I think that giving seniors the comfort of knowing that these things are taken care of and that they have their health care documents if something actually happens to them is really important right now, even more so than usual.
Click here to read more volunteer profiles for National Pro Bono Week.