Community Lawyering and Pro Bono Service

In community-oriented lawyering, the lawyer works with other professionals in the community, using the legal system as one of the tools, to address an issue in the community from a broader perspective. Instead of looking at one client's issue, the lawyer looks for what is the community's issue that has led the client to involvement with the legal system. Community lawyers teach citizens the skills they need to effectively advocate on their own behalf and help them build the self-confidence necessary to bring about changes in their community.

Several years ago, there was a Center for Community Lawyering started by Roger Conner, now a professor at Vanderbilt Law School focused on public policy.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/8_4_sndgs06.html contains an article which describes some of the successes of Community Law.

There is also a website for a local community law group at www.communitylawyer.org

Another way that lawyers serve in community is to provide pro bono services.

For example, lawyers in Asheville, North Carolina are employing a holistic poverty law approach through Pisgah Legal Services and the Mountain Area Volunteer Lawyer (MAVL) Pro Bono Program. The Asheville independent, community-based, legal services provider, employs an innovative holistic approach to assessing why low-income clients remain in poverty by comprehensively assessing all relevant social and legal problems rather than simply applying a ‘legal aid’ band-aid to the presenting problem. Pro Bono Attorneys involved with the MAVL Program, are encouraged to apply a transformational approach to lift clients up out of poverty through holistic issue spotting and humanistic legal counseling; thus, bringing more meaning to their pro bono practice and longer lasting results for clients. The MAVL Program encourages both collaborative casework and a holistic approach through its legal advice “Hotline” program to reach nearly ten-thousand low-income clients a year.

The Memphis pro bono program has provided training in collaborative law as a means of encouraging the growth of collaborative practice in Tennessee.