PBN Highlighted in 9/11 Report
by Laren Spirer
In May 2004, the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund, Inc. (City Bar Fund), and the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham University School of Law released a report entitled Public Service in a Time of Crisis: A Report and Retrospective on the Legal Community’s Response to the Events of September 11, 2001. (To read the full report, visit the News page on probono.net/ny.)
This report describes the extraordinary response of the greater New York legal community to the unprecedented legal needs arising out of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center in New York City. The report, the product of an intensive research and information-compilation effort, provides a consolidated survey of the amazingly wide range of pro bono legal services provided to the victims, their families and the many other people and businesses whose lives were severely affected by the attacks. The report also highlights the key role that technology and Pro Bono Net played in supporting that volunteer effort.
In the days following September 11th, leaders of the legal community quickly came together to strategize on how best to respond to the crisis. Pro Bono Net, in conjunction with the private bar, the public interest legal community, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (ABCNY), created delivery programs, held trainings, and disseminated information to meet the legal needs of the individuals, families, small businesses, and nonprofits that were impacted.
In one of the earliest meetings following the attacks, several issues became very clear:
- Need for holistic services. Each individual, family, small business, or nonprofit organization impacted by the disaster was faced with a wide range of legal issues. Additionally, it would be too traumatizing and confusing to have a different attorney for each legal issue that arose. Therefore, the legal community would have to provide services in a holistic manner – a one-stop-shopping for legal needs.
- Need for training/mentoring. Thousands of lawyers expressed interest in helping victims of the attack, but most of these lawyers would be providing legal services outside their substantive area of expertise. They had to be trained, and mentors would have to be available to answer questions when needed.
- Need for collaboration. The substantive areas of law in which assistance was needed were incredibly varied. We would have to draw upon expertise from all sectors of the legal community, and these sectors would have to work collaboratively, even though they had not necessarily done so in the past.
- Need to disseminate information in quick and efficient manner. Vast amounts of information would have to be distributed to all attorneys involved. This had to be done quickly and efficiently in order to provide quality legal services to those in need.
Out of these needs, the facilitator model of legal services delivery was born, and Pro Bono Net stepped in to use our technology to support those providing legal services.
The Facilitator Model
Under this model, each individual or family was assigned one attorney. This attorney was expected to identify problems, provide legal services in several areas of law, and assist the client with other needs, such as obtaining benefits. Each facilitator attended a basic training, and was asked to join Pro Bono Net’s September 11th practice area (see below) for support materials and a list of mentors who were available to answer questions. ABCNY recruited mentors from both the private bar and the legal services community who made themselves available to field questions in their respective areas of expertise from facilitators.
ABCNY replicated this model to address the needs of small businesses and nonprofits. Each client was assigned one attorney who would be the first point of contact for all legal needs, and who had access to online resources and mentors as questions arose. These attorneys also attended a similar training, which covered areas of law relevant to the legal needs of small businesses and nonprofits. By using this service delivery model, clients were able to obtain holistic legal services in a broad spectrum of areas, but were able to maintain one primary point of contact.
Pro Bono Net’s September 11th Practice Area
Pro Bono Net was uniquely situated to respond to the needs of the legal community following September 11th. For several years prior, we had established a track record of working with prominent public interest legal organizations, providing two services, which in particular, would be crucial in assisting September 11th volunteers. First, we had worked in conjunction with legal services organization to develop online libraries of resources to support their pro bono programs. Second, we had developed email tools that allowed Pro Bono Net staff or administrators at our partner legal services organizations to send “blast emails” to all volunteers who joined the site. These email tools enabled administrators to send out targeted emails based on substantive areas of interest or specific language skills. For example, when we needed to find volunteer language translators, we could send email requests only to those attorneys who spoke those languages.
With funding from New York Times Company Foundation 9/11 Neediest Fund, Sullivan & Cromwell September 11th Foundation, and The September 11th Fund, Pro Bono Net set up a practice area in New York specifically for legal volunteers assisting victims of the attacks. Like other PBN areas, it contained a training calendar, a news page, a message board, a library, and e-mail tools.
- Library. The first resources in the library were electronic versions of the training manuals handed out at the facilitator and small business initiative trainings, and an outline of the facilitator model, drafted by the City Bar. The library eventually contained over 300 individual resources, including training manuals, links to other websites of interest, model documents, and mentor lists.
- Calendar. The calendar contained listings for all trainings related to assisting 9/11 victims, including, as time went on, trainings for how to handle Victims Compensation Fund claims.
- News. The news page was used to link to relevant news articles, highlight important changes to benefits programs, or to make general announcements regarding deadlines and volunteer opportunities.
- New Cases. The new cases page was used to promote pro bono opportunities to help those with legal needs following the attacks.
- Message Board/Listserv. The message board, and later, listserv, were used to allow pro bono attorneys to communicate with each other and mentors.
- E-Mail tools. The email tools, used in conjunction with the other practice area features, were used to let people know about volunteer opportunities, trainings, new library resources, and changes to deadlines for various benefits. The email tools were invaluable in disseminating constantly changing information.
Outcomes
The facilitator model, in conjunction with the technology of Pro Bono Net, enabled over 4,000 attorneys to help over 2,900 clients with a wide variety of legal and other related problems. This collaborative, cross-sector model provided for a broad knowledge base, but minimized service delivery through one centralized point, which eased a potentially traumatic situation for already traumatized clients.
Additionally, Pro Bono Net’s technology was crucial to the success of the legal relief efforts in this situation. “Fully utilizing technology and online pro bono communities made volunteering easier and brought in many volunteers with little prior pro bono experience. . . . The use of technology and web-based resources improved the 9/11 response effort.” The sheer numbers alone made the technology invaluable: “Given the scale here, it is preposterous to think that this relief effort could have happened without Pro Bono Net.”
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