The seeds of good pro bono work can be planted early. This is the premise that our law firm affirmed when we created two pro bono partnerships with the University of Pennsylvania Law School. These partnerships pair law students and lawyers in an effort to assist indigent clients who cannot afford to represent themselves. The programs have proven successful, creating an innovative approach to the expansion of legal services while at the same time teaching law students important real-world legal skills that will prepare them to be effective counselors and advocates.
Our first partnership began in 2006 and resulted in the creation of a landlord-tenant program, which is an effort to address the staggering number of pro se tenants in the Philadelphia Municipal Court by providing representation to at-risk tenants in eviction proceedings. The program started as a three-way collaboration involving Penn Law students, Dechert attorneys and Community Legal Services, and has since expanded to involve other firms and referring agencies. The model has been to have CLS perform weekly intakes at regularly scheduled clinics and then refer the tenant clients to the lawyer and student volunteers. Dechert’s case manager then coordinates between our attorneys and the law students by assigning cases to attorney-student teams, working closely with Penn Law’s student-led housing board. The students are encouraged to take on as much responsibility as they reasonably can, including handling the fact-gathering, negotiations and, in some cases, presenting the case before a municipal court judge. The judges and opposing counsel have been impressed with the students’ performance in this program. Since its inception, the program has provided representation to about 500 tenants.
