The pro bono pros and how you can become one.

AuthorKinnally, Nancy Maass
PositionPro Bono Pros - Cover story

Dressed in the gray Banana Republic suit she'd originally picked out for her first day at the firm, Audrey Pumariega, 27, stood to address the judge.

The pearls her aunt had given her as a graduation gift felt comforting. She'd put them on that morning, imagining they would make her look more lawyerly.

Just months into the practice of law, Pumariega was in court on a client's behalf for the first time.

In order to prepare her to present the motion to dismiss in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, two of the partners in her firm, Ann St. Peter-Griffith and Marcos Daniel Jimenez, had run Pumariega through a mock oral argument.

Now, apart from the judge, opposing counsel, the court reporter, and a clerk, St. Peter-Griffith was the only other person in the room with her. Her clients weren't there. Still, Pumariega felt as though she was standing before the whole congregation of the Baptist church she was representing free of charge.

"I was thinking of the clients, and how important the outcome of the hearing would be to them, throughout the hearing," Pumariega said, reflecting on the hotly contested dispute with one of the church's members.

"You come straight out of law school, and you're just trying to figure out what it even means to be a lawyer. When you get thrown into the lead role in a pro bono matter, it's sort of like a crash course. It forces you to quickly learn not only the substantive issues, but also the procedure. That first case was a great learning experience. It was my first opportunity to manage a case, argue a dispositive motion in court, and call the shots as to what strategy to take."

Now in her seventh year of practice, Pumariega has volunteered her services on numerous cases through the pro bono program of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Lawyers for Children America, among other organizations.

"I think working on pro bono generally, and particularly with Lawyers for Children America, you get opportunities as a young lawyer that you otherwise wouldn't," Pumariega said. "Almost all of my 'firsts' were in pro bono matters: first deposition, first dispositive hearing, " first settlement negotiation."

Through Lawyers for Children America, which supports pro bono lawyers in representing and mentoring Miami-Dade teens in foster care, Pumariega successfully contested the wrongful termination of Extended Foster Care benefits for a young man who was aging out of care, protecting his right to due process, and preventing him from becoming homeless. She also prevented the commitment of an abused, pregnant teenager to a locked psychiatric facility, representing her at an evidentiary hearing.

"It was kind of an interesting feeling because it felt great to win for this young girl, but it also was a sobering experience in that I thought about how many children out there don't have lawyers to represent them and wouldn't have been able to oppose that motion the way we did," said Pumariega, a trial attorney at McDermott Will & Emery in Miami.

Why Do They Do It?

There is no single reason for a lawyer to volunteer his or her services. Rather, the reasons are infinite and depend on the lawyer. Pumariega cites a couple of hers.

"First of all, it's our ethical obligation to give back and represent people who wouldn't otherwise have a voice," she said. "It also gives you an opportunity to hone your hands-on litigation skills as a young lawyer, especially at a big firm. If you're representing a Fortune 500 company in an important hearing or at trial, the client wants the bigwig partner to be the one presenting to the judge. Pro bono gives you an opportunity to be able to do some of those things while you're still a junior lawyer."

Carrie Ann Wozniak, chair of The Florida Bar Appellate Practice Section's pro bono committee, said pro bono can be vital to the career development of appellate attorneys. The section has a pro bono program for its members that matches newer attorneys with experienced mentors. It also provides its members access to a library of resources the section originally developed for continuing legal education programs it offers legal aid attorneys around the state. Most of the cases are in family law, but the section also receives requests for help in landlord-tenant, foreclosure, administrative law, and other noncriminal areas.

"If you're a very young associate, a lot of times you are just researching one issue for an appeal. You're not actually getting to draft the whole brief, and you are definitely not getting to do oral argument, because there may be millions of dollars at stake," Wozniak said. "And to get board certified in appellate practice you have to have 25 appeals where you have been the primary attorney and five oral arguments. So a lot of people have issues satisfying these requirements, especially with getting the five oral arguments, and doing pro bono work is a great way to get the oral arguments."

Mentors benefit because they get pro bono credit for helping with the case without having to handle some of the most time-consuming aspects, Wozniak said.

But that's just one advantage for those section members with more experience.

Veteran Orlando appellate attorney Tom Young often works on guardian ad litem cases pro bono. He said he does it out of a genuine love of practicing law, for the chance to advocate for children, and because it enables him to use some of his unique experience. One of his recent cases had all of those positives, and even helped influence Florida law (see sidebar page 11).

"I like to be involved from the policy standpoint," Young said. "So it's maybe a selfish thing, but it's the intellectual satisfaction that comes with it."

Experience that counts toward board certification is an example of what is sometimes called the "secondary gain" that accrues to pro bono attorneys. Secondary gain could also come from the opportunity to develop new lines of business or greater esteem in the eyes of peers, partners, and judges.

"I think most juvenile court judges would be thrilled to have pro bono lawyers contact them and ask if they can help represent a foster child," said Carolyn Salisbury, director of Lawyers for Children America's Miami office. "Every day juvenile court judges have to make these most difficult rulings about children over whom they have jurisdiction, but these children have no lawyers to advocate for them."

One judge who is filled with appreciation whenever a pro bono attorney steps into the enormous justice gap she sees daily in her courtroom is Judge Catherine Peek McEwen of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida.

McEwen said she only wishes lawyers could sit in her seat for a day during a consumer docket.

"I so desperately want to climb down and get on the other side of the bench and help people," McEwen said. "It breaks my heart that because they don't have the means or the knowledge, they will lose. They will lose something...

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