 |  |
September 11 and Beyond
As we honor the memory of those who lost their lives in 9/11, VOLS is reminded of the many legal service and pro bono lawyers who responded to the tragedy by offering needed and free legal services. A tradition of service that the profession humbly continues today.
We share with you an article written in November 2001 by the late William J. Dean, VOLS’ former executive director, as part of his weekly column in New York Law Journal to report on pro bono news to the legal community in New York City. The column describes the citywide legal community response efforts following the attacks of 9/11. This September 11, we remember Bill’s legacy as well as the thousands of Americans whose lives were taken during the 2001 attacks.
Sept. 11 marks a defining moment in the history of our country and our profession. The entire profession has responded generously; bar associations, the private bar, legal services and public interest organizations, government lawyers and law students.
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Looking out over a sea of faces in the Meeting Hall of the Association, filled to capacity night after night with participants attending capacity training sessions, President Evan A. Davis spoke of the profession’s “Instantaneous eagerness to help; of its feeling of caring and concern.”
Major Projects
Working under the most severe of time constraints, the Association’s City Bar Fund has initiated six major projects — truly an heroic undertaking.
(1) In collaboration with Safe Horizon, starting on the weekend following the disaster, volunteers were recruited to notarize New York State Crime Victims Board application forms at the Family Assistance Center at Pier 94 on 54th Street, and at sites in the Bronx and Staten Island, thereby enabling families to obtain immediate financial assistance. 150 volunteers participated, many of them secretaries and paralegals at law firms.
(2) A day after the city announced expedited procedures for the issuance of death certificates, 500 lawyers received training on the new procedures at the association. The following morning, the volunteers began work at Pier 94.
(3) A team of trusts and estates lawyers was organized to, provide advice to families at Pier 94.
(4) In collaboration with other bar associations and legal services organizations, a Family Facilitator project was developed by the association to address the wide range of legal Issues faced by families affected by the calamity. Each lawyer-facilitator conducts an inventory of client needs to determine the legal issues to be addressed. Attorneys with expertise in specific areas were recruited to serve as mentors to the facilitators. “The facilitators,” says Bridget Fleming, managing attorney for the Community Outreach Law Program at the City Bar Fund, “go over the legal landscape with sad and overwhelmed people. They are always available to help the family.”
(5) Small business owners displaced or disrupted by the events of Sept. 11 are being assisted. Owners are helped at walk-in legal clinics at 110 Maiden Lane, 80 Centre St., 633 Third Ave. and 62 Mott St. Legal issues include insurance, commercial lease’s, employment, contracts and bankruptcy.
(6) Volunteer lawyers are being used to assist families and individuals who come to Pier 94 in navigating the wide array of services available there.
These projects involve the participation of many hundreds of volunteers. Of this enormous pro bono effort, Maria Imperial, executive director of the City Bar Fund says, “I feel proud to be a New Yorker and never more proud to be an attorney.”
Legal Referral Service. The Legal Referral Service, a joint project of the city bar association and the New York County Lawyers’ Association, set up a hotline shortly after the attack to answer legal questions. It serves as the intake point for Sept. 11 cases. Allen Charne; executive director of the Legal Referral Service, and his staff have been, in his words, “receiving call after call from people who have lost a loved one.”
Computer Technology. Computer technology is used in every aspect of this undertaking. In recruitment by getting the word out via e-mail. In training by having materials available on-line. In organization and administration by developing a volunteer database system for making matches between lawyers and clients. These systems were quickly put into place by existing computer-based systems adapted and expanded to meet the challenge.
Pro Bono Net, a Web-based legal resource for pro bono and legal services community, developed a Sept. 11 practice area on-line at www.probono.net is information about volunteer opportunities, training materials, names of mentors and experts available for consultation by pro bono lawyers and information on governmental and private agencies providing services to those affected. Pro Bono Net provides a means for lawyers to communicate with each other via a Message board. Information is constantly being added and updated. A data base of nearly 2,500 volunteers now exists on Pro Bono Net, a virtual community of the legal profession linked together by technology.
Another example of computer technology is the newly created “Information Related to September 11” section developed by Law Help (www.lawhelp.org), an on-line legal referral and information system designed to assist low-Income’ New Yorkers by connecting them to legal help and education materials. Resources available on this web site include the “Helping Handbook: Legal Resources for Families of Victims Of the World Trade Center Disaster” prepared by Morrison & Foerster. Law Help Is a project of the City Bar Fund, Legal Services for New York City, Pro Bono Net, the Legal Aid Society and Volunteers of Legal Service.
“September 11 created an unexpected and unprecedented need for immediate legal services for thousands of individuals and small businesses,” says Michael Hertz, president of Pro Bono Net. “Technology developed by Pro Bono Net and Law Help make it possible to coordinate the broad and varied responses.”
New York County Lawyers’ Association. Itself displaced from its landmark building on Vesey Street, with staff camping out for a time at the offices of Landy & Seymour, the firm of its president, Craig A. Landy, the association has established a program to provide estate legal services to the families of firefighters, police officers and other members of uniformed services who perished at the World Trade Center.
State Bar Association
New York State Bar Association. The state bar association estimates that 1,300 lawyers worked in the World Trade Center. The association has established a toll-free number (1-877-HELP-321) and a section on its website at www.nysba.org/wtc to provide information to individuals and families on law-related questions, and has developed a guide, “Mass Disasters: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions.” The association also helps lawyers who have been displaced.
New York State Trial Lawyers Association. Members are handling cases on a pro bono basis for victims and surviving family members who are eligible and choose to make claims under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund established by Congress.
The Private Bar. Over 1,000 lawyers have participated in the city bar association training programs to assist families and small businesses. Another 200 lawyers have volunteered as mentors and experts. Volunteer lawyers now are providing pro bono legal services to more than 600 families and 100 small businesses. An additional 700 cases are in the process of being referred to lawyers. Lawyers from firms, large and small, are participating, as well as lawyers at corporations. An attorney retention letter for clients was prepared for the project by members of the association’s Pro Bono and Legal Services Committee chaired by James H.R. Windels.
Some firms are working with families of firemen. Some firms have loaned lawyers and paralegals to work full-time at the city bar association to assist on Sept 11 initiatives. On very short notice, lawyers have prepared written materials for volunteers and then made presentations at training sessions. Litigators and transactional lawyers are participating, along with insurance lawyers, trusts and estates lawyers, real estate lawyers and lawyers from other specialties. Law firms have, made generous financial contributions to relief efforts and have encouraged additional contributions by lawyers and support staff to be matched by the firm.
Legal Aid
The Legal Aid Society. The Legal Aid Society experienced its own travails, with 400 staff members at its 90 Church St. headquarters office having to be evacuated. Despite dislocations, Legal Aid lawyers have been active in, relief efforts. Civil Division attorneys are staffing a table at the Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Recovery Center in Lower Manhattan to provide advice and referrals to individuals and families who are affected by the disaster. The Volunteer Division is conducting training programs on legal issues faced by those affected by the disaster. Civil and Volunteer Division staff have been serving as mentors to volunteers who take cases as facilitators. Attorneys in the Civil Appeals and Law Reform Unit have produced a “WTC Disaster-Related Assistance Guide.” The Immigration Unit participates in a coalition of immigrant rights and service organizations coordinating information, referrals and legal assistance to immigrants and their families. Many immigrants are fearful of seeking disaster relief to which they may be entitled.
Legal Services for New York City. LSNY offices are providing advice and representation to poor persons affected by the tragedy. Legal help includes obtaining emergency public assistance, food stamps, social security and unemployment insurance, and assistance with evictions.
LSNY staff members are gathering and posting and regularly updating information on Law Help concerning issues especially impacting poor people. Topics include “Information on Evictions After September 11th” and “Disaster Unemployment Benefits.”
Lawyers Alliance for New York. Lawyers Alliance is addressing the business and transactional law needs of nonprofit groups affected by or responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. Organizations that are collecting funds for disaster relief, providing adult or youth grief counseling and education programs, offering job placement activities for workers formerly employed at affected sites, or otherwise responding to the tragedy are being assisted.
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. NYLPI is providing pro bono legal assistance to the families of union employees from Local 32BJ and Local 100 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union. 32BJ, a union of porters, security guards and cleaning and maintenance workers, many of whom worked in and around the World Trade Center, lost 25 members. Local 100, a union of low-income hotel and restaurant employees, many of whom worked at Windows of the World, reports 44 members lost and 300 displaced.
Government Lawyers. The city’s Law Department, in collaboration with the Office of Court Administration, Department of Health and Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, developed the expedited death certificate procedures being used. Lawyers from the Law Department supervise this program at Pier 94. Other city attorneys are involved from the Office of Labor Relations, the New York Fire Department, and the Conflict of Interest Board. The Criminal Justice Coordinator has played a major role in the city disaster relief efforts.
Law Students. Law students from Cardozo and Columbia are assisting Legal Services for New York City in the preparation of legal education materials. Law students from the NYU Small Business Community Clinic are assisting in the small business legal project.
Challenges Ahead
The Bar has responded admirably to the events of Sept. 11. The longer range challenge will be to retain the enthusiastic pro bono spirit generated by the events of Sept. 11 and put it to further good use by helping the many poor people in the city who have pressing civil legal needs unrelated to the World Trade Center tragedy.
These needs are significant. For example, only about 50 percent of tenants in Housing Court in Manhattan are represented by a lawyer. In the Bronx the number may be closer to five percent. Without housing, it is impossible to keep a family together. A more important legal need is hard to imagine.
There are other areas of great legal need, including adoptions, disability, domestic violence, uncontested divorces, bankruptcy and consumer debt, nonprofit organizations, prisoners’ rights and immigration. And this impending area of activity: In December about 50,000 New York families in the state will reach the five-year federal limit for cash welfare benefits. They are eligible for the state “safety net” program, but only after being screened. Many poor people will fall by the wayside in the screening process. Volunteer lawyers will be needed at administrative hearings to challenge adverse decisions taken against them. As the New York Times commented editorially, “If their benefits are cut off even temporarily, many are likely to fall into homelessness.
Inventory of Needs
Looking to the future, legal services and public interest organizations should undertake an inventory of unmet legal needs which can be met through the use of volunteer lawyers. As lawyers complete their Sept. 11 cases, they should be invited to participate in this equally important work.
As lawyers, we can look with pride to the Bar’s response to Sept. 11 But other great and noble challenges remain.