Jodi Feldman
The D.C. courts system created the pro bono program manager position to further its commitment to creating access to justice, the system's executive officer, Dr. Cheryl Bailey, told Law360.
"We're always seeking to remove barriers for persons so they have meaningful participation in our justice system and truly have access to court services," Bailey said. "This is a way for us to really make our courthouse more accessible."
Feldman's pro bono experience made her a great choice for managing the free and affordable legal services in a court system that sees more than 90% of its litigants in probate court go unrepresented, Bailey added.
After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center, Feldman had a short stint in private practice at Wiley Rein LLP, where she discovered her passion for pro bono work. Since then, she has worked at Whitman-Walker Health and the Legal Aid Society in various pro bono positions.
Feldman recently spoke with Law360 about her new role and her plans for the D.C. court system's pro bono program. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you first get involved in pro bono work?
I started my legal career at a large law firm here in Washington, D.C., and began doing pro bono work with Whitman-Walker Health, an organization here in town that provides legal services to those with HIV and AIDS. It opened my eyes to a whole other way to use my legal career. It really was life changing.
I just had incredible professional and personal reward from the experience, so I eventually decided that's what I wanted to spend my career doing. And it developed a passion in me to share with other lawyers the benefits of pro bono work and why they might want to get involved.
How did you become the D.C. courts system's first pro bono manager?
For the past two years, I've been serving on a D.C. Superior Court committee on pro bono and affordable counsel in a volunteer capacity. I got to know the members of the committee and the judges, and I got to see how committed the courts were to access to justice and increasing pro bono representation and affordable representation.
As part of the work on the committee, I became aware of this position, and it was just very exciting to think about being able to do this full-time, not just as my volunteer activity.
What's the difference between pro bono representation and affordable representation?
Pro bono just means free, so for persons who are below a certain income level, there are free resources here in the district, mostly at legal services organizations or provider organizations. However, the income guidelines for eligibility for those organizations are quite low, and it costs a lot to hire a lawyer at market rate. There is a huge gap between those who are eligible for free legal services, or pro bono legal services, and those who can actually afford to pay a lawyer.
That's where the affordable counsel piece comes in. Some people refer to it as "low bono," but it would be something more like a sliding fee scale, or just reduced services. That is an area we really hope to make some progress in because, frankly, that is where most people fall, in this large gap between who's eligible for free, or pro bono, services and who can afford a lawyer at market rates.
What is the current state of pro bono services coordination in the D.C. courts, and how do you plan to improve on it?
If someone came into the courthouse today who was looking for a pro bono lawyer, we could provide them with the information of the various legal services organizations in the district and direct them where they could go to get some help, depending on the type of case they have.
I'm interested to learn from the court navigator program what resources they have and what they have been doing in terms of being able to identify where to send folks for help. My goal is to figure out what the court navigator program is currently doing and see how we can work together to improve and enhance our resources for litigants who come in seeking representation.
Along with expanding affordable representation services, what are some of your big ideas for your new role?
We've talked about the barriers to access to justice for litigants, but there are a lot of barriers for lawyers who want to do pro bono work, as well. We have quite a robust legal services community here in D.C., and there are many organizations that all practice in different areas and provide different support and services. So one of my goals is to be a point of contact for lawyers in the district who want to get involved.
I can talk with them about all the different ways in which they can get involved in pro bono work and help litigants access representation. Definitely one of my goals is to just be a bridge between the courts, the legal services and the pro bono communities. I will be able to speak with lawyers and at law firms without an agenda that might be coming from a particular organization or an organization that focuses on particular work, and just speak broadly and communicate more broadly about the needs here in D.C. courts.
What are some ways in which you plan to bridge that gap?
I definitely want to work with the community, with the Access to Justice Commission and with the courts to communicate more of the needs here in the district. There is, in some ways, a mismatch in that we have many, many lawyers in the district — either working in private practice or in government — but we also have a community that is really in need, a community that is low-income and cannot afford a lawyer. It will be helpful to have some coordination to just match those resources.
For example, we recently held a court open house and tour, and we invited folks who are interested in doing pro bono work to come onsite to the courthouse to see what the courts are all about, to demystify the courts and to see how hybrid operations are working as we're coming out of the pandemic in an effort to help ease the anxiety that some may be feeling. Even though they want to do pro bono work, they may be concerned about just coming to the courts, so it was a way to familiarize themselves with the courts and make them feel more comfortable.
Will the pro bono services be focused on a specific area of law?
There are so many different opportunities here at the courts, everything from very, very active courts, like the landlord-and-tenant court and the domestic relations court. But there are also so many different opportunities in the probate division and the Court of Appeals.
One of the things I would like to do is expand the areas in which we have pro bono help because there are some areas where the pro bono focus has traditionally been, but there are many different areas and many other ways in which attorneys can get involved and help.
What are some of those other ways?
Some lawyers aren't going to want to come into the court and represent clients, but they may be willing to do some community education, for example, or staff one of our resource centers on a limited basis. I want to communicate that there are many ways to support access to justice at the courts that don't necessarily require representing an individual client and appearing in court.
--Editing by Lakshna Mehta.
All Access is a series of discussions with leaders in the access to justice field. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Have a story idea for Access to Justice? Reach us at accesstojustice@law360.com.