pro bono

Bankruptcy Clinic Students Save Legacy in Decade-Long Advocacy

The Eleanor R. Cristol and Judge A. Jay Cristol Bankruptcy Pro Bono Assistance Clinic at Miami Law offers pro bono legal services to low-income individuals who are dealing with bankruptcy.




Since 1995, the University of Miami School of Law’s bankruptcy clinic has given current Hurricane law students the opportunity to deliver life-changing pro bono legal services to indigent clients throughout South Florida.

Bankruptcy attorney Patricia “Trish” Redmond founded the clinic at the school where she still serves as an adjunct professor. A 2019 Tobias Simon Pro Bono Award Winner and shareholder at Stearns Weaver Miller, Redmond devotes between 200-400 hours every year to her pro bono work, which benefits thousands of underprivileged and low-income individuals, children, and families.

Bankruptcy cases are far from easy. A simple Chapter 7 can last up to six months while a more complex Chapter 13 can take up to five years, which makes the case Redmond and her team just completed all the more shocking.

“This case came to the clinic around 2010,” Redmond said. “Thirteen years’ worth of law students worked on this case.”

As Redmond explained, the debtor, a construction worker on dialysis, had lost his home in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case.

Read the rest

Courtroom Experience in Bankruptcy Clinic Affords Foreign Lawyer Invaluable Know-How

The Eleanor R. Cristol and Judge A. Jay Cristol Bankruptcy Pro Bono Assistance Clinic at Miami Law offers pro bono legal services to low-income individuals who are dealing with bankruptcy.




The Bankruptcy Clinic, directed by bankruptcy expert Patricia Redmond, gives the opportunity for students with an interest in business law and litigation to gain hands-on experience representing clients.

LL.M. to J.D. student, Ana Paula Carrijo Barroso from Brazil, successfully argued a Motion to Reinstate client’s bankruptcy case in Bankruptcy Court. Working under the supervision of local attorney Jeffrey Bast, who serves as a clinic mentor, she represented the client in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

Lawyering Skills in Action

The Brazilian attorney chose the Bankruptcy Clinic with a purpose.

“I decided to apply for the Bankruptcy Clinic because I wanted to challenge myself. I had never studied nor worked with bankruptcy before. I was also looking forward to improving my writing and oral skills, and I had heard about the excellent preparing offered by the Bankruptcy Clinic,” says Carrijo Barroso.

For this case, she dove in and worked “hands-on from day one.” She not only drafted the Motion to Reinstate the Case and prepared the schedules in a 3-hours in-person

Read the rest

Lawyer volunteers line up as N.Y. abortion providers seek out advice

Abortion rights protesters hold a youth rally in Washington Square Park in anticipation of Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision in New York City, U.S., June 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

  • About 50 New York law firms have expressed an interest in staffing a new hotline
  • The initiative is being spearheaded by New York Attorney General Leticia James

(Reuters) – A new hotline staffed by volunteer lawyers in New York is fielding a stream of inquiries from reproductive healthcare providers in the state worried about how the end of nationwide abortion rights protections could affect their operations, organizers said this week.

“Unfortunately, what we have received is what we expected,” said Claudia Hammerman, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which is coordinating law firm participation in the effort.

The New York hotline is the centerpiece of a month-old abortion rights initiative spearheaded by state Attorney General Letitia James in conjunction with law firms and reproductive rights organizations responding to the U.S. Supreme court last month overturning the constitutional right to abortion.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

After two weeks, the hotline

Read the rest