Investing In and Advocating for ATJ - Draft Meeting Report - 2015-05-05-2_0

Attendance  Bethany Beausang, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree's Office  Barbara Cardone, Maine Bar Foundation  Cathy Coffman, Campaign for Justice  Janis Cohen, Maine Bar Foundation 

Investing in and Advocating for Access

to

Justice for Poor and Vulnerable

Mainers

Draft Meeting Report

May 5, 2015, Hallowell, Maine

98 Maine Street, Brunswick, Maine, 04011 207-729-5607 www.GoodGroupDecisions.com

Good Group Decisions

About the Meeting 1

Attendance 1

Opening Remarks 2

Agenda and Ground Rules 3

Maine Intersections 3

Presentation 3

Questions 5

Impacts, Trends and Challenges in Civil Legal Aid 5

Emerging Themes 6

Discussion 7

Support for Access to Justice 9

Emerging Themes 9

Discussion 10

Collaboration Opportunities 12

Top Ideas 12

Small Group Discussion Notes 14

Closing Comments 16

Appendix A: Agenda 18

Appendix B: Maine Intersections Data Charts 20

This report is organized by topic, not necessarily the order in which things were discussed.

About the Meeting

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss access to justice among Maine philanthropists and legal aid providers Following the presentation of some baseline data, participants discussed several open-ended questions The meeting was professionally facilitated and documented by Craig Freshley and Kerri Sands of Good Group Decisions

Attendance

 Bethany Beausang, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree's Office

 Barbara Cardone, Maine Bar Foundation

 Cathy Coffman, Campaign for Justice

 Janis Cohen, Maine Bar Foundation

 Kim Crichton, Maine Women’s Fund

 Deb Curtis, Maine Equal Justice Partners

 Barbara Edmond, Maine Philanthropy Center

 Stephanie Eglington, Maine Community Foundation

 Amy Gallant, AARP

 Joan Gilbert, Maine Bar Foundation

 Deb Felder, The Broad Reach Fund

 Sarah Fuller, Legal Services for the Elderly

 Karen Heck, Bingham Program

 Juliet Holmes-Smith, Volunteer Lawyers Project

 Morgan Hynd, Maine Health Access Foundation

 Gail Kezer, Senator Angus King's Office

 Peter Landis, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project

 Lauress Lawrence, Elmina B Sewall Foundation

 Michael Levey, Maine Bar Foundation

 Chuck Mahaleris, Senator Susan Collins’ Office

 Jaye Martin, Legal Services for the Elderly

 Alysia Melnick, United Way of Greater Portland

 Helen Meyer, Pine Tree Legal Assistance

 Loretta Prescott, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project

 Sue Roche, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project

 Ed Saxby, Maine Equal Justice Partners

 Jill Saxby, Maine Equal Justice Partners

 Diana Scully, Maine Bar Foundation

 John Shoos, Sam L Cohen Foundation

 Deirdre Smith, Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic

 Craig Freshley, Good Group Decisions

 Kerri Sands, Good Group Decisions

Opening Remarks

Diana Scully, Executive Director of the Maine Bar Foundation, welcomed the group with the following opening remarks:

 It’s been an honor to be involved with this work in Maine

 Thanks for coming today to participate in this conversation

 Thanks to the project guidance committee: Janis Cohen, Jaye Martin, Helen Meyer, Juliet Holmes-Smith, Deb Curtis, Sue Roche, and Barbara Edmond

 A reminder that civil legal aid is free legal assistance for those with non-criminal

problems who do not have access to an attorney

 The federal government has brought together the philanthropic and legal aid

communities to discuss the toolkit of resources

o This conversation is happening nationwide

 Our project is called the Maine Intersections Project

Diana referred participants to two handouts that were provided: “Civil Legal Aid 101” and

“Natural Allies: Philanthropy and Civil Legal Aid” The handouts can be found, respectively, at:

o This requires nonprofit partners on the ground

o We need to create non-solicitation spaces to explore issues together

o Cross-pollination, rather than each group working separately to look at trends

 The Maine Bar Foundation is in both worlds; it is a funder and it is focused on legal aid services

 Legal aid is important to many other issues but may not be a primary focus for funders There is an undercurrent of legal aid across many other needs

 Thanks to our federal legislative reps’ staff for being here

Agenda and Ground Rules

Facilitator Craig Freshley explained the planned agenda (see Appendix) and the following ground rules, things to keep in mind for an effective and efficient conversation:

 In the spirit of exploration: We are here to explore ideas - we don’t have to agree or

make any decisions

 Understanding first: Ask questions

 All views heard: To help with this, raise hands and let Craig call on people

 Minimize distractions: Like cell phones and side conversations

 Flexible agenda: We may adjust the agenda to fit group energy

 Next steps are up to us: Everyone take your own initiative to follow up on what you

learn today - it is not all on one organization to handle next steps

Maine Intersections

Presentation

Diana Scully briefly presented some recent research identifying intersections between the Maine philanthropic community and Maine’s civic legal aid providers Diana referenced handouts of seven data charts (see Appendix) The following comments were captured:

 Thanks to Kim Crichton for gathering information on foundation giving in Maine

 Initially we had a bias that Maine foundations were not doing much for civil legal aid

 However, we learned that foundations are doing a lot - so thanks!

 The federal government’s role is not represented in this data For today, we are looking

at the legal community and the philanthropic world

o We recognize that there is much more to do in the future regarding the federal role

 There are six providers of civil legal aid in Maine:

o Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic (at the University of Southern Maine)

o ILAP - the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project

o Pine Tree Legal Assistance

o VLP - Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project

o MEJP - Maine Equal Justice Partners

o Legal Services for the Elderly

 Chart #1

o IOLTA - the Interest on Lawyer’s Trust Accounts

 A funding mechanism for civil legal aid

 There are trust accounts where lawyers hold money for clients

 Sometimes funds are in these accounts for such a short time or are

so tiny in amount that it would cost more to the client for the financial institution to set up the process to pay them interest income than they would receive in interest income

 The interest income from these types of funds is pooled and distributed for charitable purposes

o The amount of money distributed by us has flattened

o The amount of money we have received has been a sharper decline

o We have been using reserves we set aside earlier

o Interest rates have continued to be low so what we are receiving is not going to increase

o We are about to face an interest rate cut from 1% to 0.35% by a major bank

 Chart #2

o Maine Civil Legal Services Fund

 Overseen by 3 volunteer Commissioners

 Revenue comes from court fees and penalties

 So when you get a speeding ticket you are performing a philanthropic act!

o These funds have also been declining

 Chart #3

o Private bar contributions

 These are significant

 Total amount raised in each of the last 2 years has exceeded $500,000

o This chart shows the amounts that have gone to providers

 Campaign for Justice

 Coffin Fellowship Program

 Fellowships at Pine Tree Legal

 Has been level-funded

 Chart #4

o Philanthropic community contributions

o 2014 saw some major one-time gifts

 This was wonderful!

 But giving is not expected to continue at this level

o The philanthropic community is giving at a great level

o Note: This chart does not include the United Ways

 Chart #5

o Levels of funding across the different organizations

o Many are giving less than $50,000

o A few are giving $1 million or more

o This chart includes the United Ways

o Wide range in sizes of actual gifts

 Chart #6

o How many legal aid providers does each foundation support?

 Almost half are supporting 1 provider

 22% are supporting 2-4 providers, and 22% supporting 3-4 providers

 9% supporting 5-6 providers

o This support is for specific legal aid

 Chart #7

o A summary showing the amount of all legal aid funding, by source

o The 2014 one-time money was removed from this chart

 Nevertheless, the trend is still up

Questions

Participants had a chance to ask questions In response, Diana clarified the following:

 We are not yet sure how Maine compares to similar programs in other states

o We will find out when we come together with the other 10 states who are doing this work

 Regarding Chart #6, showing that 9% of foundations support 5-6 legal aid providers, the 9% includes Maine Bar Foundation, plus one or two others who support all Maine’s providers

 This project is funded by the Public Welfare Foundation

Impacts, Trends and Challenges in Civil Legal Aid

In a facilitated discussion, the group heard first from providers and then from others about how access to justice is connected to many issues and about specific future needs Specific questions addressed were:

 Why is legal aid so important?

o What are the impacts of civil legal aid, especially on poor and vulnerable Mainers and others?

o What are the trends that affect people who need civil legal aid, those who provide legal aid, and others who touch the lives of people who need civil legal aid?

o What are the challenges for people who need civil legal aid, who provide civil legal aid, and others?

Emerging Themes

Craig captured the following themes on the screen:

 Why Legal Aid is So Important

o Direct representation – helping people case by case

o General impact – applying expertise

o Access to justice helps get basic human needs met

 We work together to make sure all the needs are met

o Dignity and respect

 “My attorney was the first person to believe me.”

o Gives people a voice

o Justice denied impacts society – we are all diminished

o We help social services work better

o We help eliminate the need for social services

o Our work is especially important in a challenging economy

o Prevention AND cure

 We work upstream as well as downstream

o We help seniors with independence

o We help people with their civil rights

 We provide protection against unfair or mistaken application of laws

o We understand the issues that people are facing and can influence what’s most important

o Legal aid has a huge impact on individual cases

 Those represented by lawyers have significantly better outcomes

o We work in coalitions

o We are a knowledgeable voice at the Legislature

 At several different layers in several different ways

 Understand implications of changes in the laws

 Trends

o We are getting older, quickly

o Growing immigrant population

 Growing population of asylum seekers

o We are seeing more criminalization of homeless

 More interaction between homeless people and police

o We are seeing greater diversity of homeless people

 Challenges

o The public sector doesn’t want to pay for anything anymore

o Many people (40%-50%) in our state don’t want poor people to have legal access

o The need is growing

 More and more people (many working people) are unable to afford a lawyer

o Describing the work we do on “non-lawyer” terms

 We are solving society’s greatest problems

Discussion

Providers

 What’s unique about the impact of civil legal aid:

o It’s a combination of direct representation and broader impact work

o Goes back to War on Poverty issues

o Each provider has local expertise in a specialty area

 Providers help individuals and then share that expertise more broadly

 This allows the community to see where problems are and work on solutions

 Example: Working on elder abuse and foreclosure cases generated work

on policy and with social service agencies

 Civil legal aid has an impact on maintaining basic needs, making sure people can use thejustice system

o So people aren’t on their own in job loss or divorce cases

o Helps people maintain their families and homes

 Civil legal aid provides dignity to people If you don’t have access to the justice system, itleaves you disconnected and without a feeling of worth in the community

o Examples:

 A client of the Volunteer Lawyers Project was upset because she received

a proposed order for her kids to have overnight visits with their father, even though one of the children was only 3 months old and was

breastfeeding Client did not understand what a “proposed order” was; felt there was no place for her voice to be heard We helped her

understand how to have a voice in the system

 Feedback from open legal clinics for homeless people at Preble Street:

 Clients felt that it was helpful to talk to a lawyer, but it was even more meaningful to be treated with respect

 Clients felt that someone listened, looked them in the eye, took them seriously, and helped them figure out steps to take to make a legal situation better

 Civil legal aid helps people stay in viable living situations

 These issues impact ALL of us Civil legal aid is a doorway that can either be locked and slammed shut, or if opened, gives access to justice If we deny access to justice, what can

we say about our legal system and our society? If we don’t do this well, we are all

diminished

 Civil legal aid touches on basic human needs: protection from violence, status for work Sometimes the justice system is the barrier

 The six providers work together closely and can cross reference Housing issues cross with employment issues and elder issues If housing is a key issue, it might prevent someone from addressing a domestic violence issue Together we can maximize our impact.

 We take our individual work and apply it to the larger system For example:

o How can a public assistance program work better?

o How can we alleviate need for public assistance?

o The decline in funding is exemplary of the economy which is also affecting Mainefamilies

o We are trying to figure out how to retain basic assistance AND what will help families move out of this trap

 Civil legal aid helps with independence Seniors more than anyone fear loss of

independence Especially if food and housing is at stake

 Civil legal aid helps correct unfair or mistaken application of laws Our justice systems were set up so people could fight for their rights, to give people a chance to say, “You got

it wrong” or “Here’s what you don’t know” Such rights are totally meaningless to the people we are talking about if they don’t have an advocate

o It doesn’t matter if there is a foreclosure diversion effort if someone can’t read

 We see a high volume of clients coming through, and we have a pulse on the issues Mainers are facing We can address these issues immediately We have been able to change systems in favor of protection from abuse; for example, it is now possible to file for a protection order before starting a divorce proceeding, or without being in a

 Challenge: The need is growing Many people who can’t afford a lawyer are working people, not the traditional indigent population More and more people have a legal problem but can’t just go hire an attorney

 It is a challenge describing the work we do in non-legal terms We are solving society’s greatest problems: financial insecurity, homelessness, etc., but we often describe it as justice work, which doesn’t always resonate with everyone

 Civil legal aid providers work upstream as well as downstream Like in the fable, we help the wounded people who are coming down the river and we go investigate the source of the problem

 Civil legal aid providers work in coalition Here in Maine we know how to work together

We know who to make the leader of particular projects And we like each other

 Trend: We have a growing immigrant population, and asylum seekers have limited access to services

 We need more immigration to combat age trends We are cutting off noses to spite our faces

 Funding legal aid has an impact on the judicial system People who have no

representation in asylum cases are denied 89% of the time The results are significantly better if people have an attorney

o People can’t navigate the system without representation

o The system is designed to “chew you up and spit you out”

Others

 Trend: We are seeing more criminalization of homelessness We are seeing homeless people have negative interactions with police in downtown parks for things you or I could do all day long

 Trend: There are now more people who are homeless as a demographic It used to be 40-year-old white males; now it’s families

 Civil legal aid has had a major impact in the restoration of dignity Homeless people haveexpressed that the well-dressed attorney who met with them was the first person to believe them, to believe their story

 You providers are the experts on the issues Our legislators turn over so frequently, but you can tell legislators exactly what the impact is on districts, constituencies You are the resources for other advocates and for legislators

 You are experts on how changes in law affect people

 Opportunities to collaborate on specific angles in specific cases For example,

strategizing with MEJP (Maine Equal Justice Partners) on food stamp legislation

 Trends: The need is growing, and so is the willingness to fund

 We should include Consumers for Affordable Health Care in this conversation They helpfile insurance claims, etc As Mainers have increased access to insurance and health care, they will probably be running into more issues that require legal assistance

Support for Access to Justice

In a facilitated discussion, the group heard first from funders and supporters, and then from others, about philanthropic goals and motivation for funding access to justice Specific questions addressed were:

 Why support legal aid?

o Why are funders and other supporters motivated to fund access to justice?

o What larger goals are supported by improving access to justice?

Emerging Themes

Craig captured the following themes on the screen:

 Why Support Legal Aid

o Helps achieve our mission

 Healthcare access

 Social justice

o Practically speaking, involvement of lawyers helps prevent the system from getting bogged down

o Focus on immigrant refugees and migrant farm workers

o We care for human beings

 Without access for all there is no justice

o We want to support systemic change

o The needs are huge and when they are not addressed – when people ask for help and don’t get it – it has huge, life-cycle impacts

o It’s a way to support basic human rights

o The issues are interconnected – legal aid is interconnected with other issues

Discussion

Funders and Supporters

 We [at US Senator and Congressional offices] are not allowed to help with specific legal cases You provide assistance that we can’t We can do work in the realm of social

security and the like, but there is a certain line we can’t cross, and when we get to that line, we turn to you as experts

 Funding access to justice helps us achieve our mission at the foundation level We promote access to health care for low income and uninsured folks We can’t do it all on our own We don’t achieve mission without legal aid help

 Impact is always a challenge for foundations We have a struggle because we want to make as big an impact as we can We try to do so via system change rather than direct services When you, as providers, see a variety of cases dealing with a particular issue,

we ask, “Can the foundation support changes in the system?”

 In philanthropy, if you truly have a concern for human beings, then you want to support society Everyone suffers when there are barriers to justice

 Non-lawyers trying to advocate for themselves end up bogging down the entire system Not only do they not get justice, but everyone who is waiting in line for court time gets backed up A case that might take a half-hour with a lawyer gets held up for 6 months because of the back-up So without access for all, there is no such thing as justice - both conceptually and on a practical level

 Legal aid supports systems-approaches and population-specific approaches For

example, immigrants and aslyees and farm workers

 Legal aid supports class-action lawsuits Litigation is an important tool for philanthropy and not enough people do it