Professor John M. Levy
In 1991, the Virginia State Bar instituted the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Pro Bono Award to honor Virginia attorneys (and attorney groups) providing outstanding pro bono publico legal services that are distinct from their regular compensated work.
Traditionally, a single individual has been presented with the annual Powell Award. This year, however, the VSB Special Committee on Access to Legal Services is proud to announce that three recipients will be honored in May during the bar's annual Pro Bono Conference: one individual, one local bar association, and a Richmond law firm.
Past Powell Award recipients include Virginia attorneys who are also national icons such as the Award's namesake, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and Civil Rights dean Oliver W. Hill. They also include compassionate retired professionals and those laboring as full-time volunteers on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged who remained financially uncompensated for their often heroic efforts year after year.
The committee believes it has found worthy role models this year in the laudable work of William & Mary Law Professor John M. Levy, and in the work of members of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association and the law firm of Hunton & Williams. These examples illustrate how attorneys, who are normally remunerated for their professional time, somehow find ways to donate generous amounts of that time to provide legal services to the less fortunate.
All three recipients will be recognized at a special ceremony and reception at the University of Richmond's T.C. Williams School of Law on May 13th, when the Attorney General of Virginia, the Honorable Mark L. Earley, is scheduled to give a keynote address in their honor.
We invite you to take a moment to read about the singular and collective public service achievements that so impressed the Access Committee. We think you will agree that these honorees, like their counterparts in past years, are exceptionally deserving of recognition and emulation.
Professor John M. LevyWilliam and Mary Law Professor John Levy is the antithesis of your worst recurring nightmare: the arrogant but telepathic contracts professor who got your number because his antennae zero in whenever you're totally unprepared. Unlike that guy, plain spoken Professor John Levy will insist that you call him "John" after the fist ten seconds of your first conversation.
But watch out! This disarming professor and law school clinic director has more charisma than 100 retired politicians and he may just charm you on the spot. Before you know it you'll be convinced that your legal skills are indispensible and in great demand by one of many worthy but underrepresented clients or client groups he favors.
To paraphrase one of John Levy's many fans, "On an individual basis, he spends untold hours recruiting pro bono attorneys by accessing the seemingly vast network of acquaintances he has made during his years of service to Virginia legal aid societies, the William and Mary Law School, and the State Bar."
According to Virginia American Civil Liberties Union director Kent Willis, over the past 30 years John has been the "driving force" for the recruitment of pro bono attorneys. He has reportedly been "directly or indirectly responsible for recruiting attorneys to handle at least 100 ACLU cases on a pro bono basis during his tenure with the organization."
Because these cases "typically involve complex constitutional issues and tend to be appealed, a pro bono lawyer's commitment to an ACLU cases is significant, frequently requiring hundred of hours of work. Getting lawyers to make this kind of commitment to a case for which there may be no fees is not an easy task," says Willis.
John can also be creative when it comes to delivering pro bono legal services himself. As the only attorney board member for a not-for-profit primary care clinic, John recently drafted a "memo of understanding" with a local hospital that provided for the clinic to receive a grant of $125,000. The grant was tangible recognition of the projected savings likely to be realized by the hospital's emergency room since the clinic would be treating large numbers of former emergency room patients.
Professor Levy has long been engaged in law reform activities. He was involved in brining IOLTA to Virginia. He sits on the board of directors of Peninsula Legal Aid Society, and with an insider's due diligence, prompted the bar to consider how federal practice restrictions might impact the ethical duties of legal services attorneys.
As vice-chair of the bar's Special Committee on the Virginia Model Rules of Professional Conduct, last year, he co-chaired the Rules Subcommittee on Pro Bono that reviewed law reform efforts in other states. This helped set the stage for the Dohnal Committee's final recommendations to Bar Council on proposed Model Rule 6.1.
Although Professor Levy is a humble man he is also outspoken. You will find him writing "letters to the editor" that focus on the key role pro bono representation plays in our adversarial justice system, a system that he characterizes as monopolistic but workable if it includes universal access to vigorous advocacy regardless of a creditable litigant's ability to pay.
While John Levy is receiving his Powell Award for his extra mural contributions to pro bono, it is worth noting that he has also made conspicuous contributions to the cause through his regular employment. He has inspired countless students and colleagues through his academic writing, teaching and clinical supervisory work. His highly readable and scholarly recent book, entitled Ethics of the Lawyer's Work, stresses humanity in a lawyer's interactions and the obligation of all lawyers to provide legal services to the needy.
The Law Firm of Hunton & WilliamsFor some time now, the Access Committee has been familiar with the notable collective pro bono work of Hunton & Williams, a Richmond-based law firm with other offices in Virginia, sister states and Europe. However, this year the Fairfax Bar Foundation submitted a nomination letter on behalf of the firm that detailed some local stats in the "take your breath away" category - a move that, because of their representative nature, helped secure the larger group's selection as one of the 1998 Powell Award recipients.
According to the foundation, during the firm's most recently completed fiscal year, 39 or 40 lawyers resident in its McLean office participated in pro bono and public service programs. In the aggregate, these lawyers performed 1,939.75 hours of pro bono services and 76.50 hours of public service, numbers which compute to slightly more than three percent of the gross billable hours recorded by the lawyers there. On an average, each lawyer devoted more than 50 hours to these efforts during the fiscal year which ended on March 31, 1997, the most recently completed fiscal year at the time of the nomination.
The foundation reported that this collegial activism did not take place in an ivory tower. In 1996, the McLean Office became a founding member of the Pro Bono Consortium, an alliance of law firms and corporate legal departments and organizations that jointly promotes pro bono legal services to the poor in Fairfax County.
Aggregate participation statistics have historically been noted for the other Hunton & Williams offices. Now, however, given the example of the McLean lawyers, it becomes easier to understand why the firm ranked, according to a survey published by the American Lawyer, among the top 10 nationally in terms of pro bono hours per lawyer. This remarkable dedication also helps us see how Hunton & Williams has been able to successfully meet the ABA's 1993 challenge to major law firms to donate an amount equal to three percent of the firm's total annual billable hours to pro bono work.
Ask the average Hunton & Williams attorney - what explains this spirit of concern for access to justice? Be prepared for a prosaic response that cites not only the firm's partnership agreement and management's vocal imprimatur but a description of the firm's culture where public service is ingrained in the daily routine of many attorneys. They will tell you that this culture flourishes because it fosters pro bono through a menu of options that is sensitive not only to the community's needs but to the individual attorney's interests and insights.
Ask the same question of managing partner Thurston Moore and you'll be told, in a more philosophical vein, that pro bono activities "are both an obligation that we keenly feel towards our profession, communities, and society, and an opportunity for our lawyers to receive a diversified experience and to stay in touch with the fundamental issues and needs that made us all seek a professional life."
Despite billable hours pressures that have influenced some firms to retrench on their commitments, Hunton & Williams maintains its commitment to providing high quality legal services to the indigent and other needy and underserved populations. It has also been especially creative in addressing the cuts in legal services funding. The home office instituted an ongoing, rotating pro bono fellowship program to supplement the staff of Central Virginia Legal Aid Society in Richmond. The attorney-fellow works at the firm's community outreach office in Church Hill when she is not in-house at legal aid.
The Access Committee applauds Hunton & Williams public service spirit and encourages those wishing more information on program efforts to contact partner George Hettrick at the Richmond office.
The
Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar AssociationFor fifteen years, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association has played a unique role among small town and rural bar associations in Virginia. Reservoir of an ethic that encourages, expects, and benefits from an expectation of universal participation in pro bono work, this local bar has twice received national recognition.
In 1993, the National Legal Services Corporation (LSC) honored this bar association by naming its entire membership the Rural Pro Bono Attorney(s) of the Year. And in 1995, the American Bar Association presented the group with its prestigious Harrison Tweed Award "in Recognition of the Outstanding Leadership and Commitment Given to Establishing and Operating an Effective Rural Pro Bono Program."
Aside from the expectation of universal participation in pro bono, several other factors contribute to the program's longstanding success and continuity. Pro bono has become institutionalized due to the strong support and direct involvement of the local bar's leadership and the close working relationship cemented over the years with the staff of the local legal aid program, Blue Ridge Legal Services (BRLS).
In order to create an organized yet equitable case referral mechanism, the program assigns every member of the local bar to one of four teams headed by a team leader appointed by the bar. The team leaders assign accepted cases to local bar members after the cases have been reviewed for merit. Legal Services, in turn, provides administrative support and monitors the referral process until a case is closed.
Since the beginning of the decade, the bar association has closed some 967 cases representing donated services easily worth over three-quarters of a million dollars. If the pro bono work of this small community were projected statewide, it would mean that, in the typical year, more than 18,000 pro bono cases would be closed by the private bar.
While the Access Committee is pleased to highlight the civil pro bono work of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association, it joins the local judiciary in complementing the bar on its generous participation in court-appointed criminal defense and guardian ad litem work, and on its significant professionalism and law-related community education programs.
Adopting the tenor of the endorsement submitted by the Honorable Porter R. Graves, Jr., Chief Judge of the 26th Judicial Circuit, the Access Committee similarly concludes that "members of the local bar have put their caring, obligation and responsibility above their rights, that is their right not to act. It certainly is refreshing and makes (us) proud..."