SAVE THE DATE

On Monday, February 6, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Public Interest Section will present a panel presentation, entitled Increasing Access to Justice from the Bench, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., in the 11th Floor Conference Center, at the Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market St. The panel will be moderated by Joseph A. Sullivan, special counsel and director of pro bono programs at Pepper Hamilton LLP, and will feature a panel discussion on how members of the judiciary can work to increase access to justice from the bench. The panelists will include the Honorable Annette M.Rizzo who will discuss her role in creating the Philadelphia Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Project, the Honorable Timothy R. Rice who will address how he helped to develop the Federal Re-Entry Program, and the Honorable Abram F.Reynolds who will discuss his role in creating the Juvenile Treatment Court program. This program is free to all members of the Association, but pre-registration is required. Please register online at www.philadelphiabar.org. This program is co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Civil Gideon Task Force and Criminal Justice Section.

On Thursday, February 9, a program entitled Managing Law Student Loan Debt: Federal Loan Repayment Assistance Programs, will be held from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., at the Philadelphia Bar Association, 11th Floor Conference Center, 1101 Market St., Philadelphia. This program will feature a presentation by Heather Jarvis, a national expert on educational debt and financial barriers facing law school graduates and income-based repayment and public service loan forgiveness under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The program is free to all members of the Philadelphia Bar Association, but space is limited and pre-registration is required. Register online at www.philadelphiabar.org. This program is co-sponsored by the Association’s Public Interest Section, Delivery of Legal Services Committee, Law School Outreach Committee and the Young Lawyers Division.

SAVE THE DATE: 2012 PRO BONO TRAINING PROGRAMS

Podcast

Listen to author Amy Bach addresses a Public Interest Section plenary session on April 13, 2010: click here.

Listen to Heather Jarvis, senior program manager for Law School Advocacy and Outreach Resources at Equal Justice Works, on Managing Student Loan Debt: New Loan Repayment Assistance Programs at a Sept. 16, 2009 program o-sponsored by the Public Interest Section's Delivery of Legal Services Committee and the Young Lawyers Division: click here

Listen to the April 29, 2009, plenary meeting on Systemic Advocacy: click here

Listen to the April 10, 2008, plenary meeting of the Public Interest Section and the Pennsylvania Bar Association: "Civil Gideon: A Right to Counsel in Civil Cases"

THE ANDREW HAMILTON AWARD

Each year, the Public Interest Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association honors a legal services advocate or public defender with the Andrew Hamilton Award. The award-winner must work for, or be associated with, an organization whose purpose is to serve persons who cannot afford to pay for legal representation, or be a public-interest lawyer working with a nonprofit organization serving a charitable or public interest purpose.

See a list of past Andrew Hamilton Award Recipients here.

About

The Public Interest Section, founded in 1991, provides a forum for public interest and private lawyers to come together on behalf of Philadelphia's neediest community. In 1994, the Philadelphia Bar Association By-laws charged the newly created Public Interest Section with "promot[ing] the interests of the members who address the legal needs and rights of the poor, minorities, victims of abuse, persons with disabilities, the homeless and other disadvantaged populations." The section was to provide a "forum for the Bar to work together on issues of mutual concern that affect the public interest . . . and to educate and involve the entire Bar in issues affecting the public interest."

Today, over four hundred members, consisting of public interest and private lawyers, law school faculty members, foundation directors and law students collaborate on projects to improve the delivery of legal services to Philadelphia's poorest community. Such collaboration not only vastly improves the delivery of legal services, but also has created a culture of inclusion within the Philadelphia Bar Association regarding issues that affect and concern the poor. The Public Interest Section, as the largest Bar Association team of public interest and private lawyers working to improve justice in Philadelphia, epitomizes the fulfillment of the Philadelphia Bar Association's mission to serve both the profession and the public by promoting equal access to justice, professional excellence and respect for the rule of law.

The Benefits of Section Membership

Section members can stay abreast of new developments in the law and exciting opportunities to shape the future of our society. The Public Interest Section's activities include:

Agency/attorney collaborations to develop pro bono projects where current need is great but free legal services are scarce;
Improving the current system of delivering pro bono services;
Collaborating on amicus briefs for issues of importance to the community such as ensuring the greater availability of adoptive homes for children who need them, improving the quality of family court for all who use it and creating educational programs specially designed for public interest and pro bono practitioners.

The section currently includes eight committees, which can be viewed in the drop-down box at the top of the page.

To join the Section and receive news and information on the list serve, click here.

Public Interest Profiles

Each month the Bar Association will highlight the work of a local public interest agency. To participate, interested organizations should send a short agency description (100-150 words), contact information, Web site link and logo or other graphic, to Web Manager Wesley Terry.

About Philadelphia VIP

Mission Statement: VIP promotes equal justice for the poor by providing civil legal services not otherwise available, collaborating with other legal services organizations and promoting a culture of volunteerism by educating and exposing attorneys and law students to issues of poverty.

Philadelphia VIP is the hub of pro bono legal services in Philadelphia. For the past 27 years, we have provided volunteer legal services for low-income residents and families facing civil legal problems that threaten their basic human needs. We rely on the private bar in Philadelphia to bridge the gap between the needs of the community and scarce legal services.

VIP, through its volunteers and staff, serves more than 1,100 individuals and families yearly who could not afford attorneys and whose cases could or would not be handled by other public interest organizations. We are the agency of last resort for the majority of our clients.

Our clients are among the poorest in the City. To be eligible for our services a client's income must be at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Thus, our most financially secure clients earn $20,000, while a family of 4 lives on $40,000.

VIP handles any civil matter that is non-fee generating and for which there is no right to counsel. Our caseload has four priority areas:

Maintaining family income (child support, employment/wage claims, tax issues, disability)
Preventing homelessness (landlord/tenant appeals, public housing evictions, probate, tangled title, consumer debt, litigation defense)
Supporting family stability (child custody, adoption/guardianship, special education and school discipline, name change and immigration issues); and
Promoting community economic development.

The majority of VIP's cases are referred to us from Community Legal Services and Philadelphia Legal Assistance; an additional number come from specialized legal services organizations throughout Philadelphia.

In stark terms, VIP is the agency of last resort for many low-income individuals and families who face critical legal problems that affect their basic needs.

1. Philadelphia continues to lose population but because the poverty rate in the City increased from 22.9 percent to 24.9 percent in the period since the 2000 Census, the population of people in poverty has grown from approximately 347,500 to 364, 500.
2. The sole exception to this rule applies to clients seeking legal assistance from LawWorks to form a small business whose income may be at 300 percent of the poverty guidelines.

Did you know the United States Department of Justice has interpreted the Americans with Disabilities Act to require attorneys in certain situations to provide sign language interpreters to deaf or hard of hearing clients at no charge to the clients?

To encourage Association members to comply with the ADA and to increase access to justice for the deaf and hard of hearing community, the Association has created a fund to reimburse members for up to $100 per sign language interpreter appointment.

To learn about the fund and apply for reimbursement, click here.

CLE discounts available!

Section members are now eligible to receive discounts for CLE programs presented by their sections under a new agreement between the Philadelphia Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.

The new discount program only applies to programs proposed and presented by the sections and the various committees of those sections. It does not apply to stand-alone Bar Association committees. The discount program became effective on May 1.

Join the List Serve

Committees

Would you like to be a member of a subcommittee of the Public Interest Section? Membership of a subcommittee is free when you are a paid member of the Public Interest Section. E-mail Andrea Morris, Membership Coordinator, to specify with which subcommittee(s) you would like to be involved.

Want to contribute but don't have time? Click here for information about making donations.

Member Login