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. (
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