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Lack of representation equals lack of 'access to justice,' attorneys say during the first 'Pro Bono Week.'

By TREVOR MAXWELL, Staff Writer November 1, 2009

PORTLAND — Among the influx of refugees who have settled in the Portland area in the past few years are dozens of people seeking legal asylum.

They come from countries including Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi, where they faced persecution for everything from tribal affiliation to sexual orientation. Without an immigration lawyer, though, their chance of winning an asylum case is less than 20 percent.

But for those who receive help from a volunteer lawyer through the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, the success rate is far higher. Last year, pro bono lawyers won more than 90 percent of the asylum cases brought on behalf of refugees in Maine.

Anna Welch, a lawyer with Verrill Dana in Portland, recently represented a 65-year-old woman who was part of a pro-democracy group in her home country of Cambodia. Her family had been shot at because of her political activity, so she fled to the United States.

The woman had sought asylum on her own but lost. Welch took on her appeal and convinced an immigration judge in Boston to grant asylum to the woman.

"The stakes are quite high," said Welch, the head of Verrill Dana's immigration group. She has taken pro bono cases through ILAP since joining Verrill Dana in 2006, and she has recruited several others within the firm to follow suit.

"If these people lose, they are going to be deported and, in many instances, killed," Welch said. "These are the type of cases in which pro bono work is not just crucial – it can be the difference between life and death."

The effort of Maine lawyers on asylum cases is just one example of the range of pro bono work being done around the state, and the major impact of that work on communities, said the leaders of legal aid agencies last week – the first "National Pro Bono Week," designated by the American Bar Association.

Of the roughly 4,000 private lawyers practicing in Maine, an estimated 2,000 contribute pro bono services, according to the Maine Bar Foundation. But the foundation does not have the ability to track all the different types of pro bono work, so the number is likely even higher. The ABA used to compare pro bono work from state to state, but the organization has not done that since the 1990s. In that time period, Maine consistently ranked in the top few states in terms of the percentage of lawyers who donate services.

"We can be pretty comfortable that we are still up there," said Juliet Holmes-Smith, director of the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project.

"We have it really good in many ways in Maine. The lawyers here really step up to the plate."

Of course, Holmes-Smith said, there is always room for improvement.

The state's six nonprofit legal aid providers, which offer legal assistance to poor and elderly residents, are able to meet the needs of only one in every four people who qualify and ask for help. More pro bono work done by private attorneys would help reduce that gap.

"There is not enough funding to provide attorneys for everyone who needs them, and I don't think there ever will be. That's why pro bono work is so critical," Holmes-Smith said.

"If people don't have access to the courts, then that is part of our democracy that is not working," she said. A person seeking visitation rights for a child, facing a foreclosure or dealing with a landlord who will not fix an unsafe apartment should have access to justice even if that person cannot afford to hire a lawyer, Holmes-Smith said.

The Volunteer Lawyers Project essentially matches people who need legal help with the lawyers who are willing to donate time. For certain types of cases, such as eviction, immigration and civil matters involving domestic violence, there are panels of volunteer lawyers signed up to take assignments. A new panel of lawyers is developing in Oxford and Franklin counties to handle domestic violence cases in those rural areas.

The Volunteer...