Local Law Firm Receives National Pro Bono Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 23, 2019
Contact:
Thomas Navin, Development Director
Community Legal Aid
Phone: (413) 727-7115
Email: tnavin@cla-ma.org

Local Law Firm Receives National ProBono Award

Worcester, MA – A U.S. Marine veteran, along with his disabled, elderly mother, were facing eviction from their home in public housing due to the mother’s hoarding disorder. Thankfully the veteran told his medical practitioner at UMass Memorial Medical Center, which operates a Medical-Legal Partnership with legal service provider Community Legal Aid (CLA). CLA Staff Attorney Kate Gannon consulted her list of attorneys willing to accept Pro Bono cases and assigned the veteran’s case to Attorney Terrence Briggs of the firm Bowditch & Dewey. Attorney Briggs worked with elder services to address the mother’s hoarding issue, while negotiating with the housing authority. With his help, both the veteran and his mother avoided eviction, and remain in safe, affordable housing. 

Based on this case as well as others, the Worcester law firm of Bowditch & Dewey (Bowditch) has been awarded the American Bar Association Outstanding Medical-Legal Partnership Pro Bono Advocacy Award for 2019. The award, administered by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, recognizes Bowditch for its continued support of the Medical-Legal Partnership between Community Legal Aid and UMass Memorial Health Care. The Award was presented at the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership Summit on September 20.

The Medical-Legal Partnership between Community Legal Aid and UMass Memorial began in 2015.  Since then, Bowditch attorneys have provided pro bono legal representation for some the hospital’s most vulnerable patients. Eight attorneys from the firm’s Worcester office have agreed to take cases through the project. Even after retiring last year, one attorney continued to take cases and participate in the recruitment of new attorneys at the firm.According to Kate Eshghi, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at UMass Memorial Health Care, in the past year, Bowditch has donated nearly $25,000 of in-kind legal services to low-income pediatric and adult patients through the Medical-Legal Partnership.

Bowditch has also helped spearhead training and recruitment of other local attorneys to represent students from low-income families in special education cases. Last year when Community Legal Aid saw an influx in special education cases referred by its pediatric partners, Bowditch stepped up and helped to organize a Back-to-School Workshop. The program was a “lunch & learn” that allowed the Medical-Legal Partnership to educate private bar attorneys on the health-harming effects of inadequate special education services and to recruit them to serve as pro bono counsel for low-income students. As a result of that training, Community Legal Aid was able to place all of its open education cases.

Bowditch attorney Andrew Bartholomew took on an education case through the Medical-Legal Partnership. His client was a 7-year-old student whose mother requested a change of placement after the boy was detained at school for behaviors relating to his disability. The incident occurred on a Thursday. Due to Attorney Bartholomew’s quick response, the student was able to begin classes at a new school the following Tuesday. The student’s mother has reported that he is happy at his new school and his behaviors have stabilized.

The partnership between Community Legal Aid and UMass Memorial serves to leverage staff and pro bono resources to address the health-harming legal needs faced by low-income, vulnerable patients served by UMass Memorial Medical Center. In supporting Bowditch’s nomination for the award, Mytrang Nguyen, Program Counsel for the Pro Bono Innovation Program at Legal Services Corporation, said “[Bowditch’s] steadfast and years-long pro bono commitment to meeting the health-harming legal needs of low-income families in central Massachusetts has been invaluable to Community Legal Aid’s Medical-Legal Partnership and the clients whose lives their lawyers have touched.” 

Bowditch attorney Terrence Briggs said “This work gives me a sense of satisfaction. People often don’t know a lawyer, and they don’t think about or know about the rights they may have. With the intake mechanisms available through the Medical-Legal Partnership, it’s a way to get people the legal help that they might otherwise never have access to. There aren’t many places where you have that opportunity.”