LAST YEAR, staff members from the Bar's Lawyer Referral Service answered more than 12,000 calls from the public and referred 3,000 cases to New Hampshire attorneys on the LRS panel.

"The staff spends the necessary time with callers to assess their needs and suggest the appropriate service," said LRS coordinator Robin C. Brown. "We help them figure out what kind of lawyer they need-if they need a lawyer-or direct them to the right service or office based on their situation. " It's an effort that enhances the quality of the referrals LRS makes, as well as providing the public with a personalized, less intimidating introduction to the legal system. "As the first contact for many people with the legal profession, LRS has the opportunity to put people at ease," said Brown, who joined the Bar staff in January. At the same time, the program is a reliable referral source: compared to other LRS programs, NH's program has one of the highest ratios of calls to referrals nationwide.

LRS is also succeeding from a financial point of view. The program has posted two consecutive quarters of income exceeding expenses, due to the percentage-fee system established by LRS in 1998. Under that system, panel members agree to pay to LRS 10 percent of their net collected fees above $250. "We are ahead of our projections," said Mary S. Searles, the former LRS coordinator who oversaw the transition to percentage fees. Initial projections were that it might be five years before the longest-lasting cases-with the greatest potential return-would close and referral fees would be paid.

"The reason LRS is doing well is because the lawyers are doing well," said Virginia A. Martin, the NHBA associate executive director for Legal Services, who oversees LRS. Attorneys have reported $1.3 million in collected fees since 1998. "We are pleased to see LRS accomplish what we said it could do," Martin added. "LRS is on its way to becoming self-sustaining, providing financial support to the Pro Bono program, and generating income for Bar members. LRS is truly a service that is good for lawyers and good for the public."

Brown, who previously served as volunteer coordinator for Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), brings many years of experience as a paralegal in the New Hampshire legal community to the job. A CASA staff member for the past five years, Brown supervised approximately 50 volunteer guardians ad litem (GALs) in abuse and neglect cases. Before that, she had worked as a paralegal for more than 10 years in New Hampshire law firms in the Plymouth/Laconia area. Her new job at LRS blends both the public-service aspects of working for a nonprofit with the task of serving Bar members with an effective source of new clients. Brown, who first became involved with CASA as a volunteer in 1991, has resumed her role as a volunteer CASA GAL.

Brown said one of her priorities is to bolster the Reduced-Fee Referral panel administered by LRS. The Reduced Fee program serves an important group: clients over income for Pro Bono assistance, who can pay an attorney something but are unable to afford prevailing legal fees or retainers. Brown says she will be contacting current Reduced-Fee panel members to find out about their experiences and use that information to improve the program and broaden participation, especially in some northern counties where the panel is in the greatest need of attorneys.

Searles, Brown's predecessor, has left the Bar after five years as LRS coordinator to attend graduate school in Boston. She is pursuing a master's degree in library science at Simmons College. "During her tenure, Mary Searles was instrumental in raising the level of professionalism and fiscal success of LRS," said Martin. "Thanks in large part to Mary's leadership, the New Hampshire Bar Association enjoys one of the more proficient LRS programs in the country."

Joining the Bar staff in 1992 after serving as a volunteer doing intake work for the Pro Bono program, Searles' various responsibilities included overseeing the DOVE Project for several years and editing of the Pro Se Divorce Kit. In addition she managed the Bar's public information pamphlets program for several years during her tenure. Looking back on her years with the NHBA, Searles said she was grateful for the opportunities she had: "I was able to do a variety of things-layout, editing, running LRS as a business-and I had the chance to work with lawyers from all sorts of backgrounds."

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