EmPOWERING Pro Bono Day – 2022

List of Events

Arkansas

Wills & Estate Planning
Entergy participated in a Wills Clinic with Akin Gump. Attorneys in Arkansas, Washington, DC, and Texas participated in this clinic.

Louisiana

Self-Help Resource Center
Entergy staffed the ongoing Self-Help Resource Center clinic for self-represented litigants in partnership with The Pro Bono Project. A Self-Help Resource Center is a place where individuals can find helpful information and services about their legal problem if they are not represented by an attorney. Legal information includes court forms and tools to help them complete court forms, answers to general questions about court process or procedure, and help to prepare for their day in court.

Remote Self-Help Resource Center
Volunteers staffed a hotline at this remote Self-Help Resource Center for self-represented litigants. A Self-Help Resource Center is a place where individuals can find helpful information and services about their legal problem if they are not represented by an attorney. Legal information includes court forms and tools to help them complete court forms, answers to general questions about court process or procedure, and help preparing for their day in court.

In-Person Legal Resource Table
Entergy hosted a Legal Resource Table in partnership with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services at two of Entergy’s Customer Care Centers. Volunteers helped customers navigate legal issues by providing information and signing up for free civil legal aid at in-person care centers. Additionally, they assisted customers with applications for benefits and assistance.

Tulane Women’s Prison Project Training
Entergy hosted a training on handling post-conviction relief cases for domestic violence survivors in partnership with Tulane Women’s Prison Project.

Research Driver’s License Suspension Inequities
Volunteers reviewed a report on inequities related to Louisiana law governing driver’s license suspensions and assisted with cost-benefit analysis of current law.

Maryland

Expungement Clinic
At this clinic, volunteers reviewed Maryland Judiciary records to determine if a client is eligible for the expungement of arrests or convictions/completing and filing expungement requests for eligible clients. The clinic resulted in the preparation of 121 petitions for criminal expungement. The volunteers worked from the beginning of the clinic until they were basically kicked out of the venue, but they managed to see every client! All the company participants found the event rewarding and recognized the impact this work can have, breaking down barriers to employment and housing, and leveling the playing field for the residents of disadvantaged communities.

New York

Safe Passage Project Intake Clinic
This event helped refugee and immigrant children who are facing deportation.  On November 17, 2022, Con Edison participated in a virtual legal screening clinic organized by Safe Passage Project, which aims to ensure that children do not face the deportation process alone.  The purpose of these screening events is to identify available forms of relief from deportation and to provide children with free legal representation.

North Carolina

Wills for Seniors
At this clinic, volunteers provided pro bono legal support to seniors including the preparation and execution of wills and estate planning documents, powers of attorney, and health care directives.  The wills event was Duke Energy’s first in person pro bono event since the fall of 2019 and it was tremendously rewarding to be able to serve clients directly and in-person in this capacity again.

Driver’s License Restoration Clinic
Duke Energy and McGuireWoods held a pro bono CLE training led by the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center. This event brought together volunteer attorneys and legal staff from electric and gas companies to provide pro bono legal assistance to address critical legal needs of underserved communities. Volunteers helped alleviate traffic court debt and correlating driver’s license suspensions for low-income North Carolinians by learning to file a Request For Relief From Fines, Fees And Other Monetary Obligations on behalf of Driver’s License Restoration Project clients. The training covered interviewing clients, drafting the motion, and representing clients in district court. After the training, volunteers were matched with a client seeking court debt relief and Pro Bono Resource Center staff were available to assist volunteers as needed.

Pennsylvania

Wills for Heroes – Arcadia University
“Wills for Heroes” is a free service that provides wills, living wills, health care and financial powers of attorneys to first responders or veterans and their spouses, partners, and significant others.  Volunteers provided one-hour appointments to these veterans and first responders, and they left with a fully executed set of estate documents.

Life Planning Clinic for Seniors
At this clinic, volunteers worked in pairs to assist low-income Philadelphia seniors with drafting critical life planning documents, including wills, living wills, and healthcare and financial powers of attorney.

Texas

Legal Clinic for Military Veterans
This clinic consisted of free legal consultations, referrals and informational presentations on a variety of resources available to veterans and active duty military in the El Paso area.

Remote Wills Clinic
Houston Volunteer Lawyers provide advance training via an on-line video, and training on November 16.  HVL provided the professional services agreements and other client information in advance of the clinic for conflicts and other administrative tasks. Volunteers worked in teams of two lawyers/staff. Volunteers held the initial client meetings by phone/zoom on November 16, after the training and where volunteers covered the questionnaire and answered any client questions. Supervisors were on standby to answer anything difficult. The Will drafting is to be completed within weeks of the initial meeting. HVL will have a “signing day” at the completion of the project.

Virginia

Dominion Energy and McGuireWoods – Expungement CLE
The eviction moratorium put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic ended in Virginia on June 30, 2022.  Since that time, evictions filings are approaching pre-pandemic levels.  A report published June 15, 2022, reported that Richmond courts had more than 700 eviction hearings scheduled for the two months that followed, the most in Virginia.  Some landlords are proceeding with evictions without following the letter of the law, such as strict notice requirements.  The legal aid community has crafted a list of eviction defenses to aid low-income renters facing eviction.  To the extent efforts are successful, starting January 1, 2022, if an eviction lawsuit is dismissed or nonsuited, the tenant can petition to expunge the court record under Va. Code § 8.01-130.01.  Expunging an unlawful detainer from a person’s record can have a positive impact for future rental prospects. This event was a one-hour virtual CLE that included training for participation in a future expungement clinic.

Washington, D.C.

Remote Brief Immigration Advice and Referral Clinic
This clinic was one of Ayuda’s monthly virtual clinics where members of their client communities have access to excellent legal advice regardless of their income level. Volunteer attorneys willing gave their time and counsel to immigrant neighbors in need of services, along with the expertise and commitment of Ayuda’s expert immigration attorneys and staff who served as mentors. The clinic took place on November 4, 2022, via a Zoom call where volunteers served clients with humanitarian and family-based immigration questions. Ayuda immigration experts helped formulate advice plans after volunteers spoke with their clients.

National

Justice in Action Sprint
The Justice in Action Sprint is a community day of action in support of legal rights through substantive pro bono projects. At the Sprint, volunteers had the opportunity to work on projects related to human rights, tackling division and access to justice. Volunteers were trained at the start of the day and then divided into small teams to work on specific assignments.

Free Legal Answers Clinic
Volunteers participated in Free Legal Answers, a virtual legal advice clinic. Qualifying users posted their civil legal questions to their state’s website. Then, participating volunteer lawyers provided information and basic legal advice.

Help Redress Racial Justice Gap in Property Ownership
Volunteers assisted Louisiana Appleseed with pro bono research and helped them to complete a statewide survey and a state-by-state analysis concerning heirs’ property, an informal form of ownership that occurs when people die without a will and their heirs claim the estate.  Heirs’ property can become an incredibly fractionated and deeply unstable form of ownership.  Additionally, it contributes to the racial wealth gap, because many of the properties were passed down in Black families, and it drains wealth from low-income communities. Heirs’ property owners would benefit from free access to the courts to resolve these title issues in succession matters.  However, in Louisiana, petitions to file in forma pauperis (IFP) are rarely approved by the court in succession matters, because an IFP merely defers costs to a losing party, and succession matters do not have a losing party. Volunteers called parish courts to survey them on whether they permit IFPs in succession matters. Additionally, volunteers authored memos on how IFPs are used in probate matters in other states. Louisiana Appleseed provided a brief training and an online survey instrument with a script to make the calls, as well as all relevant contact information for all courts.

Help Domestic Violence Survivors
Volunteers assisted Louisiana Appleseed in research and the completion of a statewide survey. The Louisiana legislature recently removed the requirement to file a notarized affidavit with petitions for temporary restraining orders. The notary component has been a significant obstacle for domestic violence survivors seeking relief through the courts. The new law prompted the Louisiana Supreme Court to revise the forms to include an attestation page instead of the affidavit. Survivors are reporting mixed practices across Louisiana’s decentralized court system. Volunteers called parish courts to survey them on whether they are using the revised forms, and if not, why not. Louisiana Appleseed provided a brief training and a script to make the calls, as well as all relevant contact information for the courts.

* denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® signatory
** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge^® signatory
† denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Project^® member