Phoenix public service lawyer Goddard to receive ABA 2015 Pickering Award

Pascal H. (Tim) Goddard, executive director of the Arizona Senior Citizens Law Project in Phoenix, is the recipient of the 2015 John H. Pickering Award of Achievement, presented by the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association.

Goddard, 66, has been executive director of the Law Project for 20 of its 33 years. He will receive the award on July 30 during ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

“Tim Goddard has worked for 20 years to serve the legal needs of the elderly as chief administrator of the Arizona Senior Citizens Law Project.  He well represents John Pickering’s devotion to legal services for the elderly and equal justice for all,” Washington lawyer Brooksley E. Born, chair of the award selection committee, said.

The Law Project is a nonprofit dedicated to serving those age 60 and older in Maricopa County, Ariz., the only such resource of its kind in a county with more than 4 million population. The Law Project’s more-than $300,000 annual funding is obtained mostly through the Older Americans Act from the Area Agency on Aging, Region One. The Law Project handles 1,400 cases per year in the areas of Social Security, wills, probate, basic estate planning, guardianships, conservatorships, bankruptcy, real estate, employment issues, construction, financial abuse of the elderly, and consumer and landlord-tenant problems. Priority is given to low-income seniors. Home visits (often by Goddard himself) are emphasized in the Project’s practice, which are particularly useful in serving homebound, frail and isolated seniors, as well as those in rural areas of the county.

In addition to Goddard, the Project’s paid staff consists of a secretary, a clerk and a paralegal, in addition to two volunteer attorneys and two contract lawyers. Cases are handled in-house, as well as by reduced-fee and pro bono attorneys. Goddard, who has a J.D. degree from Arizona State University, has appeared in justice court, superior court, federal court and various administrative tribunals on behalf of Law Project clients, participating in administrative hearings, civil arbitration hearings, and bench and jury trials. Besides advising them legally, Goddard has also guided many of his clients into social programs that they need.

Before his current position, Goddard served as a Maricopa County deputy public defender and, for six years, as a staff attorney for the Law Project. “It was while I was at the Maricopa County Public Defender that I realized how substantial the problems are in extending legal services to the disadvantaged in the area of criminal law alone,” Goddard said.  “The Law Project, in extending service in many areas of law to people who are economically or socially disadvantaged, has proven ideal for pursuit of a public interest law practice.”

The late John H. Pickering, cofounder of the Washington, D.C. law firm then known as Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale), was a former District of Columbia Bar president known for his long record of pro bono work in the areas of civil rights, the financing of legal services for the poor, doctor-assisted suicide, and on behalf of the elderly. The award in his name has been given since 2007 in recognition of his dedication to the cause of equal justice for all and the highest standards of ethics and professionalism in the law.