The State Bar Association of North Dakota Spring 2014 Gavel Magazine | Page 27

BENEFIT 3: Creating a
Community-Minded Environment

When providing pro bono work within
our communities, lawyers are in a win-win
situation. They get to help those who need
it most, and improve their communities
at the same time. In helping those who
cannot afford legal work overcome
obstacles in life, the lawyer knows they are
going something for the greater good.

BENEFIT 4: Meeting a
professional responsibility

Regardless of the type of law they practice,
lawyers who do pro bono work are meeting
one of their professional responsibilities.
Rule 6.1 in the North Dakota Rules of
Professional Conduct states that lawyers
should provide public interest legal services
without fee or at a substantial reduced fee.
North Dakota’s rule does not require
mandatory pro bono service, but instead
encourages it as part of the professional
responsibility of all lawyers.
This type of service goes beyond lawyers
being involved in their communities.
Instead, says Andrist, “pro bono work
involves lawyers providing actual legal
services to individuals or groups who
are unable to pay with no expectation of
getting paid.”
The demand in the family law area remains
high, and is a big challenge because of
the limited number of attorneys who
specialize in this area, and because most
family law practitioners are extremely busy.
Services are also needed in the areas of
guardianship, landlord tenant, elder law
and non-profit assistance. All lawyers,
however, should think outside the box, and
not just assume they can’t do much if they
don’t practice family law. The pro bono task
for is looking at ways to make unbundling
of legal services, or limited scope
representation, more easy to understand in
an effort to get more lawyers involved.
The need for lawyers to provide more

pro bono services has been heightened as
organizations such as Legal Services North
Dakota face funding struggles to provide
services for all qualified low income and
disadvantaged elderly in the state. LSND
receives roughly 8,000 applications for
assistance each year. “We are able to
provide assistance in about two-thirds
of the requests,” says LSND Executive
Director Jim Fitzsimmons. The federal
funding for LSND provided by the Legal
Services Corporation is down 30 percent
this year from last year’s funding, due to a
shift in poverty populations in other states,
he says. This resulted in the loss of two staff
attorneys. Further, IOLTA funds used to be
a much bigger source of revenue for the bar
association’s foundation, which in turn used
those funds to support organizations like
LSND, but those funds are a mere fraction
of what they used to be.
Fitzsimmons further details these needs
in the LSND’s 2013 Annual Report that
was published in March and is available
online at www.legalassist.org. “The number
of low-income North Dakotans we turn
down for extended legal help continues to
grow each year,” he said.

Pro Bono Resources
State lawyers interested in learning
more about pro bono opportunities
for themselves should contact the
following:
Legal Services North Dakota
Jim Fitzsimmons
701-222-2110
www.legalassist.org
State Bar Association of North
Dakota
701-255-1404
www.sband.org
Vogel Law Firm
Levi Andrist
701-258-7899
www.vogellaw.com
Pro Bono Task Force Members
The members of the task force
include Andrist and Fitzsimmons,
along with Bethany Andrist, Leah
duCharme, Molly Brooks, Aubrey
Zuger, Bradley Parrish, David
Petersen, Kristen Hansen, Michael
Williams, and SBAND staff Jeanne
Schlittenhard, and Carrie Molander.

This, says Fitzsimmons, further highlights
the good that state volunteer lawyers can
do in through pro bono services. “There
are so many different pro bono options
and no cookie cutter solutions to what can
be done. Lawyers can work through their
firms to take on a group project. They can
work at the SBAND Volunteer Lawyer
Program, or contact my office. Just a few
hours working on the Senior Hotline can
make a big difference.”

SPRING 2014 27