Pro Bono Program
Southeastern Michigan features a wide array of public service organizations devoted to compelling social problems that welcome student help. Most students who undertake pro bono work typically commit between five to ten hours a week to their projects over the course of the semester.
There are a number of public service groups in the region and the list below is just a handful of organizations where U-M Law students have participated in pro bono programs in the past:
In addition to the Office of Public Service's pro bono program, many of the UMLS student groups also facilitate their own pro bono and community service projects as well as alternative spring breaks. You can also find community service volunteer opportunities at the University of Michigan Volunteer Connection, the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Volunteer Match. Below are some of the student group-led projects currently underway:
The Family Law Project
The Family Law Project (“FLP”) is a joint effort between Legal Services of South Central Michigan, a non-profit organization that provides legal services to indigent residents of its multi-county service area and the University of Michigan Law School. The mission of FLP is domestic violence prevention by providing safety to domestic violence survivors and their children through the law. FLP provides survivors with a full range of legal services, including protection orders, custody orders, and divorces as well as ancillary legal matters.
FLP works closely with Safe House Center, which refers all clients to the project. Safe House Center screens each potential client and provides other essential services such as safety planning, counseling and shelter. FLP offers a unique opportunity for first year law students to represent domestic violence survivors under the supervision of a staff attorney. After completing a training, first year students are assigned a protection order case and will interview the client, draft and file pleadings, assist with and attend any court hearings and otherwise monitor the case. Second and third year students who have previous experience at FLP may work on more complex cases, including divorce and custody matters.
Before volunteering, all students must attend a legal training and a training relative to the dynamics of domestic violence. These trainings are generally scheduled for mid September. Training dates will be announced through this web site, emails and notices throughout the law School.
For questions, please contact Rebecca Shiemke at rshiemke@umich.edu.
The Food Stamp Advocacy Project
The Food Stamp Advocacy Project is a law student organization working to reduce hunger by increasing participation in the food stamp program among eligible individuals in Washtenaw County. Working closely with Legal Services of South Central Michigan, student volunteers provide eligibility screenings to low-income individuals who may be eligible for food stamps, assist individuals in filling out food stamp applications, and provide individuals with information about their rights in the Food Stamp program. Contact fsadvocacybrd@umich.edu for more information.
The Election Law Project's Voting Rights Initiative
As civil rights advocates prepared for the upcoming Voting Rights Act reauthorization hearings, the Michigan Election Law Project (MELP), in partnership with Professor Ellen Katz, created the Voting Rights Initiative to document data on the recent impact of these temporary provisions. Over the course of Winter-Spring 2005, the Voting Rights Initiative examined and analyzed a comprehensive list of cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Initiative will publicly distribute an extensive compilation of judicial findings and reasoning on racially discriminatory voting laws and practices. Through this ground-breaking research, the Voting Rights Initiative aims to contribute to the evidentiary record available to Congress and advocates, as they consider the future of the Voting Rights Act.
MELP's findings of the Voting Rights Initiative is available at http://sitemaker.umich.edu/votingrights/final_report. The public site will be searchable according to all of the factors defined in the 1982 Senate Report.
MELP established a team of informal advisors to assist in the Initiative, including lawyers from the NAACP-LDF, MALDEF, ACLU, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, NAPALC, and the DOJ Voting Section, as well as the sociologist, Chandler Davidson, Prof. Emeritus from Rice University, who wrote a book on the impact of the Voting Rights Act ("Quiet Revolution in the South").
The Michigan Law Hunger Coalition
The Michigan Law Hunger Coalition, in coordination with PICSO and the Food Stamp Law Advocacy Program, is fully responsible for preparing and serving dinner at the Robert J. Delonis Center in downtown Ann Arbor at least once a month. Please e-mail michlawhunger@yahoo.com for more information.
L-STAR
Among the many activities it does to promote pro bono/public service, Student Funded Fellowships recently launched the L-STAR (Law Student Transportation and Accommodation Reimbursement) Program. L-STAR is a nationalization of the Hotel Voucher Program and has been formed with Virginia Law and Northwestern Law Schools. Firms will now pay $165 for each non-hotel stay and $35 each time a student hitches a ride to/from the airport with a friend instead of a cab. See www.umich.edu/~lawweb/sff for more information.
Environmental Law Society
Members of the Environmental Law Society collaborate with lawyers in India to oppose the dredging of the Sethusamudram Canal between India and Sri Lanka. Students research international laws and norms concerning duties of notification and cooperation between nations on projects with the potential to create transboundary environmental harms.