© 2012 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Omar Alaniz and Starlett Carter are lawyers at large law firms that normally represent big companies with deep pockets.
During the past year, the two Dallas attorneys tackled pro bono efforts where only a few thousand dollars were at stake. To their clients, however, the cases were life changing.
Alaniz and Carter are examples of 2,389 lawyers who donated their time during the past year as part of the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, which represented 2,476 low-income Dallas individuals in legal disputes in 2011.
DVAP is operated and funded through the Dallas Bar Association’s Equal Access to Justice campaign, which now has its yearly fundraising effort underway.
“The severe recession has hit poor people especially hard,” says Michael Hurst, a partner at Gruber Hurst Johansen Hail Shank and the chair of the EAJ’s fundraiser for 2012. “More than 600,000 people in Dallas County qualify financially for DVAP’s help.
“Our volunteer lawyers have saved families from foreclosure, have assisted veterans with their benefits, assisted the elderly with their wills, handled guardianships, domestic violence, and other family and consumer-oriented cases,” says Hurst.
Hurst says the campaign, which lasts through January 19, is well on its way toward its goal of raising $700,000.
Gruber Hurst, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson and Payne Mitchell Law Group have each donated $25,000.
Two organizations – AT&T and the Mike and Barbara Lynn Philanthropic Fund – donated $15,000. Another 10 law firms/corporate legal departments have committed $10,000 a piece. They are Elrod, Exxon Mobil, Friedman & Feiger, Godwin Ronquillo, the Hartnett Law Firm, Haynes and Boone, Jones Day, KoonsFuller, Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox, Mike McKool, Jr., and Vinson & Elkins.
“DVAP is a multi-faceted legal services program which includes neighborhood legal clinics and partnerships with other area organizations,” says Hurst. “The DVAP staff coordinates volunteer lawyers to provide civil legal services to the poor. Dallas area attorneys provide almost $4 million in pro bono legal work, shouldering the load of gaining access to the courts for people who can’t get justice otherwise.”
While financial support is crucial to meeting the legal needs of low-income Dallas residents, the volunteer work of lawyers such as Alaniz and Carter is vital.
Alaniz, a senior associate in the bankruptcy litigation section at Baker Botts, represented a Dallas woman in a dispute with a car dealer and repair shop. The woman purchased a car from an auto repair shop through a broker for $3,450. Within days, the car started showing engine problems. A second mechanic reported that the car needed many more repairs than the sellers were claiming.
Having spent nearly all her life savings for the car, the woman had no money to repair the car. To make matters worse, her car troubles prevented her from maintaining a job.
Alaniz made several failed attempts to settle the case without litigation, but he eventually sued the dealer and auto repair shop under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The case settled for $2,500.
Carter, a Weil, Gotshal & Manges corporate lawyer who has been involved in a handful of billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions, represented a tenant living in Section 8 housing in Dallas. The tenant received several vague and minor lease violations from his landlord, including citations for violating a curfew and for having oil on the driveway.
The landlord filed an eviction lawsuit, which would have terminated the tenant’s right to affordable housing benefits.
In court, the landlord provided documents that were inconsistent with the reasons for the eviction. When Carter confronted the landlord, the landlord became very emotional, began yelling in the courtroom and had to be calmed by the judge. After hearing conflicting evidence and an admission from the landlord that she had no written documentation to support her case, the judge ruled in the tenant’s favor.
The judge commented that the landlord likely would have won the case if Carter had not advocated for the tenant. The case eventually settled. (FYI: Weil, Gotshal started the Lend-a-Lawyer Program in 2005, which allows a full-time Weil associate to work for DVAP for three months each year while still receiving their full salary and benefits from the firm.)
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