Law Students & Attorneys working together

Today I will explain my role as a Case Manager for the Community Law Program. When a client attends a legal advice clinic and meets with a volunteer attorney, the volunteer attorney can recommend the client to receive pro bono representation or additional assistance. When this occurs, our Executive Director will review the facts of the matter and determines if the client's case falls within the guidelines to obtain additional pro bono assistance.


When a case is selected to be placed with a volunteer attorney, I will begin to contact the attorneys that are in our roster that can handle the client's matter. Sometimes, the matter can be considered a brief service whereas it does not involve litigation or court filings. Other times it is a complex family law case that involves a custody dispute. Placing a case is often a difficult task because many of our attorneys that accept pro bono cases are already representing other pro bono clients. This occurs frequently because many cases, especially family law matters, can take months if not a year or more to complete. Furthermore, availability of pro bono attorneys is limited because we don't want to overburden our volunteer attorneys with multiple complex matters.

However, there are ways to alleviate the burden to the attorney when representing a pro bono client. This assistance is through the use of law students. Last week while I was contacting an attorney, the attorney stated that she would accept a pro bono client if we could obtain a Stetson Law student to assist. This is an excellent opportunity because as I said in my previous blog post, Stetson students are required to complete at least 20 hours of pro bono time for their graduation requirement. When a student provides assistance to an attorney representing a pro bono client, time spent on that client is considered pro bono. This is an example of a way that both attorneys and law students are needed to fulfill the mission of Community Law Program.

We love all of our volunteers!

Sincerely,


Kyle Fleming
Case Manager