Pro Bono Program pairs Gamecocks, law community
After 21 years of promoting ethics in the legal profession through community service, the USC School of Law’s Pro Bono Program has announced the launch of a new volunteer service that will directly involve students in local pro bono cases.
The new service extension, Carolina Clerks: Pro Bono Clerks for Pro Bono Lawyers, will pair students with area lawyers who have taken up public service cases, typically on behalf of low-income individuals who otherwise could not afford legal representation.
Student volunteers will mostly perform tasks such as legal research and document preparation for their assigned lawyers.
“We really want to hold this up as a standard of what lawyers do,” Pro Bono Program Director Pamela Robinson said. “We think this will be more manageable for students’ schedules and will give them the opportunity to work on a wider range of legal issues in smaller cases.”
Less than 24 hours after sending out the initial press release Thursday afternoon, Robinson got a call from an interested lawyer. Carmen Thomas, an associate at the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough firm in Columbia, said she needed some assistance with a case she had picked up Thursday at the monthly Richland County Bar Association’s Homeless Experience Legal Protection project.
A young woman whose mother had died needed help securing legal guardianship over her two younger siblings in order to register them for public school. Thomas, who specializes in business litigation, didn’t hesitate to take the woman’s case, but she knew she couldn’t manage the necessary research on family law on her own while keeping up with her regular job.
“I got the email and thought that this would be perfect,” Thomas said. “It will certainly help put more time and effort into this case so that we can get it resolved more quickly.”
Thomas said she has had plenty of opportunities to work with students during the summer and is impressed by their enthusiasm and willingness to learn. A 2007 graduate of the USC School of Law herself, Thomas feels that public service is an effective way to apply what is learned in the classroom.
Thomas said that through pro bono work, she learned just how many ways a lawyer can be helpful to people.
“You don’t do this kind of stuff every day, so this kind of work is refreshing and rewarding,” she said.
Carolina Clerks will join the 20-plus service opportunities offered by the school’s Pro Bono Program, which has gained national recognition as the first volunteer program of its kind in a U.S. law school in both legal and nonlegal service. Last Friday, the program sent more than 200 students, faculty and staff to local government and nonprofit organizations such as St. Lawrence Place, Harvest Hope Food Bank and the Richland County Public Defender’s Office for the third-annual Incoming Law Student Community Service Project.
Future lawyers, along with law school Dean Robert Wilcox, could be seen organizing toys in the waiting room of the Public Defender’s Office and loading boxes of food stuffs at the Harvest Hope pantry.
“Every day I’m amazed by our students — they always come through when someone needs help,” Robinson said. “They have a strong sense of service, and they do it because it’s personal. They’re not getting credit; they’re not getting paid. They want the experience, and they know that this is going to be interesting and will help someone.”
Pro Bono Board Vice President Ashley Cole, a third-year law student who has volunteered for expungement casework for South Carolina legal services, said that participating in public service is as crucial to legal education as Socratic discussions and case reviews.
“A lot of what we do in class isn’t hands-on, but it’s an experience that everyone should have,” Cole said. “Some students come in with this romanticized vision of working for a huge firm and making a lot of money, but they don’t realize how much of a need there is in the area. Seeing a case from beginning to end and seeing how you’ve directly helped a client is an awesome feeling.”