Posts Tagged ‘ Lawyers Giving Back ’
Attorney Douglas Fox: Helping US Servicemen a “Humbling Responsibility”
April 19th, 2011. By BrendaC
Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with attorney Douglas Fox of Cozen O’Connor law firm…
Attorney Douglas Fox: “If you are going to be deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, the last thing you need is a legal problem on your mind.”
- Attorney Douglas Fox
US military personnel have legal issues just like everybody else. And last year, the American Bar Association (ABA) saw a need to reach out to US servicemen and servicewomen and connect them with lawyers who were willing help on a pro bono basis.
“We jumped at the chance,” says attorney Douglas Fox, whose firm, Cozen O’Connor, was asked to become one of the founding members of the ABA Pro Bono Military Project.
“We thought it was an incredibly exciting and humbling responsibility and opportunity to help active servicemen and women. If you are going to be deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, the last thing you need is a legal problem on your mind and we felt this was a way for lawyers to give back.“
Even before volunteering to be a founding member of the Pro Bono US Military Project, Cozen O’Connor had an impressive pro bono track record. Last year alone according to Fox, who heads the firm’s pro bono committee, Cozen O’Connor attorneys did more than 16,000 pro bono hours—with a total time value of some $6 million.
“These were hours given to those who otherwise would not have been able to access legal services,” says Fox. “We handle all kinds of pro bono cases, from very high visibility cases to cases that don’t make the headlines, like the pro bono military project cases, but they are equally important to us and they are, of course, important to our clients.”
In the high-profile category you can include Lozano v. Hazelton, a civil rights case that is now before the Supreme Court. For the last four years, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others, Cozen O’Connor has being fighting a Hazelton, Pennsylvania city bylaw that would punish landlords and employers who rent to or hire so-called illegal aliens.
Cozen O’Connor has several hundred lawyers with 20 offices across the US and is also represented in London and Toronto. Although it is a general practice firm, its lawyers don’t do a lot of family law. With the Pro Bono US Military Project, Fox says, “This is an opportunity for our lawyers who don’t practice family law to go outside their comfort zone. It is something that lawyers who take on these cases are anxious to do because they know the need is so great.”
“Many of the cases are family law cases. They are adoptions, child support, divorces—cases of that nature. They are issues that need to be dealt with in order to put the minds of the servicemen and women at ease,” Fox adds.
“There is no question, even today with this program, not all of the legal needs of military personnel are being met,” says Fox. “Even with the great work of the ABA Pro Bono Military Project we know there are needs that are not being met, however, we have been very excited to do what we can do.”
Douglas Fox concentrates his practice in subrogation and recovery, property insurance, commercial and civil litigation. Before joining Cozen O’Connor in 1985, Fox served as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia. Fox has also previously served on the board of directors of the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness.
Simmons Firm Lawyers Give Millions to Mesothelioma Research
April 5th, 2011. By BrendaC
Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Illinois attorney Mike Angelides of Simmons, Browder, Gianaris, Angelides & Barnerd…
Attorney Mike Angelides: “Our lawyers see how this affects families…that is what has led to a culture…of giving back to this community.”
- Holding the plaque The Simmons Law Firm received from the Mesothelioma Foundation are, from left to right: Gregg Kirkland, COO; John Simmons, Chairman & CEO; Michael Angelides, Managing Partner
The Simmons firm in Illinois is well-known for litigating on behalf of people whose lives have been affected by exposure to asbestos. The firm, you might say, has also been very willing to put its money where its mouth is, and over the last several years has pledged some $20 million to mesothelioma and cancer research.
“I think all of us here would be very happy if we never had to see one of these cases again,” says the firm’s managing partner Mike Angelides. “I wish I never had to see a family go through the heartache and agony of having to deal with this disease. It would be great to find a cure and put this disease to rest.”
Compared to other types of cancer, mesothelioma affects relatively few people and as a result attracts fewer research dollars.
“It is an ‘orphan cancer’,” says Angelides. “Although it affects about 2,500 Americans every year, it only receives about 1/10 of one percent of all cancer research funding. We really see it as our moral obligation to help this community, because quite frankly, if we don’t help them, no one will,” says Angelides.
Although it can be decades before the signs and symptoms of mesothelioma appear, even the slightest exposure to asbestos can lead to mesothelioma or another asbestos-related cancer. Those affected are usually people who have been exposed to asbestos at their place of work at some point during their lives. They can be pipefitters, or construction workers or factory workers—any worker whose job entailed working with either asbestos itself, or components or parts which contained the deadly asbestos fibers.
There are few treatments and no cure for asbestos mesothelioma. The lungs fill with cancerous tumors and mesothelioma patients literally suffocate to death.
“This is such a terribly aggressive cancer, fast moving, always terminal, very painful,” says Angelides whose firm has battled dozens of companies over the last 11 years to challenge their careless exposure of workers to asbestos fibers.
“Our lawyers see how this affects families and what people suffer and what they go through. That is what has led to a culture at the Simmons firm of giving back to this community,” he adds.
The Simmons firm recently donated $250,000 to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, a non-profit foundation that funds research and provides education and support for patients and their families. The Simmons firm is the Foundation’s largest aggregate donor and has given the Foundation a total of $2 million over the last decade.
Through its own charitable organization, the Simmons Mesothelioma Research Organization, the firm has pledged or given millions of dollars worth of grants to US universities that do mesothelioma research including the University of Chicago, Columbia University in New York and the University of California at San Francisco.
And in Springfield, Illinois, the firm donated $11 million to build the Simmons Cancer Institute currently operating at the Southern Illinois University to address and serve the needs of people with all types of cancer.
The money comes in part from community-based fund raising efforts, but most it comes from the verdicts and settlements the Simmons firm has obtained over the last decade.
The tradition of giving back comes from the firm’s founder.
“This is the philosophy that our founder and current chairman, John Simmons, has had ever since he started the firm and he has really impressed upon us the importance of contributing and giving back to this community,” says Angelides, “and it has really been an honor for us to have been successful enough to do that.”
Mike Angelides is a partner in the firm of Simmons, Browder, Gianaris, Angelides & Barnerd (known as the Simmons firm). The firm has recovered approximately $3 billion on behalf of hundreds of families affected by mesothelioma and other asbestos-related cancers. Mike Angelides is a frequent speaker at asbestos-related legal conferences.
Meet Kelly Burris: The Flying Lawyer who Gives Back
April 5th, 2011. By BrendaC
Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Michigan attorney Kelly Burris of Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione…
Attorney Kelly Burris: “It’s a ‘win-win’ really…I get to do something good for people and I get to fly.”
About once a month, attorney Kelly Burris gases up her 4-seater single engine Beechcraft airplane and does a run for the Angel Flight Central organization in the US. “Let’s see,” says the easy-going, friendly and thoughtful Burris from her office at Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione, “I’ve flown breast milk, cancer patients, kids and one time I flew a hospice patient, that was a difficult one.”
It was a flight instructor who first suggested Burris get involved with Angel Flight as a way to gather more flying hours. Angel Flight is a non-profit organization of pilots and volunteers that provides free transportation to people who need to fly for medical or legitimate charitable reasons.
It was a good fit Burris. She’d just become a partner at the patent law firm of Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione in Ann Arbor. Her hours were flexible and Burris had the time, the money and the plane—and she loves to fly.
“Yes, I pay for it all,” says Burris who has been a volunteer pilot with Angel Flight for the last seven years. She calculates that each run costs about $400 to $500 and she believes it is worth every minute.
“But it’s a ‘win-win’ really,” she says. “I have always known community service is important and I have always done it. Maybe public service should be more of a sacrifice perhaps, but it isn’t. It is just really enjoyable. I get to do something good for people and I get to fly.”
Among her first flights was a 4-year old boy who was visually impaired. He walked out onto the tarmac and wanted to touch the plane. “He said, ‘Mommy, it is chrome, I bet it’s pretty Mom’. Burris says her heart melted. “Then he said ‘Kelly Burris, pilot, 1962, Beechcraft Debonair, is it a G-Tail or a B-Tail?”
That little boy is now 11 and Burris has flown him and his mother many times since then.
Burris was an engineer before she became a patent attorney. “It is all technology to me, and I love technology,” she says. Many of her clients are outside the state and she often combines work meetings with Angel Flight. “I have several clients in St. Louis, so I will look for an Angel Flight on a day I am going down there. I will swing by Chicago and pick somebody up and then drop them in Urbana at the University there and go see my client.”
In 2009 Burris won the Air Race Classic, a 2,700-mile cross-US race, sponsored by The Ninety-Nines, a female aviators group started in 1929 by Amelia Earhart. She donated the $5,000 top prize to Angel Flight.
Through The Ninety-Nines Burris has actually raised even more money for Angel Flight over the last several years. “The first year I was in the Air Race Classic, I thought while we are flying through all these different towns why don’t I slap the Angel Flight logo on the plane and wear my Angel Flight shirt and see if we can raise some awareness and money. My co-pilot and I have done 3 races now and raised about $50,000.”
To learn more about Angel Flight Central, please visit www.angelflightcentral.org.
Kelly Burris earned her J.D. at St. Louis University. She also holds a B.S. and M.S. in engineering. Her practice focuses on international trademark law, electrical and computer law, intellectual asset management, licensing, patents, trademarks and unfair competition. Ms. Burris, a licensed pilot since 1984, is a long-time volunteer and fundraiser for Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic and Angel Flight Central, part of the Air Charity Network. She was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of Angel Flight Central.
Texas Law Firm Responds to Legal Access Crisis for Low Income Clients
March 29th, 2011. By BrendaC
Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Texas attorney Amy Dinn of Gardere Wynne Sewell…
Attorney Amy Dinn: “We can work out a solution and get them through the legal system, which is not intuitive.”
From one end of the country to the other, many Americans simply can’t afford access to lawyer. A study done recently by the Legal Services Corporation estimated 50 percent of the legal needs of indigent Americans who need and qualify for legal aid go unmet.
- Attorney Amy Dinn, second from left, and the Pro Bono team at Gardere Wynne Sewell
And in the state of Texas, the Texas Young Lawyers Association recently reported in its newsletter that attorneys in the state are addressing less than 25 percent of the needs of low income Texans. “And there is only one legal aid lawyer for every 10,838 poor Texans,” says Amy Dinn, a lawyer from Texas’ Gardere Wynne Sewell, one of the state’s oldest and largest law firms.
“It is not only important to do pro bono work, our firm has made it a priority,” says Dinn. The Houston Bar Association recently awarded Gardere Wynne Sewell a “Star Volunteer” award for its substantial contribution to working with Texans who need—but can’t afford—access to justice.
There are so many people with legal issues and not enough money to hire a lawyer that more people than ever are trying to represent themselves in court proceedings. According to Dinn, “That can actually impede the system, they aren’t experienced in the courtroom or don’t know the law and it slows down the process.”
“So whatever firms can do, even if it is just one case a year, and even if it is a little out of their comfort zone, it is important to do it,” says Dinn.
Dinn, who is trial lawyer, comfortable with contentious and complex litigation like product liability and corporate business disputes, spends many hours helping low income Texans with everything from name changes to estate planning.
“No, it is not my practice area, but I find it really rewarding,” says Dinn.
I recently worked for a woman whose husband was in jail,” says Dinn. “They had been married for 20 or 30 years but she had not seen him for many years and it was essentially a paper marriage and she needed to extricate herself from the marriage.”
“Many people find themselves in situations that are just too complicated for them to solve by themselves. We can work out a solution and get them through the legal system, which is not intuitive.”
Dinn and a group of other lawyers from Gardere Wynne Sewell, together with the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, do no cost wills and estate planning clinics. “It is a two-day process. We meet with the clients one day, then they come back and we draw up the will and execute it.”
“It can really make a difference in these people’s lives. Especially drawing up the wills—just the emotional comfort they get from knowing that their affairs are in order and that their family is taken care of.“
In addition, Dinn usually does four or five pro bono cases a year. “I think it pushes you in different directions professionally and it is really important to give back,” she adds.
Amy Dinn has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. Dinn is a partner in the firm of Gardere Wynne Sewell, LLP. Established in 1909, the firm has offices in Dallas, Houston, Austin and Mexico City. It provides legal services to private and public companies and individuals in areas of government affairs, energy, litigation, corporate, tax, environmental, labor and employment, intellectual property and financial services.
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