Harvard Law Students Helen Kim, Ehren Brav, Rita Lomio and Zach Clopton with NOLAC attorney Bernadette D'Souza. Photo courtesy of Helen Kim.

The following essays come from four law schools in the affected region (University of Alabama, Loyola University New Orleans, University of Houston and Mississippi College) and from four of the more than 100 law schools from distant corners that sent volunteers to the Gulf—Fordham, Harvard, University of Maryland and University of Southern California. These are stories not just of assisting survivors in crisis, but also of the life-changing potential of public service and of providing legal services in the public interest. We've collected a few of these remarkable stories. Of particular interest to law school applicants will be the story of the Student Hurricane Network. Not since the Freedom Summer of 1964 have so many young people descended on the Deep South, changing themselves and the region in the process.

Read first-person accounts from these law schools in the affected region: University of Alabama, Loyola University New Orleans, University of Houston and Mississippi College.

The Writers:
Tari Williams
Director of Public Interest Law Programs and Public Interest Institute
University of Alabama School of Law

William P. Quigley
Professor and Director of the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center and Loyola Law Clinic
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law

Rhonda Beassie
Assistant Clinical Professor
University of Houston Law Center

Jim Rosenblatt
Dean
Mississippi College School of Law

Read first-person accounts from four of the more than 100 law schools from distant corners that sent volunteers to the Gulf: Fordham, Harvard, University of Maryland and University of Southern California.

Hillary Exter
Director of Student Organizations and Publicity
Public Interest Resource Center
Fordham Law School

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

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

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

Tari Williams
Director of Public Interest Law Programs and Public Interest Institute
University of Alabama School of Law

Like many other law schools, the University of Alabama School of Law community felt overwhelmed by the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina's impact on Alabama and the Gulf Coast. Searching for a way to help, in consultation with the Tuscaloosa Bar Association, we formed the Hurricane Katrina Legal Assistance Project (HKLAP). The HKLAP operated at the Law School's Public Interest Institute combining volunteer efforts of students and local attorneys.

Through the HKLAP, more than 80 first, second, and third-year law students assisted Hurricane Katrina victims. The students met people who had lost everything, people who did not want to go back, and people who wanted to return to their homes but could not because there was nothing left. The students and volunteer lawyers handled FEMA problems, insurance coverage cases, housing issues, and family law disputes. The students learned as much about the courage and resiliency of the people impacted by the storm as they did about the law. Emily Hines, a second-year UA Law student and HKLAP volunteer, was struck by one of her client's plight. Months after Katrina hit, this man was still searching for his sister and her family. He didn't know where his sister was and he didn't know how to find her. Emily had trouble imagining where he found the strength and determination to rebuild his life and be reunited with his family.

The University of Alabama School of Law's commitment to Katrina victims crossed our state's borders. A group of UA Law students and I went to Mississippi over spring break to assist the Mississippi Center for Justice with victims still reeling from the devastating affects of Hurricane Katrina. The Break for Public Service Program (BPSP), coordinated through the Law School's Public Interest Institute and the Student Hurricane Network, immersed students in a multitude of projects including housing preservation, collecting oral histories, and community development initiatives.

I had not traveled to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina. I did not want to go just to see the destruction. I wanted to go in a capacity that would allow me to put my skills and experience to use. The spring break trip allowed me and the students to do that, contributing to rebuilding the lives and spirits of those most affected.

Service learning opportunities such as the HKLAP and BPSP help law students discover the power of the law and the value of public service and empathy. They receive first-hand opportunities to examine the dimensions and urgency of poverty and other social issues that many will confront during their legal careers. They walk away from these experiences inspired and challenged to find avenues for continued community involvement and to work towards social justice and positive social change.

William P. Quigley
Professor and Director of the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center and Loyola Law Clinic
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law

In late August 2005, Katrina and its aftermath shut down New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, displacing all the faculty, staff and students of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Once it became clear that New Orleans was not going to reopen, the University of Houston generously offered to host Loyola Law for the rest of the fall 2005 semester. Hundreds of law students, along with faculty and staff, moved to Houston to re-start the fall semester.

One of the first priorities was to set up the Loyola Law Clinic in Houston to help provide legal assistance to the tens of thousands of Gulf Coast families who were temporarily living there.

The clinic faculty and staff conferred and arranged for most to come to Houston, where the clinic set up a Katrina Clinic in the main Katrina/Rita Disaster Relief Center. Others stayed behind to track down incarcerated criminal defense clients and to work with the Louisiana State Bar Association to set up and staff an 800 number for civil advice and referrals.

The Houston-based Loyola Katrina clinic faculty and students partnered with as many pro bono organizations and individuals locally and nationally as possible. Students and faculty directly assisted approximately 1000 people during the fall of 2005. Other organizations assisted thousands more. Loyola students and faculty helped people get copies of birth certificates, reinstate social security, restart child support, and assist with landlord-tenant and consumer problems. Faculty were also involved in major federal and state litigation to re-open the courts, address landlord tenant problems, voting issues, public housing, public education, trailer problems, and create due process reviews before home demolitions started.

When Loyola moved back to New Orleans in January 2006, the need for the Katrina clinic increased. Loyola started a new worker justice clinic and hired two full-time Katrina staff attorneys while continuing its clinical work in family, immigration, and criminal defense.

Law students and lawyers from across the country came to Loyola to join in and provide volunteer legal assistance with the Loyola Katrina Clinic. In all, nearly 3000 law students and representatives from every legal assistance organization in the country came to help out organizations across the gulf coast. This tremendous outpouring of support has been one of the true reasons for hope despite the adversities continued to challenge the people of the area.

Loyola University New Orleans has made participation in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast one of its institutional priorities. Law and undergraduate courses have concentrated on the effects of the disaster and the many challenges ahead. Clinical and service learning educational opportunities have involved thousands of students and continue to expand.

Many obstacles remain for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Over 200,000 people have not returned to New Orleans alone. With continuing national and international assistance and solidarity, our communities will not just be repaired to pre-Katrina conditions, but will be rebuilt fairly and with more justice for all.

Rhonda Beassie
Assistant Clinical Professor
University of Houston Law Center

The buses are on their way. A lot of buses are on their way.

While law schools across the country responded to the Gulf Coast disasters by providing legal assistance to victims through scheduled visits to the region, the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) had the opportunity to help meet the most basic of human needs—shelter and sustenance. It began with the buses.

For many Houston residents the impact of Hurricane Katrina became more than just horrifying television images with the arrival of busloads of evacuees. Our city became temporary shelter for a great number of Katrina victims housed initially in the old Astrodome and later moved to the George R. Brown Convention Center, hotels, and apartments.

The school reacted swiftly. Several students and faculty members provided logistical support at the registration/housing centers. Student organizations staffed a joint hurricane relief effort collecting contributions of clothing, toiletries, non-perishable food, and cash. A Words of Encouragement Project invited students to stop in on breaks to write cards and letters to demoralized evacuees.

Knowing UHLC survived flooding during Tropical Storm Allison through the support of our neighbors and friends, then Associate Dean Seth Chandler was especially motivated to help the New Orleans schools. Through his leadership and with the support and flexibility of our faculty, staff, and students, we hosted Loyola University New Orleans Law School's fall 2005 semester on our campus. The call for shelter came even closer to home when several members of our law school community prepared to share offices and even their homes with our Loyola friends during their time in Houston.

Shortly before Loyola arrived on our campus, much of Houston experienced our own evacuation in expectation of Hurricane Rita. The hurricane shifted east in the 11th hour and few Houstonians experienced damage. However, our brush with Mother Nature and the destruction experienced in eastern Texas strengthened our resolve to help hurricane victims. With Rita sufferers joining Katrina evacuees, both the population and demand for social services, including legal services, swelled far beyond capacity.

Professor Richard Alderman, known throughout our region as "the People's Lawyer," organized volunteers to staff a Hurricane Relief phone bank and a special People's Law School Program for hurricane victims to learn about their legal and rights. Many of our hurricane relief and education projects continue today, such as our resource bank for children in disasters and conference on Children and the Law after Katrina, both projects of UHLC's Center for Children Law and Policy.

We could not meet all the shelter, sustenance or legal needs of the busloads of hurricane evacuees that traveled to Houston. However, we were fortunate to forge relationships with Loyola evacuees and experience the sense of purpose that comes through helping others. I think I speak for every member of the University of Houston Law Center community when I say we gained far more than we gave.

Jim Rosenblatt
Dean
Mississippi College School of Law

The Mississippi College School of Law is located in the State Capital of Jackson some 150 miles inland from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We watched the Hurricane Katrina weather reports the weekend before she was scheduled to make landfall. We kept the Law School open for classes on Monday, August 29, 2005 not knowing how the winds might dissipate as the hurricane traveled inland. Many of our students with families on the Gulf Coast had already returned home to assist with evacuation efforts.

As winds became increasingly strong, by noon we cancelled classes and sent everyone home. That night Hurricane Katrina roared through Jackson with fierce winds that blew trees over, tore roofs off and snapped utility poles. Electric and telephone service was lost. On Tuesday morning amidst the clear skies that follow a hurricane, we inspected the Law School and found our only damage to be a shredded American flag and a downed hackberry tree sprawled out on our parking lot.

Not knowing when electric service would be restored, we cancelled classes for a week. Knowing we'd narrowly escaped a similar fate, my administration agreed we would offer to take in Tulane and Loyola law students. Late on Thursday with electric service back and communication with the outside world restored, we were amazed to discover that law schools all over the country had already extended the same offer. Though late in the game, we posted our invitation and eventually gave free classes to one Tulane and four Loyola law students for the fall semester. Our students and administration rallied around these students and made them a part of our community. Our Law Review published two notes from Tulane students.

After classes resumed, our law students volunteered at the Mississippi Bar where the Mississippi Young Lawyers Division coordinated the provision of legal services to Hurricane victims. The outpouring of support from lawyers and law students across the United States was overwhelming, and our students helped organize this support and staffed call centers. MC law professors offered training sessions for out-of-state lawyers who arrived to volunteer. Our alumni raised funds for law students and graduates who lost so much during the hurricane. We collected and donated professional furniture to Gulf Coast lawyers who lost their offices. Our students provided food and clothing to classmates whose families had lost their homes. Many members of our law school community traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to assist with cleanup and rebuilding. We provided replacement diplomas to our graduates whose diplomas were lost or damaged during the storm.

To make the connection between the tragedy and the law, we offered a fully subscribed Katrina seminar and marked the one-year anniversary with a Katrina Symposium hosted by the Mississippi College Law Review, published in a volume of the Law Review dedicated to the storm's victims. Today, our students and graduates continue to provide legal services on the Gulf Coast to assist people in reclaiming their lives.

As I reflect on the two years since Katrina's wrath, I am reminded that we also saw humanity at its best!

Hillary Exter
Director of Student Organizations and Publicity
Public Interest Resource Center
Fordham Law School

 

The impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been a defining moment for law students at Fordham Law School and nationally.  It opened eyes to enormous institutional failure, systemic problems, poverty, inequality, and racism.  Facing this reality, an extraordinary group of law students mobilized in the aftermath of the storms and formed the Student Hurricane Network to provide critically needed legal assistance and advocacy on behalf of people and communities in the Gulf Coast.

"On August 29, 2005, I had sat, transfixed, in front of the television as the news networks reported the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The shock that overcame me in those initial moments quickly gave way to the gut reaction that I had to do…something," said Melissa Rasmussen, '08, who began Fordham Law only a week before the levees broke. "I went down to New Orleans because I felt like it was something terrible happening here in America and that I could help," said Jeremy Pfetsch, '07, who joined three of Fordham's delegations.  Janos Marton, '09, "made the decision to attend law school after spending a year doing Katrina relief, seeing the legal obstacles people faced during the recovery," and has been a part of the last two Fordham delegations.  

"Right after the storm a group of Fordham students along with students from other schools in the country got together and came up with the idea of sending law student volunteers to the Gulf Coast to not only bear witness but also just help out in any way that they could," said Anamaria Segura, '07, who has been a part of each winter and spring delegation.

Fordham's students, faculty and administrators have worked with many legal and grassroots organizations, including the Advancement Project and the Peoples' Hurricane Relief to stop the bulldozing of lower Ninth Ward homes without notice to the homeowners and outreach to immigrant workers doing clean-up and rebuilding in often illegal working conditions, with the Orleans Parish Public Defenders and the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center on criminal justice issues,  with NAACP-LDF on a voter protection project, with New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation to assist homeowners unable to access government benefits to rebuild, with the Gert Town Revival Initiative on neighborhood rebuilding plans, and with the People's Organizing Committee on a housing conditions documentation project.  

Our experiences are transformative. "What leads you to go down is different than what you take away from it.  You're drawn in by the magnitude of the tragedy and the overwhelming significance of what has happened," explained Jeremy. "But on the ground it becomes about the people, the individuals you have the chance help. There is still much to do."

The passion, commitment, dedication and love that students at Fordham and nationwide have put into the work has been truly inspiring.  "Those newest to our profession are really setting the standard for the rest of us," said Ian Weinstein, Professor and Director of Clinical Education. 

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.