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LAWYERS FOR ONE AMERICA OPENS PRO BONO LAW OFFICE AND DIVERSITY CENTER IN SAN RAFAEL San Rafael, CA, January 2004 -- The Lawyers For One America Pro Bono Law Office and Diversity Center is now open in San Rafael. This unique legal services office offers three areas of expertise to lay, legal, and academic communities.
The new Diversity Center and Pro Bono Law Office is a practical application of the goals and aspirations detailed in LFOA’s acclaimed Bar None: Report to the President of the United States on the Status of People of Color and Pro Bono Services in the Legal Profession, commissioned by the White House through President Bill Clinton’s Call To Action to the Legal Profession in 1999. “The challenge in the years ahead is to employ the immense creativity of the legal profession in our quest for One America, in both diversity within the profession and access to legal services in underserved communities. Lawyers For One America gives new life to that ideal, and provides model programs, training, and an action plan for the nation’s attorneys and legal organizations,” says Eric H. Holder, Partner, Covington & Burling, Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General, and LFOA Trustee. LFOA’s pro bono legal services business model was envisioned in Bar None’s Recommendations To the Legal Profession: to create, develop, implement, and support pro bono assistance projects for people of color. The pro bono law office in San Rafael covers micro-business transactions, such as incorporations, partnership agreements, tax matters and non-profit start-ups; housing issues, including mortgage, lease, and landlord/tenant issues; consumer protection, credit and bankruptcy expertise; and wills and trusts. In providing civil pro bono services targeted to helping the working poor gain economic self-sufficiency, LFOA augments existing public resources, and works in collaboration with community and legal services organizations throughout the Bay Area. LFOA acts as a clearinghouse for clients’ class action, immigration and other high-impact legal issues, referring clients to appropriate law firms, pro bono clinics, bar associations’ lawyer referral programs, and legal specialty groups such as Equal Rights Advocates, Volunteer Legal Services Program and Legal Aid of Marin. “The need for civil legal services for the working poor is largely unrecognized in the greater bay area,” says Patty Fukami, Chief Financial Officer of Dominican College in San Rafael, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of LFOA. “We have more than half a million people here living below the Federal Poverty Guidelines, many of them recently disenrolled welfare recipients working minimum wage, no- or low- benefit jobs. A recent State Bar of California report noted that over six million Californians live in poverty, and seven-and-a-half million others earn more than the poverty level but less than the state’s median income; 26% of California workers earn poverty-level wages. Only 28% of the legal needs of the state’s poor and lower-income residents are being met. And meeting those needs is critical, both to the people who need legal services and can’t afford them, and to the social and economic stability of our communities.” The National Institute for Diversity in Law program (NIDIL) is the result of a strategic collaboration initiated by Lawyers For One America, the American Bar Association, the Native American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the Asian Pacific Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and law firms and legal organizations across the country. Offering research, training, and technical assistance, NIDIL’s ultimate goal is to increase the numbers and meaningful participation of racial and ethnic minorities at all levels of the legal profession, by channeling resources to critical points along the educational pathway, ensuring greater access and fewer barriers to successful legal careers. In support of the venture, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association helped spearhead recent fund raising efforts and made an initial grant of $42,000 to LFOA-NIDIL. “MCCA focuses on advancing diversity in corporate law departments and the law firms that serve them. We have been especially enthusiastic about the NIDIL program because it will stimulate interest and prepare more young people of color for legal careers. The place to start is in the schools and my Board of Directors is pleased that MCCA could play an important role by making a sizable donation in support of this important initiative,” states Veta T. Richardson, Executive Director of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. “A poll by the American Bar Association found that only 39% of all Americans believe people of color get fair treatment in the justice system. All too often, people of color enter courtrooms and business meetings where every position of authority, power and influence is filled by people who don’t look like them. The needs of these citizens – who are projected to be almost one-third of the entire U.S. population by year 2010 – cannot be fully met by a legal profession that is 90% white, and whose law schools enrollment is 80% white. The American legal profession must become a more diverse profession, in all sectors of the profession,” states Teveia Barnes, President of Lawyers For One America. Lawyers For One America is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation that engages in charitable and educational activities under application for IRC Section 501(c) (3). It is headed by Teveia R. Barnes, former Executive Director of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the original Lawyers For One America collaboration commissioned by the White House. Ms. Barnes was Associate General Counsel for Bank of America, and has extensive private practice and community development experience. The office is located at 4136 Redwood Highway, Suite 9, San Rafael. |
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