Lee M. Branson
Assistant Director
Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs
Harvard Law School   

"I'm sure I learned as much about life and the law in America this week as I did all the rest of my first year of law school," claimed one of our Harvard Law School students after a trip to New Orleans. Each of our 129 students and seven staff who have traveled to the Gulf Coast since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has had a unique experience. The Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs has arranged for students to travel on one-week trips by coordinating placements with the Student Hurricane Network. Additionally, during our winter term students have done clinical work for the month of January, either splitting their time between Washington, DC, and Biloxi through a partnership with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the Mississippi Center for Justice, or working in New Orleans with legal services agencies.

Volunteers included 1Ls who at first worried they didn't know what they were doing but in the end gained a great sense of accomplishment. In performing what may have seemed a relatively easy task like helping a client file a bankruptcy petition, many students learned a practical skill that also had a great impact on one person's future. Other students were frustrated by their time spent in the Gulf Coast. Expecting to go and save the world in one week, they found an entire legal system in disarray. Several were disappointed when they couldn't solve every problem during their visit, and were exasperated at seeing so many people in need. Despite their frustration, I told them that there was still something to be learned—how much work needs to be done, how much change needs to be made so that the law can protect people in the future, how lucky we are that we have so many resources. The most satisfying experiences were those that combined very big picture, theoretical legal work with on-the-ground contact with victims of the storms.

When I accompanied students on a recent trip, I couldn't believe how much our presence was appreciated. Gratitude wasn't limited to the volunteer work alone: Gulf Coast residents were constantly thanking us for coming to eat, shop, and listen to their stories. I felt proud to say that HLS has put amazing resources into this effort to support student and staff travel over the past two years.  I am humbled and inspired to see that our students are getting as much or even more out of the experience than they are giving.

Briana Green
Director, Judicial Clerkships, Public Interest & Government Programs
University of Maryland School of Law

While many law students use their semester break as an opportunity to relax and recover from final exams, students at the University of Maryland School of Law spent their last three Winter and Spring recesses lending a helping hand to the devastated residents of New Orleans and Mississippi through the Student Hurricane Network’s Gideon Indigent Defense and Building Projects. 

In March, 2006, about 30 Maryland law students traveled to New Orleans where they partnered with Catholic Charities' Operation Helping Hands project to rebuild homes for families in St. Bernard Parish. Students spent the week removing rotten furniture, walls, and fixtures from severely damaged homes belonging to elderly residents and people with disabilities.  First-year law student Stephan Stohler noted the many-layered challenges to rebuilding: "Resources are precious," he said. "In St. Bernard Parish there's one store open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the whole neighborhood. You can't build a house if you don't have a job. And you can't work if you don't have a home."

Maryland students have been part of the Student Hurricane Network’s more than 2,700 law student volunteers from across the country who have worked in Louisiana and Mississippi.  Not only have students flexed their physical muscles, they’ve also applied their burgeoning legal knowledge through SHN’s organization.  More than 50 Maryland law students, for instance, spent their January 2007 break interviewing jailed prisoners on behalf of the city’s few remaining public defenders.  They pored over case files for defendants awaiting trial, interviewed people recently arrested and helped defenders represent clients in court.   

Maryland Professor, Doug Colbert, who supervised the students along with volunteer lawyers from the Maryland Public Defender office, observed that “students’ growth was enormous.  First-year students developed the skills of a third-year student by week’s end.”  Students, too, recognized that their work was crucial. “You try to develop a rapport with the client in a short time,” said Sandra Goldberg, a law student from Montgomery County, Maryland. “You ask questions about them and their family. If I can make a difference in one case or give someone hope that they’re not being forgotten, I’ll feel like the trip has been worthwhile.” 

Maryland students returned from their three trips in 2006 and 2007, the School of Law held a forum where student volunteers shared their experiences.  Dean Karen Rothenberg greeted the students and praised student leaders. "They were determined that these trips to New Orleans and Biloxi were going to happen.  It was the right thing to do," she said. "Not only is leadership figuring out the means to do something, it is also having the passion collectively to make it happen. I want to stress how proud I am of all of you." Dean Rothenberg then informed the students that the law school would match the money they had raised with donations from fellow students, faculty, family and friends.

Associate Dean
Office of Public Service
University of Southern California Gould School of Law  

We all hoped against hope we wouldn’t be needed to go back a second time when we returned from the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast in the spring of 2006. But there we were—32 USC Law students and me—returning to the region in the spring of 2007to a region and people still suffering greatly and still with tremendous unmet needs—legal and otherwise.

It’s amazing how much work there is still to do,” said Andy Miller, ’08, who worked with the Center for Racial Justice and helped organize the trip. “It has been a full year and people are still grappling with the same issues and difficulties that they were a year ago.”

When our plane touched down in New Orleans we were struck by how little had changed since our last visit.  True, most of the debris was gone and the crumbling houses demolished, yet so many residents were still in despair and lacked even the most basic of necessities, not to mention legal help. It also seemed that a heavy blanket of depression had covered the residents as well as the full-time aid workers who had all seemed so energetic just 12 months before.

 “I know that many people have lost hope and are frustrated — including the lawyers and other volunteers in the region,” said student Paula Mayeda, ’09, who worked with the Student Hurricane Network on a FEMA trailer and survey mapping project. “I’m hoping that our group will help publicize the needs that the region still has.”

On our second trip to New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi , students helped with class-action lawsuits, examined housing claims, and sifted through criminal cases at the Department of Justice. They assisted lawyers at myriad agencies, including the Mississippi Center for Justice, Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana , FEMA and the NAACP.

After working with the USC students and law students from across the nation, I’m struck by how fortunate our country is to have so many thoughtful, articulate and motivated students with a passion for justice.  Some will chose public service as a career. Many will go on to private law firms. All have found experiences like the service trips to the Gulf Coast to be incredibly moving, even life-changing.

As one student said at the end of our second trip to New Orleans, “These trips have provided me with a lens through which I am able to more clearly see the poverty and injustice that is all around me in my own community.”

I hope that all of us at law schools will redouble our efforts to provide every student with: a lens through which they can see the consequences of inequality, the skills to solve the most challenging societal problems, the motivation to stand up for what is right, and the willingness to work hard to improve life for everyone.