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For those yearning to find a way to give back, Indiana’s pro bono landscape has room for all.
This column rounds out this year’s series on holistic teams that serve clients in a sum greater than their parts. The two previous articles highlighted specific legal issues; to close, we highlight opportunities based on client geography and service commitment level.
Pro Bono Indiana is a state-wide nonprofit organization that focuses on providing legal professionals with pro bono opportunities. According to Managing Attorney Dana Luetzelschwab, PBI does the heavy lifting of connecting legal professionals, from paralegals to senior attorneys, with clients in need of service. PBI can provide attorneys of all experience levels with training and mentorship.
In order to serve the largest number of clients possible, PBI has developed an expansive network of remote and in-person limited-scope, brief advice clinics across the state. Such clinics are held in Putnam County (spearheaded by Molly Madden), Hancock County, Wabash County and Cass County to name a few. Offering brief advice clinics in rural communities is vital for access to justice because of the dearth of local attorneys, which leads to them being conflicted out of representation or to being restrained by their public role (i.e. prosecutor, judge).
Legal professionals looking to get involved with one of PBI’s clinics should call their local district office (visit probonoindiana.org for more information). Paralegals can play a large role in administering clinics, conducting client intakes and assisting with form completion. Volunteers are needed not only to provide direct legal advice to clients but also to assist with connecting clients to social services resources, which PBI’s Legal Navigators specialize in.
Luetzelschwab equates finding the right pro bono opportunity with dating — you do not have to marry the first line of pro bono work that you encounter. She encourages legal professionals to explore the services available until finding the right fit, and volunteering at limited-scope clinics provides the perfect platform to gain exposure. Attorneys anywhere in the state can provide virtual advice via PBI-facilitated Zoom meetings to clients in counties with fewer lawyers and legal resources.
Where PBI reaches wide, the Indianapolis Legal Aid Society reaches deep and provides legal professionals with the chance to take on full-scope pro bono representation primarily in Marion County.
John Floreancig, the society’s general counsel, reports that “it’s all about relationships”—with clients, of course, but also with stakeholders important to client outcomes (like property managers to advise on how to strengthen housing applications or negotiate soft landings), between needs and timing (like how guardianship requests peak during school open enrollment), and between early intervention and worst outcome avoidance (like how pre-incarceration assistance in adjusting child support orders and developing a re-entry plan for a job learning marketable construction skills can reduce recidivism).
In that vein, the legal aid society has refrained from adopting the clinic model and instead holds remote office days, forming client relationships that do not end after a single touch point, just like any other full-service law firm.
Even where legal society attorneys do not enter an appearance on behalf of a client, its in-house social work team can be a critical source of ongoing support, especially for clients who may have no other resources to lean on.
For example, the society represents low-income homeowners in ordinance violation proceedings prosecuted by the Marion County Health Department. The legal aid society helps these clients to navigate deadlines and obtain free housing repairs in conjunction with a local nonprofit, Home Repairs for Good.
The full panoply of the legal aid society’s endeavors is available to volunteers. An ideal attorney volunteer would take on a full matter, especially process-heavy cases that might bog down full-time society attorneys’ dockets.
For enthusiastic junior attorneys who may nonetheless be nervous handling their first case, the legal aid society can pair them with an experienced attorney for real-time mentoring, modeling, and guidance. And all volunteer attorneys can lean on the society to help with client touchpoints and management that might be beyond a volunteer’s ken or availability.
If a full matter is too big of a commitment, attorneys may also assist with things like the driver’s license reinstatement hotline, tenant representation, or looking ahead for soon-to-be divorcee clients to issues of child custody, tangled title, or domestic violence prevention.
Last but most certainly not least, paralegals are also in high demand to help with the ever-growing need to update and expand ILAS’s form bank. If you would like to volunteer, simply contact ILAS at the information provided on their website, indylas.org.
The unique roles fulfilled by Pro Bono Indiana and the Legal Aid Society are complimentary—in fact, the two organizations reside in the same building and often coordinate their respective efforts. Both organizations also cover their volunteers’ malpractice insurance and assist in running conflict checks.
The open casting call for pro bono actors will not close in any imaginable future. Dedicated paralegals and very junior to very senior attorneys all have a moral (if not professional!) obligation to find a role that fits. Opportunities abound.•
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Molly Madden and Cassidy Segura Clouse are associates in Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath’s Indianapolis office. Opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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