Pro se, Pro bono on Paralegal Course List

Anatoly Smolkin does paralegal work during his full-time, paid internship with Gallagher, Evelius & Jones LLP in Baltimore. But for three hours each Friday during the fall, the senior at Stevenson University is also working for Maryland Volunteer Legal Services as part of his paralegal studies degree.

“The clients are completely different and the objectives are completely different,” said Smolkin, 21, who plans to attend law school. “It’s good to know what’s out there.”

Smolkin is one of 11 Stevenson paralegal students working at MVLS or the Pro Se Family Law Program in Baltimore County Circuit Court during the fall semester. It’s the fifth year the university has sent select undergraduate students to volunteer in local legal clinics, but the first year it has worked with MVLS.

While it has had interns from law schools before, MVLS Director of Pro Bono Programming Candie Deming said no one could remember undergraduate students working there.

“We’re trying to fill this need which is also good for getting real-world experience,” said Hillary Michaud, coordinator of the legal studies department at the school, formerly Villa Julie College. “As much as we give to the community, the students get back in learning.”

From taxes to family law

The class work for the three-credit course is primarily clinic work; students spend three to five hours on site a week, keep a journal and write a final paper summarizing their experience, Michaud said. Students undergo on-campus workplace training prior to starting at the clinics and meet with other students and professors throughout the semester to discuss their clinic work. Professors or paralegals or attorneys employed at the clinics serve as on-site supervisors.

Michaud, who has a law degree and is a CPA, first devised the program to focus on tax law. Two students originally helped low-income men and women prepare their tax returns at drop-in sites through the Baltimore Cash Campaign. (The tax law program had 15 students last year.) She added a family law  element last year because of a need for such pro bono services.

Judith M. Hamilton, an adjunct professor and Towson family law attorney, prepares the students assisting the pro se program. She reviews the family law forms used and circuit court procedures with her students prior to their working in the courthouse.

“They get a crash course in Maryland family law and the Maryland Rules of Procedure,” she said.

Richard Abbott, the family law administrator in Baltimore County Circuit Court who oversees the pro se program, first used the students last year after Hamilton offered to help.

The paralegal students are responsible for reviewing and handing out forms and troubleshooting for clients waiting to see an attorney, Abbott said.

Rachel Letourneau, the lead pro se attorney, calls the students a “frontline defense,” capable of answering clients’ administrative questions so their time with attorneys is spent on their legal problems.

“They have a solid working knowledge in the basics of family law,” said Letourneau, a solo practitioner in Towson. “It’s a lot easier for them to be helpful.”

Expanding roles

Deming also praised the students’ work at MVLS, saying they’re “eager and they come in very professional.”

MVLS has slowly increased what the Stevenson students are doing in the office, from building client files and locating cases to eventually handling courthouse client intake, Deming said. She also plans to let students observe court hearings and attend training sessions as regular MVLS staffers do.

“Anything we can take them to, we will,” she said.

Jennifer Milam, 20, spends three hours each Wednesday at MVLS doing “a little bit of everything,” she said.

Milam, a senior, interned at a law firm last December through February. She is still unsure if she wants to attend law school but is glad she is getting the chance to work at MVLS.

“It’s a good opportunity to get hands-on experience in a different work environment,” she said.

Deming said the partnership not only exposes students to nonprofit work and provides real-world training, but has also brought energy and new perspectives to the office.

“There’s something about having eager students come in that makes the people on staff enlivened,” she said.  (Source>>>)