Civil Law

The Civil Law Practice area contains many resources designed to help advocates in their representation of needy clients.

To access or contribute resources, you must be an approved member of the community. To join the Civil Law Practice Area select Join this Area in the bar to the left.

You are eligible for membership in this area if you are a public interest attorney; a law school student or faculty member; or a private attorney actively engaged in pro bono work or willing to become actively involved in pro bono by accept a pro bono case within the next six months.

The Civil Law Practice Area contains:

• News - Items and alerts on issues of interest to advocates representing low-income individuals.

• Calendar - Listings of CLE Training Events and other events of interest. Events can be viewed by date, location or topic and members can add their own events to the calendar.

• Cases - Listing of cases where you can volunteer to help in representing individuals and families in need of legal assistance.

• Library - Resource materials to support you in your representation of clients in need of assistance. Resources include pleadings, briefs, legal reference materials, manuals and other training materials.

• Discussions - Groups you can join to participate in e-mail discussions about issues relating to the representation of clients needing assistance.

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Research Assistance Available for Pro Bono Work

Miller Center - Penn State Dickinson School of Law

Need help on a pro bono matter? The Miller Center for Public Interest Advocacy, at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, matches students who have expressed a willingness to do pro bono research with public defenders, legal services attorneys, public interest attorneys and lawyers who are providing pro bono representation.

Originally, the Miller Center limited student research to pending cases. However, the Center recently extended its mandate to offer student research on public interest issues or projects that are not directly tied to a matter currently in litigation.

You may request law student help from the Miller Center by:

• Sending an email to millercenter@dsl.psu.edu;
• Submitting a request by completing the web form on their web site; or
• Sending a fax to 717-240-5126.

Law students cannot provide legal advice directly to clients.

All requests for student research assistance from attorneys, public interest organizations and pro bono programs will be forwarded to the Director of the Miller Center, Professor Gary S. Gildin, and the Law School's Public Interest Fellow Kate Cramer Lawrence.

The Miller Center will attempt to place the request with a law student who has expressed willingness to conduct pro bono research. The Center will endeavor to contact the requesting attorney or organization to confirm the student's acceptance of the research request within three business days of its submission.

If you have any questions, please contact the Director, Professor Gary S. Gildin (gsg2@psu.edu) at (717) 240-5238 or Kate Cramer Lawrence (kmc32@psu.edu) at (717) 240-5210.

Philadelphia Area Law Schools

Law Schools in the Philadelphia area are all participating in a program that provides law student volunteers to attorneys handling pro bono cases.

The Philadelphia Bar Association has profiles of the student volunteer programs on their website and online forms where pro bono attorneys can submit an application for student volunteer assistance.

Law schools participating in the program include Drexel University College of Law; Rutgers-Camden School of Law; Temple University Beasley School of Law; University of Pennsylvania School of Law; Villanova University School of Law; and Widener University School of Law.

Please visit the Philadelphia Bar Association website at the link below for more information and to apply for student volunteer assistance.

Philadelphia Bar Association - Pro Bono Assistance

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Participating Organizations:

Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network
Pennsylvania Bar Association
Legal Services to the Public Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association
Pro Bono Center of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation
Philadelphia VIP Pro Bono Legal Services
Philadelphia Bar Association
Dauphin County Bar Association Pro Bono Program
Erie County Bar Association Legal Aid Volunteer Attorneys (LAVA) Program
Lackawanna Pro Bono, Inc.
Pennsylvania IOLTA Board

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KPMG, LexisNexis Offer Services, Training to PBN Members

Two of Pro Bono Net's corporate sponsors, KPMG and LexisNexis, are donating their time and expertise this fall to help pro bono and legal aid advocates.

KPMG Forensic is offering its services pro bono to law firm attorneys working on pro bono cases, as part of its internal efforts to increase employee volunteerism. Services available under the program include:

• Investigations - Investigation of suspected fraud, accounting irregularities and misconduct, including fraudulent financial reporting, misappropriation of assets and violations of laws, regulations and/or contracts.
  
  
• Forensic Technology Services - Digital evidence recovery and data analysis, document management of both paper and digital documents and litigation and electronic repository services.
  
  
• Dispute Advisory Services - Litigation assistance services including expert witness accountancy; expert determination; acting as arbitrator, adjudicator, independent expert; or providing law firm assistance.
  
  
• Forensic Accounting - Reviewing detailed accounting records (manually or through computer assisted techniques), performing bank reconciliations, tracing funds among accounts, and reviewing supporting financial documents.

KPMG can also bring in professionals from its tax practice if such expertise is needed.

Requests for volunteer services are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. If you'd like to request donated services for a pro bono case, please contact Pam Weisz at Pro Bono Net.

LexisNexis did a webinar on search engine marketing (SEM) for Pro Bono Net members on Nov. 4. A team from LexisNexis has been assisting Pro Bono Net with search engine optimization for LawHelp.org to help increase the website's visibility in Google/Yahoo/Bing.

LexisNexis generously agreed to extend their expertise to legal aid organizations and law firms that partner with Pro Bono Net. Topics covered included: important dynamics of Search, how to make your site search engine friendly, search optimization best practices, and more. The webinar was recorded and can be accessed by clicking here.

Contact Pam Weisz if you'd like more information about Pro Bono Net's corporate sponsorship program.