The PSLawNet Blog recently participated in a conference program exploring innovative pro bono models that involve collaboration between civil legal services providers and law students.  We were joined on the panel by Randi Burnett, the Southern Arizona Legal Aid (SALA) staff attorney who coordinates law student pro bono work via SALA’s Volunteer Lawyers Program (VLP).  Randi and her colleagues have had extraordinary success in partnering with the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law to provide a variety of pro bono opportunities to law students on clinic projects ranging from bankruptcy to guardianship to domestic relations.  We asked Randi if she would provide some background on how the collaboration works, and she has kindly offered us a lot of detail which we’re happy to share with our readers.  Maybe this model – which provides experiential learning for law students and serves the increasing numbers of low-income clients in need – could take root elsewhere.  Here is our exchange with Randi:

Randi, tell us generally about how you engage law students with pro bono opportunities, and what specific options are available to them?

The VLP’s Student Advocate Program was designed to involve local law students in our community.  The use of law student volunteers allows the VLP to provide legal assistance to a greater number of residents in need of legal assistance.  In addition, one of the primary goals of the student program is to instill a deep commitment to pro bono work in the next generation of lawyers.  With this goal in mind, the VLP provides several unique volunteer opportunities to students through the Minor Guardianship Clinic, Bankruptcy Reaffirmation Clinic, Domestic Relations Clinic, and Service Center Clinic.  Each of these clinics offers face-to-face contact with clients, the chance to work closely with different attorneys, and provide a great deal of practical experience.  In addition, two of the clinics provide law student volunteers with the opportunity to obtain courtroom experience as described below.

• Minor Guardianship Clinic: under the supervision of an attorney, law students meet with unrepresented clients prior to the client’s guardianship appointment hearing.  The law student explains the proceedings and checks to ensure that the client has complied with legal notice requirements to the parents.  The law student then appears as a “friend of the Court” during the client’s appointment hearing.  This Clinic is the only collaborative court project of its kind in Arizona that provides actual courtroom experience to first year law students.
• Bankruptcy Reaffirmation Clinic: Volunteer attorneys and law students meet with unrepresented clients who are in the process of obtaining a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  Our volunteers meet with the client before the client’s reaffirmation hearing and review the reaffirmation agreement presented to the client by their creditor.  The purpose is to make sure that the client understands the pros and cons of reaffirming any debt during the bankruptcy process.  Again, the law student has an opportunity to appear in court as a “friend of the Court.”
• Domestic Relations Clinic: This clinic provides law students with an opportunity to meet with self-represented litigants involved in a family law matter while supervised by an attorney.  Volunteers assist clients in completing basic divorce and paternity forms, help clients prepare to represent themselves at trial, explain disclosure and discovery rule compliance, and draft motions for clients.  Approximately 45% of the clients seen in this clinic are victims of domestic violence.
• Service Center Clinic:  This clinic takes place within the law library about the Pima County Superior Court and is very similar to our Domestic Relations Clinic.  Law students are supervised by attorneys and assist unrepresented litigants with their family law issues.  In addition to all the issues seen in the Domestic Relations Clinic, volunteers also assist with custody and parenting time modifications, relocation issues, child support issues, and grandparent visitation issues.  This program provides a wonderful, hands-on experience for law students and an opportunity to apply concepts learned in the classroom to a real world setting.

How do you reach out to students? It’s not the normal “resume-cover letter-interview” process, is it?

No, it’s not.  At the beginning of each semester, the VLP recruits new law student volunteers by having them attend an informational sign-up meeting during the first week of school.  We have a great relationship with the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law, and law school staff members will send out several emails to the student body to let them know about the sign-up meeting.  After the sign-up meeting the law students volunteer via email by sending in their top three clinic requests, i.e. where they’d most like to be.  The VLP utilizes three Student Coordinators—law students who act as liaisons between the VLP and the law school student body—to put volunteers into specific clinics for the semester and to notify each student of their placement.  This is usually done the day following the signup meeting.  The volunteers must then attend a two-hour clinic training.  When all is said and done, the VLP has a new crop of law student volunteers signed up, trained, and volunteering within a week and a half of the first day of the school.

Although the VLP holds three different signup meetings throughout the year (which occur at the beginning of the spring, summer and fall semesters), the most important signup meeting occurs at the beginning of the fall semester.  The VLP’s Law Student Coordinator gives a quick, fifteen minute presentation to the incoming class of first year law students during their orientation.  During this presentation we show a great video/PowerPoint that highlights the program, tugs on the heartstrings, and is set to music.  It’s really important to inspire the incoming students to volunteer and get involved with the VLP at the onset of law school.  Program data shows that the more involved a person is with the VLP as a law student, the more likely they are to volunteer with the VLP as an attorney.  If the program can “wow” the law student right from the beginning of their law school career then it’s likely that the program will have a steadfast volunteer for years to come.  [Ed. Note: look through the musical slideshow programs that VLP uses to engage and express appreciation to student volunteers here.  Here is the direct link to a law student orientation slideshow.]

How does VLP supervise student volunteers?

The program supervises students on three different levels.  First, the students are immediately supervised by our volunteer attorneys during each clinic.  The attorneys are there to guide the student, answer questions, and provide legal advice on issues when needed.  Each clinic has a group of several different attorneys who rotate clinic dates throughout the semester so a student is likely to be supervised by a different attorney each time he or she volunteers.  One of the benefits of this schedule is that the law student has the opportunity to see a different “style” of practice with each attorney.

The second level of supervision is done by the program’s three student coordinators.  These coordinators are experienced law students who have excelled as volunteers in the VLP and have been selected to act as liaisons between the student body and the VLP.  The Coordinators’ duties include sending out weekly reminder emails to the law student volunteers to remind them that it is their week to volunteer.  They also help recruit new volunteers each semester.  But their most important duty is to communicate with participating volunteers to make sure that the volunteer experience is fun and worthwhile.

The final level of supervision is done by the VLP’s Law Student Coordinator—which, of course, is my position within the VLP.  It’s my job to oversee to the overall operation and coordination of the student programs.  I let volunteers know that my priority is to make sure that they have fun and thoroughly enjoy their experiences.  VLP student volunteers do not receive academic credit for participating in our programs, nor do they receive any kind of compensation.  The very least that I can do is make sure that they have a positive experience each time they volunteer.  I also survey all of our volunteers at the conclusion of each semester and read all of the feedback we receive.

What have law students reported back as being the most rewarding aspects of their experiences?

The most rewarding aspect of volunteering in our clinics is seeing the difference one law student has made in a real person’s life.  One of the most frequent comments I get from students is that they didn’t realize how big of an impact explaining legal forms could have on another person.  We do a lot of family law and most family law clients come in to our clinics scared, really nervous, (often) very sad, and (sometimes) pretty agitated.  Our volunteers find that just providing some clarity to someone in that position, reassuring them that they will get through this, and seeing the enormous amount of relief the client gets from the experience can be incredibly uplifting.

Students experience the same type of feeling in our other clinics, too.  It makes you feel like you’ve really made a difference when you explain to a bankruptcy petitioner that they don’t have to reaffirm a $15,000 auto loan with 25% interest rate on a vehicle worth $8,000 just because the creditor told them they had to.  They have options that they need to be aware of so that they can make an informed decision about their financial future.  And it’s really hard not to be proud of yourself when you have helped a client become a guardian of his young nephew who was orphaned in Africa due to civil war.  You, as a law student, made the court process easier and more accessible to both of these clients and left them with a better understanding of their duties and responsibilities going forward.  It’s pretty awesome to know that in such a short period of time that you have had a lasting impact on another person.

What about the most challenging aspects?

The most challenging aspect of volunteering from our students’ perspective is overcoming the self-doubt that they have about themselves.  I’ll often hear from law students at the beginning of a semester that they don’t believe that they will be able to help anyone because they are “just” a law student.  Volunteers can be a little hesitant sometimes in the beginning because they may be dealing with material that they are unfamiliar with or they are unsure about what their role is in the process.  But after a while they start to realize that they do possess a lot of knowledge that they can impart to the client and the students’ confidence begins to grow.  They begin to take control of the client interview and start to take charge in the courtroom.  They become comfortable with the fact that when you are asked a question that you don’t know the answer to, the right answer is “I don’t know, but I bet we can find out.”  The personal and professional growth our law student volunteers experience by volunteering with us is probably one of the key reasons that the VLP continues to grow and succeed each year.  And I can say without a doubt that watching their journey from nervous, timid law student to confident, skillful volunteer is hands down one of the coolest things about my job.

Thanks, Randi!

p.s. if you’d like to contact Randi with questions, she’s at rburnett@sazlegalaid.org.