Serving Time

Law school students reach out to help others with the community service requirement. When some people think of the legal profession, they think of selfish, amoral, money-hungry ambulance-chasers with no regard for their fellow human beings. But while media representatives, and even members of the American Bar Association, rail against lawyers, law students at the University are quietly disproving the stereotypes daily. Students in the Law School must complete at least 70 hours of public service in their final two years of study in order to graduate. And the Law School offers over 400 available placements to complete this service. To many students in the Law School, though, community involvement is more than just a requirement. For them it is an escape from academia and a moral and professional obligation. Kim Dolan, a third-year law student, is a case manager for the Guild Foodstamp Clinic, a student-run group which works with people on foodstamps. She has worked for two years with a 90-year-old woman who has trouble getting out of her apartment to renew her foodstamps each year. Dolan helps her client get reimbursements and timely payments, and the woman gives Dolan advice on life and tells stories about the work she used to do with her husband, who is now deceased. The two have a relationship of mutual appreciation and admiration. Dolan said she finds herself amazed at her client's strength and wisdom. Dolan says she would volunteer her time even without a requirement, and believes that, time permitting, most of her colleagues would do the same. "I think most of the people who go to Penn are pretty upright, upstanding and ethical," she said. According to Dolan, about 75 percent of the 30 to 35 students involved with the Guild Foodstamp Clinic are first-year students who get no credit from the Law School for the time they put in. Although the clinic is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, Dolan says the work does not interfere with the students' academic priorities. The Guild Foodstamp Clinic, which was started as an independent student organization in 1983, now serves 80 to 100 clients per year. The clinic also answers legal questions for about 500 people over the phone. Law students put in about 70 hours per year advising clients on how and where to get foodstamps, telling them how much to expect and representing them at hearings before officers of the welfare department. Because of the hands-on nature of many of the community service programs offered by the Law School, Dolan said she feels the work is both morally and professionally rewarding. "It's really an important part of your Law School education to learn how to represent clients," she said. Third-year law student Michael Li Puma, coordinator for Penn Advocates for the Homeless, is the winner of this year's Penn Volunteer in Public Service Award for Graduate Students. He said he believes that most of his Law School colleagues hold a positive view of the public service requirement. "Some [students] have neutral experiences, where it doesn't move them, and the others have great experiences," Li Puma said. Like the Guild Foodstamp Clinic, Penn Advocates for the Homeless is currently comprised mainly of first-year students, who, according to Law School policies, do not get credit for their work. "It's been just great to see the enthusiasm of the first-year students," Li Puma said. Wendy Mirsky, a first-year law student and a member of Penn Advocates for the Homeless, says her work with the program has taught her a lot about the people she helps. "Before I entered [the program] I really had no contact with the homeless," Mirsky said. "They're normal people, and they have problems like everybody else." Under Li Puma's direction, Mirsky and her co-workers work at a weekly free legal clinic at a local soup kitchen. They give advice to the homeless on such issues as health care, taxes, wills, landlord-tenant disputes, welfare, food stamps and voter registration. Occasionally, according to Mirsky, they just serve as a friendly ear. "Sometimes they have real legal questions," Mirsky said of her clients, "and sometimes they just want people to talk to." This year's Women of Color Day Award winners, third-year law students Kam Wong and Stephanie Gonzalez, each entered the Law School with a desire to serve their community, as well as learn the intricacies of the legal system. Last year, Wong and Gonzalez, along with three other students who have left the program, founded the Custody and Support Assistance Clinic. Now only a year old, CASAC serves about 80 to 130 low-income clients per month. Some of CASAC's functions include helping Philadelphia residents fill out custody petitions, guiding them through the legal process of protecting their rights as parents, and preparing them for custody hearings. The third-year students sometimes even represent parents at hearings and conferences. Since it is independently run, CASAC has the freedom to screen potential volunteers and choose only those who coordinators feel are serious about the program. "We want to make sure people are committed because this isn't your average club," Gonzalez said. "This isn't about having fun at law school, this is about helping the community." In fact, students must attend the six two-hour training sessions before they can start working for the Clinic. But sometimes, even these sessions cannot prepare the 17 volunteers for the emotional intensity of their work. Wong said she was taken by surprise when her second client was a woman with 12 separate personalities. And Gonzalez said she takes great pride in the work of two volunteers who were able to get a protection order for two girls, aged three and nine, who were sexually abused by their father. Although Wong says her volunteer work sometimes interferes with her schoolwork, she said she is deeply dedicated to the program she co-founded. "[The work is] really emotional and gratifying," she said. "Children are on the line?you're really entering someone's life and really able to make some kind of a difference." Children are also the focus of the Adopt-a-High School Committee, sponsored by the Black Law Students Association. According to Co-Committee Chair Brian Stephen, a second-year law student, the purpose of the committee is "to introduce students to the law and to show the students how the law affects their lives." The 12 volunteers, who come from varied ethnic backgrounds, accomplish this by teaching three classes on the law to students at the Bartram Human Services High School, located in West Philadelphia. Like CASAC volunteers, these student teachers usually put in more hours than the Law School requires of them. "For the most part the students involved with this program aren't worried about the hours,so much as just doing something for the community," Stephen said. According to BLSA President and Committee member Sean Reaves, a third-year law student, everybody involved takes something positive away from the Adopt-a-High School program. "I think the students really enjoy it -- both the students who teach and the students from Bartram [High School]," he said. Gary Clinton, assistant dean for Student Affairs at the Law School, says that the four-year-old public service requirement at the school grew out of a genuine desire to serve. "There was a sense among the faculty, and there's a growing sense in the legal community, to give something back," Clinton said. "It's just generally a good thing to do." Clinton is not surprised by the warm reception the requirement continues to get from students in the Law School. He said he only recalls one student who truly did not want to participate in a community service program. After the student's appeal to the faculty for exemption was denied, he begrudgingly started on his 70 hours. The student, Clinton said, is now grateful to have had the experience. So grateful, in fact, that he now takes in Law School volunteers at his workplace. Clinton said that this student's change of heart reflects a larger trend. "I think the people who are touched by the program certainly get a different sense of attorneys," he said. "Our people are out there fighting on people's behalf." Professor Howard Lesnick, who first proposed the requirement, said he sees community service simply as "a professional obligation of lawyers." "We're trying to offset the feeling [among law students] that unless you devote 100 percent of your time to getting ahead you're going to fall behind." Lesnick's focus is fixed securely on the students. His concern is not lawyer jokes or others' opinions, but educating students in every aspect of their roles as responsible lawyers, he said. "I don't think of this as a public relations program," he said of the requirement. "I think of this as a way to teach law students about their ability to discharge their professional obligations."