February 13, 2006
Texas Lawyer
Mary Alice Robbins

Months after hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the Gulf Coast, low-income victims of those storms continue to struggle with myriad legal problems, adding to the already burgeoning caseloads at legal aid programs in Texas. But new partnerships between private firms and legal services providers could help ease the strain.

"We have about 1,100 cases open that haven't been permanently assigned a lawyer yet," Paul Furrh, chief executive officer of Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA), says of his program's hurricane caseload. The LSLA service area, which extends from Angleton on the coast to Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border, suffered a double whammy in August and September 2005, receiving an influx of hundreds of thousands of Katrina evacuees and sustaining major damages when Rita cut a path through East Texas.

"We're still seeing a steady flow of people applying for [legal] services," Furrh says.

A lend-a-lawyer program unveiled by Texas Appleseed and the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation (TEAJF) in January will help legal aid programs provide those services to hurricane victims. A new fellow at Texas Appleseed will be responsible for coordinating the lend-a-lawyer program.

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw contributed $50,000 to underwrite the yearlong fellowship position to design and coordinate the lend-a-lawyer program. Charles Kelley, a partner in Mayer, Brown's Houston office and a member of the firm's pro bono committee, says the firm saw a potential gap in the legal services for hurricane victims. Kelley says Mayer, Brown contacted Texas Appleseed -- a nonprofit organization that uses the skills of volunteer lawyers and other professionals to promote justice for all Texans -- about how to address those needs.

Texas Appleseed has filled the fellowship position for the lend-a-lawyer program. Lynn White, a lawyer and former legislative aide to state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, begins work Feb. 13. White's job is to recruit firms willing to lend lawyers to assist legal aid providers.

"It's a first-of-its kind in Texas," Rebecca Lightsey, Texas Appleseed's executive director, says of the new lend-a-lawyer program.

Although lend-a-lawyer programs have operated in major urban areas, the Texas Appleseed/TEAJF program is the first in the state that will extend beyond a city's boundaries, Lightsey says.

"We're going to try to recruit at least 12 lawyers or law firms to donate the equivalent of at least three months to the [legal services] providers," Lightsey says.

Deborah Fowler, senior attorney at Texas Appleseed, says the organization already has started its recruitment effort with the firms of its board members. "We felt that we can't ask other firms [to commit attorneys to the program] without asking our board members first," Fowler says.

The program offers firms several ways to participate, Lightsey says, adding, "We don't think this is a one-size-fits-all issue."

Under one model for the program, Lightsey says, a firm can lend a lawyer to a legal aid program for three to six months. Although the firm will pay the lawyer's salary, the lawyer will work in a legal aid office.

A firm also can choose to lend a lawyer who will split his or her time between working in a legal aid office and coordinating pro bono services at the firm, Lightsey says.

Lightsey says another model allows a firm to loan transactional lawyers to help a legal aid program's clients negotiate their way through legal issues up to the point at which litigation is required. Any case that requires litigation would be turned over to the legal aid office, she says.

Texas Appleseed will coordinate with the legal aid programs to ensure lawyers are placed where their expertise will do the most good, Lightsey says. "We want to make sure it's a very productive relationship for all," she says.

Legal aid providers say the lawyers who participate will find a variety of cases that need attention.

Furrh says many poor people who lost their homes or cars in the hurricanes need lawyers' advice. They don't know whether to keep paying for a home or car destroyed by a hurricane, and they often need help to negotiate with insurers, he says.

David Hall, executive director of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which serves 68 counties in the southern, central and western portions of the state, says some low-income storm victims are seeking help because they have been denied benefits by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Under FEMA's rules, Hall says, the agency helps the first eligible person in a household who files for rental assistance, but anyone else in the household is out of luck. Clients need help working out those kinds of problems, he says.

Furrh says family law problems also plague hurricane victims. Katrina victims who took refuge in Texas have established the six months of residency required before filing for divorce, and Furrh predicts there will be many divorces.

"These storms cause a lot of stress," Furrh says.

Another new fellow at Texas Appleseed will work on systemic issues created by the hurricanes. Lightsey says Equal Justice Works, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that provides public interest law fellowships, has agreed to fund a fellowship position to work on systemic issues, such as the housing needs of people displaced by Katrina or Rita. Furrh says Katrina destroyed or significantly damaged more than 220,000 housing units in Louisiana, while Rita affected almost 50,000 housing units in Texas.