As a new year starts, Monica Fennell, longtime pro bono advocate and past executive director of the former Indiana Pro Bono Commission, is stepping into a new role as pro bono director for Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where she will coordinate the volunteer legal work of the more than 600 attorneys in the firm’s 11 offices.
Read MoreMonica Fennell, a longtime leader in pro bono efforts in Indiana, has jumped to Taft Stettinius & Hollister, where she is now in charge of building a volunteer lawyer program across the law firm’s 11 offices.
The Indiana legal profession recognized select members of the legal profession and educators, honoring them for their work in either civil legal aid or civic education at the Indiana Bar Foundation’s 2019 Awards Dinner.
During a January lunchtime meeting of the Elkhart City Bar Association, attorneys served a plateful of questions about the state’s new mandatory pro bono reporting rule and ladled on some skepticism.
Starting Jan. 1, 2015, Indiana attorneys will be required to report the number of hours they provide free legal assistance to indigent clients.
As the Indiana Supreme Court continues to consider mandating all Indiana attorneys report the number of pro bono hours they work, a task force has proposed that the donated hours be disclosed publicly only in an aggregate form rather than identifying the number of pro bono hours performed by an individual or a firm.
The Indiana Supreme Court has formed a new commission to address the problem of Indiana residents who cannot afford legal services. But rather than giving attention to the clients, this group will focus on the nonprofit agencies that provide the assistance.
Almost immediately after taking her seat on the Indiana Tax Court, Judge Martha Blood Wentworth saw the problem. Flowing into her court were numerous pro se litigants who ended up getting their cases bounced because they had made a procedural error.
2012 was another busy year for the legal community. We welcomed new justices and a new chief justice, witnessed the beginnings of the state’s fifth law school, and saw local stories garner national and international attention. Here’s a look back at the top news stories from last year.
In response to the low numbers, the Indiana Bar Foundation is launching a legal assistance website to help low-income Hoosiers.
Indiana Tax Judge Martha Blood Wentworth has been appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court as chair of the Indiana Pro Bono Commission. Allen Superior Judge David Avery has been appointed vice-chair, the Supreme Court announced Monday.
Colleagues say Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Melissa May’s selflessness and volunteer spirit made her ideally suited for the position.
The modest filing fee could help offset declining IOLTA funds.
As of Jan. 1, Indiana has 12 pro bono districts, down from 14. Some districts saw no change in their boundaries. But all saw a sharp decrease in funding from the year before, marking the third straight year of declining funds.
The groups will tap reserves in 2012 as their budgets decrease.
An attorney who made significant contributions in pro bono service will receive a posthumous honor on Oct. 21.
Multiple new rule changes will begin next year for the state’s court system, which were announced in a slew of Indiana Supreme Court orders released earlier in the week.
The Indiana Pro Bono Commission has received an award for the benefit of its districts that comes from a class-action lawsuit.
With almost half of the pro bono districts losing plan administrators since mid-2009, it is not going to be an easy job to replace the institutional knowledge of the outgoing plan administrators. Districts 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, and most recently 7 have been forced to tackle that task.
While many attorneys get a day off of work today because courts, government offices, banks, and many businesses are closed to honor the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., more than 200 lawyers have volunteered to spend two hours answering legal questions from the public as part of the Indiana State Bar Association’s 10th annual Talk to a Lawyer Today event.
The annual Talk to a Lawyer Today event will take place on Jan. 17 at locations around the state. While the free CLE opportunities took place in late 2010, volunteers who want to participate may do so if they didn’t attend the CLE.