When a U.S. Marine veteran and his disabled mother were close to being evicted from public housing because the elderly mother suffered from hoarding disorder, things seemed grim.
But the marine told his medical practitioner at UMass Memorial Medical Center, who helped the mother and son find a pro bono attorney through a medical-Legal Partnership with legal service provider Community Legal Aid.
Attorney Terrence Briggs, of Worcester law firm of Bowditch & Dewey, was assigned to the case.
After working with elder services to help the mother with her hoarding problem and negotiating with the housing authority, the mother and veteran were spared from eviction.
For that case, and other pro bono work, Bowditch & Dewey has been awarded the 2019 American Bar Association Outstanding Medical-Legal Partnership Pro Bono Advocacy Award, according to a news release.
“This work gives me a sense of satisfaction,” Briggs said. “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.”
The award is administered by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service and recognizes Bowditch for its continued support of the Medical-Legal Partnership between Community Legal Aid and UMass Memorial Health Care. Bowditch was presented the award at the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership Summit on Sept. 20.
The Medical-Legal Partnership between Community Legal Aid and UMass Memorial began in 2015 and serves to leverage staff and pro bono resources to address health-harming legal needs faced by low-income patients served by UMass Memorial Medical Center, according to the news release.
In the last year, the law firm has donated nearly $25,000 of in-kind legal services to low-income pediatric and adult patients through the Medical-Legal Partnership, according to Kate Eshghi, the senior vice president and general counsel at UMass Memorial Health Care.
“[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,” said Mytrang Nguyen, program counsel for the Pro Bono Innovation Program at Legal Services Corporation.
Bowditch has also worked to train and recruit other local attorneys to represent students from low-income families in special education cases.
Attorney Andrew Bartholomew took on an education case through the Medical-Legal Partnership, helping 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, according to the news release.
The incident where the boy was detained happened on a Thursday. With Bartholomew’s response, the boy was able to begin classes at a new school days later, the news release reads.
