MD Volunteer Lawyers Services broadens vision, adding service groups

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Mar 15, 2003 by Special to The Daily Record

While the overall mission of the Maryland Volunteer Lawyer Service remains the same, recently the nonprofit clearinghouse for pro bono attorneys has broadened its approach to serving low-income Marylanders with civil legal problems.

And that provides new opportunities for private lawyers.

Now MVLS is targeting service groups that give support to the clients -- and at the same time is broadening the scope of legal work available to volunteer private attorneys.

Founded in 1981, the organization served a record 4,471 people last year with the help of nearly 2,400 volunteer lawyers. MVLS is Maryland's oldest organized pro bono program with volunteer attorneys and client services across the state -- and has served as a model program for pro bono services in the U.S. since its founding in 1981.

"The American Bar Association made grants in 1981 to MVLS and four other pro bono programs to help promote private attorney involvement in civil legal aid to the poor," explained W. Reece Smith Jr., who was ABA president in 1981.

Smith, who practices in Tampa, Fla., led the ABA's efforts to preserve federal funding for legal aid and increase local cooperation between the organized bar and legal aid.

"These model programs laid the foundation for the outstanding expansion in pro bono that we have experienced in the United States - - from 50 organized pro bono programs in the early '80s to over a thousand today," Smith added. "Beginning with MVLS and through your recent rules on pro bono reporting and planning, Maryland has stayed in the forefront of pro bono development in our country."

Law has its limits

Why the recent shift by the MVLS toward helping service groups? That's easy -- not all the problems faced by low-income people are legal.

"Fixing a legal problem doesn't solve the problem of poverty," explained Winifred C. Borden, MVLS's executive director since 1991. "And we aren't equipped to do that."

To address broader poverty issues, MVLS has reached out to organizations such as the Mid-Shore Council on Family Violence, the Somerset County Department of Social Services, and CASA, a domestic violence program in Hagerstown.

"We'd send a lawyer out to talk to clients and the staff," Borden said. "Those programs showed us we can be more effective in terms of client service when we partner."

From there, MVLS moved on to work with community service groups.

"We created our own community development project that provides nonprofits with lawyers to help them with their legal needs," Borden said. "We have clients all over the state and offer a range of services."

Some examples: MVLS provided legal assistance to a group in Allegany County developing a business "incubator" and reviewed personnel policies for a number of organizations.

MVLS also brokered a deal that helped an organization that works to improve access to health care for thousands of low-income and elderly Maryland residents.

"We worked with MEDBANK of Maryland to set up a mail-order pharmacy for uninsured individuals without prescription coverage," Borden said. "Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver donated $30,000 in legal work setting it up."

Sanford Teplitzky, chair of Ober Kaler's health law department, said he was "very pleased" to work on the project: "It merged our law firm's commitment for serving those in need with our specific expertise in the health law area."

CASH and clinics

On the financial front, MVLS is now a leading partner in a coalition of Baltimore community groups that promote the earned income tax credit, provide home ownership counseling, banking services and financial literacy training. It's called CASH (Campaign for Assets, Savings and Hope), a program created by Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.

At the same time, MVLS provides assistance to 10 organizations that give free income-tax help. "We trained 180 volunteers and developed procedures for them," Borden said. "The program has given us exposure to groups we haven't had contact with and they're spreading the word."

George Kelly, a Baltimore media consultant, has been an MVLS tax- clinic client for years.

"By using MVLS, I know I'll have someone go with me to the IRS if I get audited," Kelly said. "It gives me a sense of well being. I tell everyone I know. All you have to do is fill out one form. If you're eligible, you're in."

With a grant from the Baltimore Community Foundation's Women's Giving Circle, MVLS is giving financial literacy workshops at the Department of Social Services.

"It's direct client work," Borden said. "The lawyers talk about consumer scams, taxes, bankruptcy and the bankers talk about credit, credit repair and budgeting -- a nice combo. So it's preventive legal work within a social service context and another example of holistic service and preventive law."

What's it all add up to?

"We're offering a broader view of pro bono services," Borden said. "It also provides an array of opportunities to lawyers to do pro bono work."

Calling all family practioners

Make no mistake: "Traditional" services still make up 70 to 80 percent of what MVLS provides, with about 45 percent of cases falling in the family law category.