© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Janet Elliott
(AUSTIN) – (Oct. 26) – As floods created by Hurricane Harvey enveloped the Gulf Coast in August, Lone Star Legal Aid was dealt another, unanticipated blow. At precisely the time when the legal aid provider was preparing to assist victims of the city’s historic flooding, an explosion and electrical fire ravaged its downtown Houston offices.
As the main legal service provider for the region, agency staff knew from experience that many Texans would need help legal help recovering lost documents and fighting evictions. But left without office space, computers and other resources, their much-need services were severely crippled in the wake of the storm.
However, as word of the fire spread, the Houston legal community came to the agency’s rescue. Law firms offered office space and other legal service providers took Lone Star’s forwarded calls.
A major concern was that the Aug. 28 electrical fire had knocked the agency’s computer servers off-line. But the staff, including 20 in Houston and four in Beaumont whose homes received flood damage, reported anyway to disaster relief intake centers and began doing things the old-fashioned way by filling out paper forms. The agency, the fourth largest provider of free legal aid in the United States, serves 72 counties in Texas and four in Arkansas. It has 219 employees in 13 offices, including 107 in Houston.
Paper was fine for that first week, but Lone Star desperately needed to get its servers up and running in a new location. That’s when Vinson & Elkins stepped in with two of its technology specialists. Mike Terry and Nikhil Suneja worked on Sunday, Sept. 3 at Lone Star’s new data center in west Houston on router setup, internet communications, interoffice communication and voice services. After 11 hours, Lone Star was back in the 21st Century.
Lone Star is still displaced from its Fannin Street office, where the damage was confined to the first floor of the three-story building. Its administrative offices have found a new home at Latham & Watkins where the firm donated almost half of a floor. Other firms providing temporary digs include McGuire Woods and Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. In addition, the agency has leased space at Cullen Center on Jefferson Street.
Law firms also came through with generous donations, including $150,000 each from Gibbs & Bruns and Latham.
“We would never have gotten that done without their help,” said Paul Furrh, attorney/CEO of the nonprofit. “We don’t feel like we missed a beat but we have an awful lot of tired folks.”
Furrh spoke about the dramatic events Monday in Austin at the Texas Access to Justice Foundation luncheon kicking off Pro Bono Week.
Deborah Hankinson, vice chair of the foundation, said hurricanes, flooding and the legal needs they bring are nothing new to the legal service community.
“Legal aid is among the first to respond during a disaster and long after everyone else has left, legal aid will still be there,” she told an audience that included several Texas Supreme Court justices. “But even with all of our experience, we could never have imagined the Houston Lone Star Legal Aid building in flames.”
Hankinson announced that the foundation is making $1.5 million in emergency funds available to legal aid organizations and pro bono programs in areas impacted by Harvey. The funds are in addition to $200,000 the foundation awarded on Sept. 6.
“Thanks to relationships built over many years and our sounding the alarm, the foundation was able to obtain $800,000 in grants from national foundations,” Hankinson said. “In addition, the call went out for donations and legal aid lawyers throughout the country, bar associations, IOLTA programs, Texas lawyers and lawyers who had experienced hurricanes gave generously of their resources and they sent notes of support.”
Furrh’s staff took swift action against landlords in Houston and Beaumont who attempted to put tenant belongings on the sidewalk before the tenants had even returned from out-of-town evacuations. “We pretty well put an end to that by filing lawsuits and restraining orders,” he said.
Likewise, Lone Star is bracing for an onslaught of denials of FEMA aid applications.
“As with most federal agencies, there is about a 50 percent denial rate,” Furrh said. “If we take your case, there’s a much higher likelihood that you’re going to find success.”
Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman told the luncheon crowd that the legal needs will continue for months to come. Evictions and foreclosures could result in homelessness and bankruptcies.
“People’s lives were broken. The legal needs that arise because of these catastrophic events will continue for years to come,” Guzman said. “But there is hope for them because we have a strong community of legal aid leaders.”
© 2017 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.