I have practiced law for over 40 years and started volunteering through the local bar around 1982. That was when volunteering consisted of Marla Elliot catching you on the phone and pleading her case for a particular needy person. There were no clinics. Government lawyers (I was one from 1978 into 1987) had to figure how to NOT use government resources in direct representation.
These past few weeks of isolation have given me a lot of time to reflect on a lot of things in life.
Being a lawyer is a gift (we did work hard to experience this gift). It allows so many freedoms and comes with so many powers. Your efforts afford us ways to share the benefits we have.
What has impressed me most these past few years is the willingness of government lawyers to get out of their comfort zones and talk directly to people in dire need, mostly in areas in which they have never practiced. So, this is a shout out to the government lawyers who volunteer.
The thanks start at the Attorney General and all other agency heads who encourage and allow their lawyers to volunteer after putting in full days at their jobs. The volunteers include department heads and newbies at their first law jobs. They sit in cramped spaces, take in the stories and then go back and forth with each other and mentors to provide legal advice in tight time frames. And come back again and again. Some days, a department of some agency makes a night of it.
Thank you for the opportunity to share this volunteering thing with my government brothers and sisters.
Chuck Szurszewski