Pro Bono Spotlight: Record high pledges raised by 2011 CFJ

When it comes to tireless support for civil legal services providers, it’s no secret that Rochester’s legal community is a national leader.

For example, the American Bar Association presented Hope Olsson, partner at Olsson & Feder, with a 2009 Pro Bono Publico Award in recognition of her tireless pro bono service to bankruptcy clients through Volunteer Legal Services Project of Monroe County Inc. as well as her volunteer activities with Farmworker Legal Services of New York, now Worker Justice Center of New York.

On a related note, the ABA honored the Monroe County Bar Association with a 2008 Harrison Tweed Award for MCBA’s leadership role in raising the 2.5 million necessary to turn the dream of Rochester’s Telesca Center for Justice into a reality — a herculean effort that spanned several decades.

Achievements of this magnitude do not occur in a vacuum. In Rochester, there is a culture of donating both time and treasure to support civil legal services.

It’s almost as if there is something in the water. Or more likely, something in the air every fall for the past 26 years.

Since 1986, fall has been synonymous with the Campaign for Justice, Rochester’s annual phone-a-thon fundraiser for three local legal services providers: VLSP, the Legal Aid Society of Rochester and Monroe County Legal Assistance Center, a division of Legal Assistance of Western New York.

Many thanks to all who donated to the 2011 Campaign for Justice, including many members of the MCBA, the Rochester Black Bar Association and the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys.

Thanks to your generosity, the Campaign raised $240,364 — a new record!

“We were delighted that the 2011 CFJ produced a record-high pledge amount. This is particularly true in light of the difficult environment for fundraising and the ongoing, pressing need for civil legal services. Clearly the Rochester-area legal community is well aware of the critical importance of supporting civil legal services,” Harold A. Kurland, co-chair of the 2011 Campaign for Justice, said recently.

Although space does not permit VLSP to thank donors individually in this column, please know your donation matters and is very much appreciated. “The support of the Rochester legal community for the CFJ continues to be gratifying,” added Thomas J. Mullin, co-chair of the 2011 Campaign for Justice.

VLSP’s share of the proceeds represents a major source of funding. Campaign donations are especially helpful to VLSP because such funding is unrestricted.

Thanks, too, to the more than 70 attorneys and judges who served as CFJ callers and runners as calls were made at Ward Greenberg’s spectacular offices and WXXI’s wonderful studio and phone bank. Both Ward Greenberg and WXXI have generously hosted CFJ calling for the past several years.

Of course, such an enormous undertaking does not just happen by itself. The CFJ co-chairs and cabinet are hard at work planning well before calls are made in the fall, and the campaign itself continues through March 31 each year.

Many, many thanks to the 2011 Campaign for Justice co-chairs — Kurland, a partner at Ward Greenberg, and Mullin, executive vice president and general counsel at Constellation Brands Inc.

“Co-chairing the CFJ has been a rewarding experience because of the remarkable and consistent support that the Rochester legal community provides for civil legal services and the Campaign for Justice,” Mullin said.

“It was great to have Tom Mullin as co-chair for this year’s CFJ. Tom brought not only his personal commitment and effort but also a significant contribution from Constellation Brands and its hospitality at a reception at Constellation’s striking headquarters after the recent CFJ 2011 wrap-up meeting,” Kurland said recently.

Assisting Kurland and Mullin were the members of the 2011 Campaign for Justice cabinet: Kelly Ross Brown, James P. McElheny and Donald W. O’Brien Jr., Woods Oviatt Gilman; Susan Schultz Laluk, Hiscock & Barclay; Barbara LaVerdi, Constellation Brands; Frank Novak, Harter Secrest; Carolyn G. Nussbaum and David M. Tennant, Nixon Peabody; Kari A. Smoker, SUNY Brockport; Karen Bailey Turner, Brown Hutchinson; Sharon E. Underberg, Eastman Kodak Co.; and Michael R. Wolford, The Wolford Firm. VLSP extends its sincere thanks to these cabinet members.

Through prosperous times, and more recently, lean years, the Rochester legal community literally answers the call to donate to the CFJ year in and year out.

Over the past few years, VLSP and our fellow civil legal services providers have survived draconian cuts in our state and federal aid.

At the same time, more and more people now qualify for legal services as a result of factors including job loss and long term unemployment.

In some areas of the country, this perfect storm of radically decreased funding and escalating client need unfortunately has resulted in legal services agencies shuttering their doors.

But not here. To our legal community — our judges, attorneys, paralegals — and our friends in the business community, such a thing would be unthinkable. And for that, VLSP truly is grateful.

VLSP thanks the 2011 Campaign for Justice donors, campaign co-chairs, cabinet and volunteers, Ward Greenberg and WXXI, and the members of the legal community who stepped up last month to help low-income clients struggling with a wide range of issues including bankruptcies, foreclosures, wills, tax, name changes, unemployment insurance benefits denials, grandparent/non-parent child custody disputes and divorces.

May 2012 Honor Roll

Judge: Gerard Alonzo (Retired).

Solo practitioners and paralegals: Matthew Austin; Phillip Borrelli; Joan Brimlow; Karen Smith Callanan; Craig Carson; Charles Genese; Michael Hagelberg; Christine Halverson; Vanessa Hanks; Janet Horne; Michael Jonascu; Rhian Jones; Meredith Lamb; Lisa Morris; Barbara Orenstein; Robert Stiles; John Suda; Laura Taylor; paralegal Matthew Scrivens.

Attorneys and paralegals at firms: Raul Martinez (Faraci Lange); Kristin Lowe (Harter Secrest & Emery); George Mackey, Tara Sciortino (Hiscock & Barclay); David MacKnight (Lacy Katzen) Dana Campbell, John McQueen, A. Darren Miller, Eric Tanck, David Tennant, Michael Tomaino (Nixon Peabody); Steven Feder (Pirrello, Missal, Personte & Feder).

Corporate attorney and paralegal: Ellie Grinols, paralegal Patricia Carey (Thomson Reuters).

Mediators: Robert Hauser (Center for Dispute Settlement).

Students: Rachel Lusk (Duquesne University College of Law); Vasken Xhaxhollari (University of Rochester).

Linda Kostin is the Pro Bono coordinator at Volunteer Legal Services Project of Monroe County Inc. Contact her at [email protected] or (585) 295-5703.Visit the VLSP Facebook page at www.facebook.com/vlsproc; follow VLSP on Twitter: #VLSP_Rochester