The HBA A Healthy Body of Volunteers

By FRED A. SIMPSON

The Houston Bar Association is dedicated to maintaining high standards in the legal profession, and to providing legal education for Harris County attorneys. Those goals were established with the HBA’s founding in 1870. However, those principal goals were naturally expanded as Houston grew, along with the need for a broad variety of community services. The challenge to provide such services would be insurmountable but for the HBA members who make it all possible.
The record shows how dedicated HBA members meet the community challenge every day. HBA members contributed nearly 40,000 hours of volunteer service in fiscal year 2003-2004, according to the latest available recorded statistics. “If one puts only a modest $100 alternative billing rate on each of those pro bono hours, the mathematical value of those voluntary services by HBA members approaches $4 Million,” said Michael Connelly, HBA’s president.

Here is a chart of how our members volunteer their time in activities sponsored by the HBA, which does not include the time they spend on other community activities:

The HBA activities shown on the chart are only a few of the many for which the association’s members volunteer their services. Those volunteered services range from sharing special knowledge of the law, all the way down to specialized garbage collection, all as described here in brief details of programs in which HBA members actively participate:

Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program
This program alone accounts for more than half the total volunteer hours of HBA members. The number reflects more than 4,000 attorneys who continue to give their time each year to Harris County’s needy in this program which covers a broad range of legal services and consultation, limited to civil matters and based on income eligibility.

Dispute Resolution
Alternative dispute resolution is provided free of charge by volunteer HBA members at the Harris County Dispute Resolution Center. These ADR activities include court-ordered mediation, arbitration, and moderated settlement conferences.

LegalLine
On the first and third Wednesday evenings of each month, from 5-9 p.m., HBA volunteers answer telephone calls from Harris County citizens. The volunteers answer simple legal questions, give brief legal advice and suggest additional resources for callers. The volunteers do not give their names to callers and do not take cases.

Clothing Drives
HBA volunteers participate in an annual Fall Coat Drive and a spring Children’s Clothing and Diaper Drive, both of which benefit the homeless and needy citizens of Harris County.

Cell Phone Donation Program
HBA volunteers collect used cell phones and battery chargers, enabling women in potentially violent situations to have free access to 911 assistance.

Houston Habitat for Humanity
HBA collects funds and recruits volunteers to construct homes for the needy. Thus far, the HBA has constructed five homes through this volunteer activity.

Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run
Volunteers operate the John J. Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run, a major HBA project. This annual family event, which provides an 8K course and an alternative one-mile run or walk for children and families, has raised over $1/2 Million in support of the Center Serving Persons With Mental Retardation.

Adopt-A-School
The HBA provides volunteer tutors, mentors, and others who engage in campus beautification, donates books, school supplies, other learning tools, special achievement awards, field trips and a newsletter, all of which are designed to enrich the learning process at B.C. Elmore Middle School in the North Forest I.S.D.

Blood Drive
HBA members donate blood in partnership with the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center. More than 2,700 units
of blood were collected over the reported year.

Children’s Art
HBA volunteers have arranged permanent art displays at Harris County’s courthouses, enabling schools and communities to recognize the work of youthful artists.

Fee Disputes
An HBA committee of volunteer lawyer members and lay volunteers hears disputes between clients and attorneys as to fees and resolves those disputes under agreed rules of binding arbitration.

Lawyers Against Waste
HBA members join City of Houston and Keep Houston Beautiful each year in a volunteer effort that cleans up MacGregor Park. HBA member volunteers pick up trash, mow, weed, and generally spruce up the park area.

Lawyers For Literacy
Volunteers on this committee organize a drive to collect used reading materials for homeless shelters, literacy programs and other social service agencies. The Lawyers for Literacy Committee also fields a team for the Great Grown-up Spelling Bee, a Houston READ Commission Fundraiser.

Special Olympics Committee
HBA members and their families devote thousands of volunteer hours to help with Texas Special Olympics events, serving as judges, timekeepers, scorekeepers, and “buddies” to the many special athletes who compete in swimming, basketball, softball, and volleyball events.

Interprofessional Drug Education Alliance Program
In partnership with the Harris County Medical Society, teams of lawyers and doctors visit local schools to educate fifth graders on both the medical and legal consequences of substance abuse.

Inmate Changes Program
HBA member volunteers speak at the state prison in Sugar Land to inmates who soon will be released for re-entry to society. Classroom subjects include family law, employment law, landlord-tenant, property ownership, commercial transactions, and basic legal rights and responsibilities of citizenry.

Lawyers In Public Schools
In partnership with the Houston Independent School District, lawyers become substitute teachers for a day in local middle schools, allowing regular teachers to attend in-service training while avoiding the expense of hiring substitute teachers.

People’s Law School
In conjunction with the University of Houston Center For Consumer Law, lawyers and judges volunteer twice a year to present classes on legal topics such as consumer law, landlord-tenant law, criminal law, and wills & probate.

Speakers Bureau
HBA member volunteers speak on a broad range of legal topics at schools, churches, and before other community groups without charge. The Speakers Bureau also produces educational programs for public access TV.

Fred A. Simpson is a partner in the Houston Litigation Section of Jackson Walker L.L.P. He is a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.

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