60 YEARS OF SERVICE
Lawyer Referral and Information Service
60 YEARS OF SERVICE
By Celia Sunne LRIS Board Chair
I
have been a member of the LRIS board for eight years and this year I am the chairperson . In my years as a board member I have had the opportunity to talk to other attorneys about the LRIS . We have many attorneys who are members of our panel and receive referrals but I don ’ t think that many know just what we do and why we do it .
The Lawyer Referral movement took place shortly after WWII . It was a nationwide movement to help military service men returning home and needing legal assistance in many areas of law . Henry B . Troutman , Jr . was the chair of the first Atlanta Bar public service Lawyer Referral program in 1955 . We had about 100 lawyers on the panel and made 90 referrals per month . It was formed out of the idea of providing a needed service to a sector of the public who needed help , specifically , our returning soldiers and other military personnel .
Since 1955 it has grown into a program that employees four full-time and one part-time employee who handle 40,000 calls a year . It has developed from a service that had a $ 13,000 surplus in 2002 to a surplus of over $ 500,000 . The LRIS panel attorneys earned over $ 3.3 million in fees last year . surplus to various pro bono legal organizations .
In 2015 LRIS had its best year since the inception of the percentage fee program . We passed our success on to pro bono organizations in accordance with our mission . This year we were pleased to award thirteen deserving organizations , such as the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation , the Atlanta Legal Aid Society , the Truancy Intervention Program , Georgia Justice Project and others , a total of $ 200,000 .
From its initial inception in 1955 the LRIS has existed to serve . In sixty years it has grown in its breadth and its success has allowed the program to serve in even greater ways . We are now able to help people who need legal help and help organizations that help people who need legal help .
We are looking forward to another 60 years of growth and service .
The LRIS director , Carla Brown , was hired in 2002 to oversee the program and in her tenure she has developed the LRIS into a highly functioning organization that serves the public by providing attorneys to people in needed areas . The LRIS has expanded its reach through innovative business ideas , such as the Modest Means Program , which helps low income clients who do not qualify for Legal Aid and by hiring a Spanish-speaking employee to assist and help members of the Hispanic community find a lawyer . The advent of internet marketing such as the MARTA ad campaign has allowed the number of people we serve to grow .
In 2004 we implemented a percentage fee policy . Participating attorneys would remit back to LRIS 15 % of fees earned over $ 500 . We grew and with the tremendous success of the Atlanta Bar LRIS program we started to look at other ways we could serve the legal community . In 2010 the LRIS Board approved a grant program for pro bono organizations . Each year since 2009 the LRIS has given a large portion of its
Pictured from left to right are Michael Lucas ( Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation ), Carla Brown ( Atlanta Bar Assocation ) and Martin Ellin ( Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation ).
24 THE ATLANTA LAWYER January 2016 The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association