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March 14th 2005 • Printer version
THEY DID IT AGAIN!
Law students win state
pro bono award
for the fourth year in a row
If
youÃre a teenager in trouble, a victim of domestic violence, an evicted
tenant - the law may look like the enemy and legal help may be hard to
find.
Enter the students of the University of Oregon School of Law.
For the fourth year in a row, they aced the Oregon State BarÃs Pro Bono
Challenge by contributing more than 10,600 volunteer hours directly to
the poor and to nonprofit and government agencies that help the poor.
At law clerk wages, thatÃs nearly $130,000 worth of free legal help.
For the clients, it means friendly and knowledgable assistance from
well-supervised law students. For the organizations, it means added
 resources in a time of tight budgets. UO students volunteered for Legal
Aid programs, domestic violence clinics, public defenders, victimsÃ
services programs, youth offenders projects, community mediation
programs, district attorneyÃs offices and many others in Oregon and
several other states.
Much of the credit is due to the class of 2005, who have contributed
over 12,000 hours during the past two years, breaking all prior records
for a single class.
Jane Steckbeck, the director of the law schoolÃs pro bono program said,
Pro bono work has a great impact right in our local community I
think of David Eisenberg who is devoted to poverty law and who has been
a steadfast intake volunteer Lane County Legal Aid. Or Jeremy Dickman
who has expanded our Street Law program on constitutional rights to
four local high schools. They and others like them are really
making a difference.
Each year the New LawyerÃs section of the Oregon State Bar records and
reviews pro bono work by individual attorneys, law firms, and law
schools and recognizes the top volunteers. The UO has held the law
school title since the Challenge began in 2001. Oregon Supreme Court
Justice Thomas Balmer conferred the awards at a March 10 ceremony in
Portland and Steckbeck accepted the student award on behalf of the law
school.
Of the 90 law students who participated in pro bono work last year, the following
contributed the most hours:
530 hours Misha Dunlap, third-year student from Eugene, for pro bono clients
at the law firm of Lauren Regan.
520 hours -Tippi C. Pearse, second-year student from Portland for the Multnomah County District Attorney.
480 hours - Cheri Brooks, third-year student from Eugene for Public Defender Services
of the District of Columbia.
400 hours - Molly Allen, second-year student from Carmel, California, for the
Juvenile Rights Project in Portland.
300 hours - Kate Drewry, third-year student from Los Angeles, California, for
the Nature Conservancy in Portland.
Four students talk about their experiences in the community
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