The State Bar of California is considering a proposal requiring that law students provide 50 hours of legal work free or at very low rates to low income clients. The proposal is designed to use law students to combat the problem of a growing number of California residents who need legal advice but cannot afford to hire an attorney.

This trend started during the economic recession that began in 2007, when funding to provide legal aid to the poor plummeted just when many needed it the most. Many California residents were falling into poverty and needed help with matters such as evictions and foreclosures. With decreased funding came increased selectivity on the part of cheap legal resources, which meant that most of the people who needed it did not receive legal aid. Even though the economy has improved, the state bar still believes that over one million California residents seeking legal aid are turned away each year.

One California resident who has been able to take advantage of free legal services is Carlis Pegues, a 64-year-old woman who is claiming that her landlord is trying to evict her. Buried in paperwork and plagued with the thought of losing her home, Pegues found herself at the free legal clinic in Skid Row. Now, every Wednesday, she takes the bus from her home in the Baldwin Village area of South Los Angeles to the clinic. There she is greeted by a group of attorneys and law students who provide free legal advice for one hour per week to anyone who seeks it.

Pegues is certainly grateful for these weekly meetings. She told the Los Angeles Times:

It’s a traumatic, mind-boggling experience trying to get out of this situation when everything is closing in on me, If I have a problem, they don’t look down on me here. They just step up and help.

While one goal of the proposal is to help more people like Pegues, it is also aimed to give law students hands-on experience before they obtain their licenses to practice law. Supporters of the proposed 50-hour requirement say that they hope this experience would help prospective attorneys gain experience and gain a sense of appreciation for how important it is to provide legal aid to low-income residents in California.

However, not everyone is in support of this proposal. Many, particular those who currently work in legal aid, are concerned that the legal aid organizations don’t have the resources necessary to absorb the influx of a large number of volunteers wishing to fulfill their 50 hours. They claim that this is due to a lack of attorneys who can take the time to help these law students, as they are not allowed to represent these clients in court or offer them any legal advice without the supervision of a licensed attorney. On top of this, many organizations have stressed that they simply don’t have the space for these student volunteers to work.

For example, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles is one of the largest of its kind in the state, yet they only accept roughly 10 percent of the law students who apply to work there because they cannot accommodate any more. Phong Wong, the director of the foundation, said:

The need is definitely there. We turn away so many low-income clients because we don’t have the support, the resources to help them. At the same time, there are all these law students who can be put to use. We just need to figure out how to make it work for the clients that we serve.

If organizations such as the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles can find a way to successfully integrate more volunteer law students into their daily operations, then this proposed 50 hour requirement has the potential to benefit everyone involved. If not, a different sort of solution to California’s legal woes may need to be discussed.

Brittany Alzfan

Brittany Alzfan is a student at the George Washington University majoring in Criminal Justice. She was a member of Law Street’s founding Law School Rankings team during the summer of 2014. Contact Brittany at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A recent report by the Chronicle of Philanthropy shows how the recession changed Americans’ charitable habits. “The wealthiest Americans — those who earned $200,000 or more — reduced the share of income they gave to charity by 4.6 percent from 2006 to 2012. Meanwhile, Americans who earned less than $100,000 chipped in 4.5 percent more of their income during the same time period.” The Washington Post took the report a bit further; in an op-ed Philip Bump notes that “Of the states that gave the most to charity in 2012, the top 17 all voted for Mitt Romney that year. The bottom seven states in giving all voted for Obama.” He points to a political split in charity, but also suggests that there is a tendency for religious people to give more. Bump refers back to another Chronicle report claiming that “The more important religion is to a person, the more likely that person is to give to a charity of any kind.”

The wealth and religiosity of people appear to heavily influence the size of their charitable giving. On the other hand, it seems like the correlation of “red states” and increased charitable donations is just that — a correlation. Because these states suffered more of the brunt of the recession, their increases in poverty were often higher than the national average. While there is a notable relationship between a state’s conservatism and its poverty level, this does not mean a state’s tendency to vote Republican is the direct cause of charitable giving increases. At the same time, the more conservative states are also more religious. This nexus of low-income and high-religiosity may be the most direct cause of increasing charitable donations. As lower-income people of faith experienced the turmoil of the recession, they were compelled to donate.

When examining religion as a social institution, this isn’t too surprising. When one social institution falters — the economic system, for example — people will often rely more heavily on another institution — say, religion. Thankfully, a lot of American religious institutions encourage charity. It seems like many Americans who were badly affected by the financial crisis deepened their religious commitments and, despite having less to give, gave more. While religion has individualistic significance, its community focus is illustrated nicely, here.

There are a number of reasons why religion encourages charity, but what is it about religion that delivers such results? What makes religion such a compelling force? Christianity’s appeals to community-mindedness certainly compelled U.S. Army veteran Jordan Matson to join Kurdish forces in fighting the Islamic State. USA Today reports that Matson left Wisconsin to get to the battleground where ISIS is gaining territory: “I couldn’t just sit and watch Christians being slaughtered anymore.” At 28 years old, Matson voluntarily flew to Syria to combat militant Islamic extremists. While religion is compelling ISIS to commit sick acts of terror, religion compelled Matson to stop it.

Faith asks people to suspend skepticism. For better or for worse, in this way faith makes it much easier to compel people to act. Proof isn’t required incite action, and fact isn’t necessary to mobilize the masses. When charity-based components of religion are brought into the fold by something like an economic crisis, the more devout may feel more compelled than others to give. This is, of course, only one component of the many religious matrices out there.

Philanthropic tendencies in America are, in part, driven by religiosity. We can’t afford to ignore this; policy should be developed that encourages philanthropy and religiously influenced charity. This power was touched on by President George Bush Sr. in one of America’s weirder inaugural addresses: “We can find meaning and reward by serving some purpose higher than ourselves — a shining purpose, the illumination of a thousand points of light.” He asked Americans to volunteer and donate — an undoubtedly good appeal. But what we must create now is an agenda that harnesses the motivation behind the “thousand points of light” and capitalizes on the compelling nature of religion. Especially now that the rich are giving less and the poor are giving more, America could benefit from compelling our wealthiest to lend a helping hand more often.

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 Jake Ephros (@JakeEphros) is a native of Montclair, New Jersey where he volunteered for political campaigns from a young age. He studies Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy at American University and looks forward to a career built around political activism, through journalism, organizing, or the government.

Featured image courtesy of [James Cohen via Flickr]

Jake Ephros

Jake Ephros is a native of Montclair, New Jersey where he volunteered for political campaigns from a young age. He studies Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy at American University and looks forward to a career built around political activism, through journalism, organizing, or the government. Contact Jake at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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