Harrison Tweed Award recognizes ‘extraordinary’ pro bono efforts NASHVILLE, May 17, 2010 — The Tennessee Bar Association is being honored with a major national award for helping bring legal services to the poor.
TBA officials learned this week that the statewide organization will be the 2010 recipient of the Harrison Tweed Award, which is given jointly by the American Bar Association and the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association to honor “extraordinary achievements” in increasing access to legal services for the poor. The award will be presented at the ABA Annual Meeting in August.
Commenting on the award, TBA President Gail Vaughn Ashworth said, “The TBA is extremely honored to receive this prestigious national award. In addition to the thousands of lawyers around the state who are giving their time and talents to provide increased pro bono legal services, I also want to thank our hardworking TBA staff members who help us in this important work. The TBA’s commitment to increased access to justice for all is solid and enduring.”
In selecting TBA for the award, the judges cited Tennessee’s “4ALL” campaign, which included the “4/4 Pro Bono Public Service Day,” as well as legal clinics and events held during October 2009’s Celebrate Pro Bono Month. These combined efforts provided legal services to more than 2,000 Tennesseans. TBA Executive Director Allan Ramsaur credited volunteer lawyers for making such an impact, saying, “While the TBA is receiving this award, it is really the more than 2,600 lawyers who gave freely of their time to help the less fortunate with legal problems last year who are being honored.”
TBA’s Immediate Past President Buck Lewis, who coordinated much of the 4ALL program during his year as president, expressed appreciation for the role the courts played in making several important rule changes to encourage pro bono. “I want to thank our Supreme Court for the critical support it has given the campaign,” he said. “The seven rules changes, which encourage, reward and empower lawyers to support this cause, were adopted unanimously by the court. The new rule relating to interest on lawyers' trust accounts should provide significant new pro bono resources for many years to come.” He also noted that, “The response to this campaign from lawyers in all practice settings across Tennessee has been incredible.”
Nearly 40 law firms were honored for adopting pro bono polices during the 2009 TBA Public Service Luncheon Saturday (Jan. 17) and more have since taken the step. Three individual attorneys were also honored during the program which featured a keynote address from Chief Justice Janice Holder, who urged attorneys across Tennessee to take part in the April 4 public service effort supported by the TBA.
Justice Holder is also encouraging other firms to adopt pro bono polices. The TBA has model law firm pro bono policies available to assist your firm. President Buck Lewis outlines effort that will attack problem on four fronts: education, collaboration, participation and legislation
In his keynote address to Tennessee lawyers at the 127th TBA Convention in Gatlinburg, TBA President Buck Lewis announced plans for an aggressive campaign to "attack a problem that is growing worse by the day despite our constant efforts. That problem is the denial of access to justice caused by poverty, domestic violence, our deteriorating economy, and the ever increasing cost of legal services."
The 4 ALL campaign Lewis outlined at the luncheon will involve legal groups across the state in a four-pronged attack on the problem. It will focus on education, collaboration, participation and legislation.
In his address to the several hundred lawyers present at the luncheon, Lewis shared statistics showing the dramatic need greater access to justice in Tennessee.
"Even eight years ago, according to the 2000 census — before 9/11, before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and before the subprime mortgage crisis — Tennessee had more than 1 million citizens living at or below the Legal Services eligibility threshold," Lewis said.
This is a household income of $13,000 for someone living alone or $17,500 for an adult and one child.
To meet the needs of this sizeable population — 18 percent of our state's residents — Tennessee now has about 80 attorneys providing legal services full time.
A study done for the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services by UT, and released four years ago, showed that in this population, 70 percent had experienced one civil legal problem in the past year. That’s about 700,000 legal problems a year.
"Interestingly, the study showed that the 'working' poor had more legal problems than the unemployed," Lewis said.
About two-thirds of these legal problems are either problems with creditors or problems with medical bills. As legal service attorneys and administrators will tell you, a high percentage of these clients are women left alone to care for children. Many are victims of domestic violence. And, there are ripple effects. Tennesseans who cannot resolve basic legal problems often end up requiring more resources from other state and federal agencies.
See the new 4ALL television campaign
Watch here for projects, programs and more information on the 4 ALL program.
The TBA has produced a DVD designed to educate the bar and the public on the urgency of the situation. We will show this DVD at every bar meeting and CLE session for the next 12 months. We will use all available means to sensitize our members and the public to the urgency of the need.
The TBA will work with our Supreme Court — which itself has recently determined that Access to Justice will be a strategic priority — and with other Bar Associations, including the American College of Trial Lawyers, the TAJ, TLAW, city bars, and county bars on the creation of new collaborative initiatives, like courthouse clinics and Saturday pro bono clinics.
The TBA is coordinating a statewide public service day on April 4, 2009. Learn about what events are taking place in your area and contact the coordinator to volunteer your time and talents in bring access to justice to those in need.
Tennessee will spend two billion state dollars of a total budget of 7.5 billion state dollars on health care. Next to that, Tennessee spends almost nothing on legal care for the poor — $3.3 million. This is all derived from statutory filing fees, the oldest of which has not been increased in over a decade. In 2006, we created a voluntary trust fund for civil legal aid with the expectation there would be cy pres awards and other gifts and contributions which would eventually build a state trust fund for civil legal services. Thus far, it has not received any funding.
