I remember my first pro bono client as if it were yesterday. I remember his name, OB (it appears he may still be alive at 108 years old!), and exactly what he was wearing the first time I met him. He was probably five foot nothing, and he was wearing a suit with a vest, a cane, and a boater (a type of hat). Mr. B lived with his nephew, a Vietnam War veteran who definitely suffered from PTSD. The nephew was over six feet tall and had a major drug problem. The nephew also ran card games, and worse, at the house all hours of the night. Mr. B had tried to get his nephew evicted but could not prove he owned the house. Why? Because the house originally belonged to Mr. B’s sister, and when she died the title to the house was left in limbo thanks to a “Do it yourself” will that she had filled out on a form she bought at a stationery store. (For those of you under 60, this is what we used before the internet.). My job was to fix the title issues.
BUT, it got a little more complicated. There was apparently an altercation and Mr. B shot his nephew. Fortunately the nephew did not die. I did not, thank goodness, have to represent Mr. B in the criminal case, but I did have to go to criminal court and testify.
Ultimately we got the title all straightened out and Mr. B. ended up with a life estate in his late sister’s home. Mr. B. was so grateful, and I felt wonderful. After that, I was addicted, and tried to have a pro bono client at all times until I went on the bench. As Bob Josefsberg says, taking a pro bono case is like eating a really good cookie out of a package; once you taste one, you keep wanting to eat the cookies.
Do you have a pro bono story? Please share it with me so we can share it with everyone else.