EVERY YEAR, FRANKLIN Pierce Law Center’s Public Interest Coalition funds summer fellowships for selected Pierce Law students interning with public interest organizations in New Hampshire and throughout the world. Through sponsorship by generous law firms and organizations and proceeds from the annual PIC Auction, students selected as PIC Fellows work with nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies serving the legal needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged clients, both locally and nationally. The following are excerpts from essays about their experiences written by two of the 2002 PIC Fellowship recipients.

Not a Typical Law Student Experience
By Brooke Meyer, ‘03

DURING MY SUMMER internship with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland (CLAS), I did not work with case law, go to court or write legal memoranda. But it was those very skills – the ones I have studied and worked to master in law school – that prepared me well for my summer at CLAS. My time was largely spent reviewing educational reports and gathering information from community leaders regarding special education needs within the Cleveland public school system.

Based on my research, I produced a survey designed to quantify and document the need for legal representation among low-income parents of children with special education needs.

My survey revealed that parents in the suburbs usually have the resources to retain lawyers to help them navigate the complex laws regarding special education. However, low-income parents from other areas lack these resources, and may be taken advantage of by schools that assert their own economic interests. These parents are not aware of laws that provide them with important educational rights and permit them great latitude in making decisions about their children’s education.

The capstone of my summer internship consisted of writing and presenting a memorandum summarizing the information collected throughout my internship. The executive director was so impressed with the results of my work that I was asked to apply for a post-graduate Fellowship funding representation of the very clients whose needs had been revealed. It was both satisfying and inspiring to have my efforts recognized by an organization so committed to serving the legal needs of under-represented people.

I personally wish to thank LexisNexis for supporting the Franklin Pierce Law Center’s Public Interest Fellowship Program. Their generous donation of a full fellowship has created a greater awareness regarding the needs of low-income parents whose children are being denied an appropriate education; it has also inspired me to continue working to advance the legal needs of those parents and children.

A Summer to Remember
By Jeff Kobulnick, ‘03

IT’S 9:20 A. M. and I have two things in front of me in my small intake room: a very tall cup of coffee, and my client, whom I’ll call John. Both are highly caffeinated this morning. John is here not because he’s been sued, but because he thinks his landlord will try to evict him from his apartment since she has not accepted this month’s rent – and before she sues him for non-payment, he wants to sue her. For the past 20 minutes he has eagerly told me every detail of his living situation for the past five years. The door to our room is closed, but my client is shouting so loudly that people in the next office must also know every detail of his story.

Welcome to my summer in legal aid.

After calming my client down countless times, I try to explain to him that since no actual eviction notice has been given yet, there is really no legal situation with which we can help him. "When you receive a notice to quit," I tell him, "then come back and see us." John does return in a few days, "Notice to Quit" in hand.

Thanks to a public interest coalition (PIC) grant from my law school, John was one of the many clients I was able to work with this past summer while I interned with Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a nonprofit legal aid in Los Angeles. The name Bet Tzedek means "House of Justice" in Hebrew. Justice, I found, came in many forms for our clients. It might mean defending a tenant like John in an action against a landlord. Or it could mean representing a client before an administrative law judge in an appeal for unemployment insurance benefits.

Many times, however, justice took on an entirely different form: sometimes it meant just taking the time to listen patiently to what our clients had to say and to discuss their issues, some of which were legal and others of which were not. Often it was not that the law weighed against our clients, but that many did even know what their rights were or what remedies might be available to them.

Working under the supervision of licensed attorneys, I was able to do things that the clients simply were unable to do for themselves. A lot of my time was spent researching federal and state regulations.

Lacking the ability to get answers themselves was particularly true of our elderly clients. On several occasions I drove more than an hour to a senior citizen center where a line of people waited to talk to me about their problems. I found myself staying extra hours at various senior citizen centers and skipping lunch to make sure that everyone got a chance to meet with me. I ended up with a heavier caseload than many of my fellow summer clerks, and although I had offers of help, I typically kept the cases myself; I figured that I knew the client’s situation best.

Knowing that I had made a difference was one of the greatest rewards at legal aid; I actually received several handwritten letters from clients thanking me for all my help, and telling me what a huge difference I had made in their lives.

Perhaps one thing that surprised me was the amount of paperwork involved. As most legal aid organizations get funding from various sources, it is important for them to keep track of all kinds of statistical data about the clients they serve. Once I asked a client what I thought was a pretty simple question – was the client single, married, divorced or widowed? The client answered, "Well that’s another issue that I want you to help me with. My husband told me he was divorcing me, but I don’t think he ever went through with it, and then he moved out and died." "Good news!" I said to her later, as I sorted through her shopping bag of papers, "it looks like you’re divorced after all." I learned there are no simple questions!

In some cases I was able to solve a client’s problems; sometimes, though, there was nothing I could do except listen. In most of those cases, it turned out that the clients already suspected they had no legal remedy – they were just thankful for my time. Basically justice was served in their eyes not because they got a day in court, but because they got a day when they were treated no differently from the richest man alive, with their legal representative giving them his full attention.

I learned a lot this past summer and I am thankful for the experience. Had it not been for my public interest grant, I would not have been able to accept a position working for a legal aid organization. Regardless of where I end up after law school, I know I will devote at least part of my practice to pro bono work – helping clients like John and drinking many tall cups of coffee.

Home | About the Bar | For Members | For the Public | Legal Links | Publications | Online Store
Lawyer Referral Service | Law-Related Education | NHBA•CLE | NHBA Insurance Agency | NHMCLE
Search | Calendar

New Hampshire Bar Association
2 Pillsbury Street, Suite 300, Concord NH 03301
phone: (603) 224-6942 fax: (603) 224-2910
email: NHBAinfo@nhbar.org
© NH Bar Association Disclaimer