By Steve Thorpe
sthorpe@legalnews.com
The Capuchin Soup Kitchen Legal Clinic was created earlier this year to serve the needs of metro-Detroit’s 35,000 homeless people. The clinic, a collaboration between Bodman PLC and the Capuchin facility, is intended to fill the gap left by the Homeless Experience Legal Protection (H.E.L.P.) clinic’s hiatus, but is expected to continue even after H.E.L.P. resumes. Kimberly Paulson is Bodman’s Pro Bono Counsel and works out of the firm’s in their Detroit office. Paulson serves on the Steering Committees of the Pro Bono Council, a body responsible for establishing procedures and policies for the pro bono referral program of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and Street Outreach Court Detroit, a homeless outreach court program of the 36th District Court. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan’s Pro Bono Initiative and of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel.
Thorpe: How did the program get started?
Paulson: Bodman was inspired by the work being done with the homeless guests at Ss. Peter and Paul Warming Center through the Detroit chapter of the H.E.L.P. program, a nationwide program begun by the Hon. Jay Zainey. Recognizing the overwhelming need for these services in Detroit, when H.E.L.P. went on hiatus so that the warming center could undergo extensive renovations, Bodman approached the Capuchin Soup Kitchen about starting a legal services clinic for its guests similar to the H.E.L.P. clinic. Bodman and CSK had a pre-existing relationship through the Street Outreach Court Detroit program, and Bodman sometimes provided pro bono services to CSK’s guests, but we knew we could reach more people through a formal legal clinic. CSK was very enthusiastic about the idea, so it recruited one of its volunteers to coordinate the program on its end. I helped with administration of the program, including recruiting and scheduling attorneys, and the CSK Legal Clinic was born.
Thorpe: What are its goals? How big is the problem of underserved homeless?
Paulson: There are many wonderful organizations in Southeastern Michigan that provide a variety of goods and services to the homeless — clothes, food, job training, housing, and substance abuse treatment, for example. Most of those organizations, though, do not offer legal services. The goal of the legal clinic is to fill in that missing piece. Bodman and CSK believe that helping the homeless address their legal issues complements the other services being provided and offers a more complete approach to ending homelessness.
I have no formal statistics to quantify the percentage of homeless individuals who do not have access to legal services, but from my own experiences and my discussions with those who work with the homeless, the number is staggeringly high. If not for the handful of legal clinics targeted to this population, I believe very few would ever seek or receive legal assistance.
Thorpe: How does the clinic connect with its target client?
Paulson: The CSK Legal Clinic is held at CSK’s two soup kitchens in Detroit. The target clients are already there; we simply bring the lawyers to them. CSK advertises and promotes the clinic, and attendance is never a problem.
Thorpe: What sorts of legal issues does the clinic see?
Paulson: Some of the most common issues we see are outstanding traffic tickets, expungements, landlord/tenant, child support, and problems with social security benefits. But every once in a while you will see an atypical issue, such as a gentleman who sought help to recover his pet cats, which were removed from his car in a parking lot, or a gentleman trying to gain release of his girlfriend’s body from the morgue.
Thorpe: How does the clinic interact with area courts?
Paulson: The clinic has no specific relationship or interaction with area courts. The clinic is run independently of any courts or governmental agencies and staffed entirely by private attorneys
Thorpe: Which firms are contributing attorneys to the effort?
Paulson: In addition to Bodman attorneys and legal assistants, attorneys and paralegals from Dykema, Kitch, Dickinson Wright, Jaffe, Clark & Schoenbeck, and Ford Motor Company’s Office of General Counsel have staffed or will be staffing the clinic. We have some solo practitioners as well. I am often contacted by attorneys who want to volunteer, so we are constantly adding attorneys to our roster. Anyone is welcome.
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