This newsletter lists our return address as 1250 H Street, NW, and that is our business address.  It’s where we have our offices, and where I am writing this message. But, our staff and volunteers are much more likely to be found out in the community, or at the courthouse. As you will read in this newsletter, we have expanded our presence at D.C. Superior Court with a new Tax Sale Resource Center, in addition to our family law clinics and the very busy Landlord Tenant Resource Center. Our Community Economic Development Project is serving nonprofits and small businesses all around the District. And, on the second Saturday, each month we set up shop at Bread for the City’s two locations for our Advice & Referral Clinic. We bring our Spanish-speaking volunteers to Columbia Heights at the Carlos Rosario School. Geographically, DC is very compact, but our clients often live in isolation, and bringing lawyers into the community makes a big difference. It also makes a huge difference—as you will see in the article about the Landlord Tenant Resource Center – if lawyers are present in the courthouse and accessible to litigants who are trying to navigate the system alone.

We are constantly looking for new ways to make pro bono lawyers accessible to people in need. As I am writing this, we are working with a couple of other cosponsors to finalize our proposal to offer civil legal services at the D.C. jail.  Stay tuned.

 

Maureen Thornton Syracuse
Director, D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program