Posts Tagged ‘ Pro Bono ’

Attorney Deborah LaBelle: “We Owe Juvenile Offenders a Second Chance”

February 9th, 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 Deborah LaBelle…

Attorney Deborah LaBelle: “There is no discretion. You take a 14 year old and they are automatically treated as an adult.”

Clearly injustice moves attorney Deborah LaBelle somewhere down deep. Since she graduated from Wayne State law school in 1979, she has waded into some dark waters, investing hundreds of pro bono hours, simply because she believes she’s doing the right thing.  In 2008, after a 14 year battle, she and a group of other lawyers won a multi-million dollar verdict and landmark case on behalf of women who had been abused in Michigan prisons.

Labelle now has set her sites on getting a second chance for the thousands of juvenile offenders who languish in American prisons convicted of murder or felony murder committed prior to their 18^th birthday.  “It is just mandatory,” says LaBelle, whose gentle voice belies the tiger within. “There is no discretion. You take a 14 year old and they are automatically treated as an adult. It is pretty stunning.”

Stunning indeed it is. The United States is the only country in the world where juveniles charged and convicted of murder (even if they were not principally responsible for the murder) are automatically given life with no chance of parole. There are 307 ‘juvenile lifers’ now in Michigan prisons ranging in age from 14 to 65.

One man, now in sixties, who LaBelle knows well, went to prison when he was 15 for murdering his abusive stepfather.

“He is not the boy he was,” says LaBelle. “He told me once he sometimes sees that boy in his minds eye and he just wants to shake him and say ‘why don’t you just leave, just go’.”

But that’s not what happened and he now has spent more than 50 years languishing in prison. “He was just filled with rage and anger and everything seemed hopeless,” says LaBelle. “Kids just don’t have experience or the ability to chart things out very well.”

“The heart of this issue is sentencing people who commit their crimes when they are 14, 15 or 16 years old to the harshest sentence you can give to anyone, which is life without parole,” says LaBelle. “We believe this is cruel and unusual punishment.“

LaBelle has filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in the state of Michigan on behalf of 9 class representatives. All are juvenile lifers currently being held with no chance of parole for the rest of their lives in Michigan prisons.

This is the first civil rights suit of its kind in the United States and aimed at what she describes as a simple goal. “We are just asking that the parole board just take a look at them. Have they matured, was this a youthful impetuous crime, did it involve peer pressure, or was it one of those stupid horrible things that youths sometimes do in a moment. Have they matured and should they come home at some point?” asks LaBelle.

A recent report authored by LaBelle and others was funded by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other donors. And also, when LaBelle has received attorney fees for cases she was involved in, much of it goes right back into funding other lawsuits aimed at righting systemic wrongs.

What kind of a lawyer does so much for so little?

“Well, I just like the work,” says LaBelle.

Deborah LaBelle is a graduate of Wayne State Law School. She mentors undergraduate and graduate students and has supervised at least six interns a year for the past ten years. Her practice, the Law Offices of Deborah LaBelle is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Tags: ACLU, Attorney Deborah LaBelle, Lawyers Doing Good, Lawyers Giving Back, Pro Bono
Posted in Lawyers Giving Back | 12 Comments »

Pro Bono Lawyer Jameika Williams Saves Homeless Man from Jail

December 28th, 2010. By BrendaC

LawyersandSettlements.com has a new column that 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 talk with Attorney Jameika Williams Mangum of The Mangum Law Firm in Chicago… 

Attorney Jameika Williams: “You don’t have to do pro bono work—but I think pro bono is extremely important.”

It might sound like a small case, but in David Liberty’s world, the stakes were high. The 51-year-old homeless man was accused of assaulting another homeless man, and without a lawyer to defend him, he would likely do 30 days in the notorious Cook County Jail.  

Attorney Jameika Williams Magnum

“He asked me if I had ever been in the Cook County jail,” says young attorney Jameika Williams Mangum. “I told I had not and he said ‘well, you don’t want to go there, because I have been there before and it isn’t a place you want to be`.”

The center of Liberty’s world was his truck. He did odd jobs and worked as a painter sometimes. If he went to jail, he would almost certainly lose the truck and everything in it.

“He was very worried about that—he wanted to know what would happen to his truck,” says Mangum.

So you see, to David Liberty, this case was huge.

Chicago lawyers are expected to work out a deal with clients who have a limited ability to pay, but Mangum knew from the beginning that this was definitely a pro bono case—even if it meant hours of preparation and going to trial, she had no intention of sending him a bill.

Mangum runs a general law practice, and Liberty is definitely not any lawyer’s dream client. “You can`t call him on the telephone, or send him a letter in the mail because he basically lives on the street,” says Mangum. “All our meetings took place at the courthouse and I would write notes down for him.”

And although justice is supposed to be blind, the reality is appearance counts when you go before a judge or jury.

“I immediately let the court know this man cannot afford to buy a suit and tie,” says Mangum.

“He would come to court and he had not changed his clothes in weeks,” says Mangum. “So I explained the situation to the prosecutor and asked him to let the judge and everyone else know why he looked the way he did.”

In the end, Liberty’s charge was negotiated down to disorderly conduct. No jail time, and no fine.

“You don’t have to do pro bono work—but I think pro bono is extremely important and I am involved in another right now,” says Mangum. “In these economic times, people can not always afford to pay a lawyer $300, $400 or $500 an hour. They have real issues and real problems and there are not very many places where they can get help.”

“It is unfortunate that people with limited means end up serving jail time for a crime they didn’t commit or serve time when it could have been avoided if they had proper representation,” she says. 

 Jamieka Williams Mangum is a native of Los Angeles who recently opened a law office in Chicago and is proving herself to be a force to be reckoned with. She recently won an eyebrow-raising not guilty verdict for a man accused of knowingly bringing a gun on board an aircraft. Mangum argued he had simply forgotten it in his bag.

Tags: Chicago lawyers, cook county jail, homeless, Jameika Williams Mangum, Lawyers Giving Back, Pro Bono, The Mangum Law Firm
Posted in Lawyers Giving Back | 6 Comments »

Attorney Odis Williams on Pro Bono Work: I Had to Help

December 13th, 2010. By BrendaC

LawyersandSettlements.com has a new column that 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 talk with Attorney Odis Williams of The Law Offices of Odis Williams PC…

Attorney Odis Williams: “The cases I take on are the really ugly, nasty ones, where people find themselves in a very bad position.”

Attorney Odis Williams says he still has student loans to pay off—and he has a fiancé. “Yes, those are both expensive!,” says Williams as he tries to grab lunch during another busy day. Although most of his practice is devoted to civil litigation and small business corporate law, he finds the harrowing stories of some people, especially women, so compelling that he makes time to do pro bono work for them.

“Right now I am trying to secure support payments on behalf of a woman who was abandoned by her husband,” says Williams. “She has had six surgeries and she’s been fighting for her life after a kidney transplant—while her husband of 20 years lives comfortably with a younger woman.”

“She’s a very sick woman who has put up with a series of infidelities. She broke down and cried as she told me the story,” says Williams. “I had to help.”

As young lawyer, Williams says, it wasn’t long before he realized how many people there are who have no resources and are struggling to handle legal problems. “I realized how fortunate I was,” says Williams. “We didn’t have much money when I was growing up, but my parents gave us support, stability and love. We all went to college and I know I am lucky, even blessed.”

“So as my practice grew and I could sustain an office, a home and everything else, I just felt an obligation to step up when I can,” says Williams. “The cases I take on are the really ugly, nasty ones, where people find themselves in a very bad position.”

Williams is also working on a complex child custody case on behalf a young woman whose husband was falsely accused of molestation. “The child’s biological father seized the opportunity to leverage the accusation and the woman has not been able to see her child for months,” says Williams. “The husband was exonerated, there are no problems in the home and the situation is completely unfair.”

The woman is a stay-at-home mom with little education and few skills. “She didn’t have a driver’s license or even know how to drive,” says Williams. So he helped her find a job, get a new apartment and reorganize her life to make a better impression on the courts. “We wanted to show she was a fit mother,” says Williams. “You end up being a psychologist and a counsellor and everything else when you take these cases.”

Williams could spend all of his time doing pro bono, but of course, that isn’t possible. “I have to consider what else I have going on—how much time I have to give to pro bono work and I have to consider the obligations I have to my paying clients,” he says. “I don’t want to let anybody down.”

“I have another lawyer who works with me and a paralegal and it is a busy office,” says Williams.

Williams is currently litigating against a number of banks on behalf of homeowners in foreclosure disputes.

Odis Williams is a graduate of the Georgia State College of Law. He also holds an MA in public administration from the University of South Carolina. The Law Offices of Odis Williams, located in Decatur, Georgia, handles business law and civil litigation.

Tags: Lawyer, Lawyers Giving Back, Odis Williams, Pro Bono
Posted in Lawyers Giving Back | 2 Comments »