Wisconsin Lawyer
Vol. 82, No. 9, September 2009

• “For the Good” spotlight: Reports on pro bono in action 

Long before the Wisconsin Access to Justice Study Committee’s report in March 2007 formalized and quantified the public’s need for free or low-cost information and access to the legal system, Wisconsin lawyers knew that citizens in their communities needed a source for basic information about how to navigate the legal process to address their legal problems. Many county bar associations in Wisconsin now hold free legal clinics, providing general legal information and assistance with forms and the like to anyone who needs them and is not already represented. This short article spotlights only two such clinics. One is notable as the state’s pioneer, and the other, as an example of cooperative effort among local bar associations to address the needs of people in a smaller county.

The Original: Eau Claire County Bar Association’s Free Legal Clinic, 1997

In 1997, Eau Claire lawyer Mike O’Brien and members of the Eau Claire County Bar Association’s Community Service Committee stole a page from the playbook of a local physician who had established a free medical clinic and led their bar association colleagues to apply the concept to the legal setting. The Eau Claire Bar Association Free Legal Clinic was the first in the state, and it still operates today.

The concept is straightforward. Once a month, in the evening for the convenience of the public, the Free Legal Clinic has taken place at Eau Claire’s L.E. Phillips Public Library (for most of its existence); currently, the clinic is being held temporarily in the county boardroom at the Eau Claire County Courthouse. The space is made available at no charge. The clinic is advertised in public places, such as the library, the courthouse, and the Eau Claire County Department of Human Services. When the clinic started in 1997, local media also ran announcements. A portion of a State Bar of Wisconsin grant supported development of a Web site, www.eauclairecountybar.com, on which the Free Legal Clinic is promoted. O’Brien credits Eau Claire attorney Pete Grosskopf for getting the Web site up and running.

The clinic itself is basic. A member of the public meets with a volunteer attorney for 10 to 15 minutes. The attorney identifies the area of law about which the individual is concerned on an intake form, which includes a written disclaimer that advises the individual that the lawyer with whom he or she is speaking does not represent the individual and that only basic legal information about the matter and related legal processes and forms will be provided. Individuals who are already represented by a lawyer in the legal matter about which they are seeking information are not eligible for the clinic.

Local attorneys staff the clinic on a volunteer basis. At the start of each year, volunteer chairs are recruited for each of the areas of law most frequently presented in the clinic. O’Brien says that family law questions are far and away the most frequently encountered. Other popular areas are wills and probate, landlord/tenant matters, and general criminal, traffic, and small claims matters. The chairs then recruit lawyers who practice in those most-often encountered areas to attend the monthly sessions for the entire year; anyone later unable to fulfill the commitment is responsible for obtaining his or her own substitute, a system O’Brien said has worked well for the clinic.

The Eau Claire County Bar Association has conducted occasional training sessions for the clinic’s volunteer attorneys, to give them enough general information so they feel comfortable addressing the kinds of questions typically presented at the clinic.

O’Brien says that their program “has been blessed with volunteer legal assistants” (including, over the years, Sue Mitchell of Michael Koehn S.C.; Kathy Anderson of Weld, Riley, Prenn & Ricci; Lori Peterson of the Chippewa Valley Technical College’s paralegal program; and Melissa Ludy of Richie, Wickstrom & Wachs), who help out each month. The legal assistants conduct triage with the attendees, reviewing intake forms with them to assess the area of practice involved, reviewing the disclaimer with them, and weeding out anyone who is not eligible for the clinic because he or she already has a lawyer for the matter. Eligible individuals then are given a card, color-coded to their area of inquiry and numbered with the order in which they arrived at the clinic, to assure an orderly process of getting the attendees to the correct lawyer.

O’Brien is quick to praise the volunteer legal assistants and lawyers who have been giving their time to this project for the past 12 years. It was he, however, who took a concept previously used once a year on Law Day and expanded it to year-round availability, as well as continuing to volunteer his time to work at the clinic.

The Eau Claire Bar Association’s Free Legal Clinic serves as many as 50 individuals per month and has been a significant community asset.

Chippewa County: 100th Free Legal Clinic Marked, Still Going Strong

Gary King, a solo practitioner in Eau Claire, was one of that county’s Free Legal Clinic volunteers. He observed that some of the people coming to the Eau Claire Free Legal Clinic lived in Chippewa County, and he concluded that the residents of Chippewa County should have their own clinic – and that he was the person who could start it.

The Chippewa County Free Legal Clinic started holding monthly sessions in January 2000; last fall, it held its 100th. Chippewa County is small compared with Eau Claire County, and its clinic is typically staffed with three or four volunteer lawyers a month, roughly half the number of volunteers who staff the Eau Claire Clinic. There is, however, cooperative crossover between the two clinics, with some individuals – including Mike O’Brien – regularly volunteering at both. The Chippewa County volunteers also include lawyers from Dunn County and other surrounding counties.

When the clinic began, King was a coordinator and volunteer recruiter and trainer, along with Eau Claire Assistant City Attorney Lucie McGee. Since 2004, King has served alone as the clinic coordinator. In addition, he was a clinic volunteer at 95 of the first 100 clinics. No clinic is held in December; King uses that time to recruit volunteers for the coming year.

The clinic serves 25 to 30 people each session, so by its 100th session, 2,500 to 3,000 people had received help, in the form of generalized legal information and direction, from clinic volunteers. Chippewa County sessions run in the evening on the fourth Wednesday of the month; the Eau Claire County sessions run on the third Wednesday. This staggered scheduling allows some volunteer lawyers to work in both clinics.

King describes the service the clinic provides as giving people “the chance to bounce their questions off of someone with training and experience in the field, to give them an idea of what to do going forward,” as well as a helping hand to organize the information they will need in their particular legal process.

“This is an opportunity to provide a service to the community from our profession,” King says. “Sometimes there is a stigma attached to meeting with an attorney,” he adds, noting that the hesitation is based in part on the fact that the general public’s perception of attorneys is “not good.” Based on his conversations with people who have attended the clinic, King observes, “When people come to the clinic and just talk to a lawyer for 10 minutes, with no strings, they are very appreciative,” and no longer think of meeting with a lawyer in negative terms when they leave the clinic.

Alyson K. Zierdt, Marquette 1981, is a member of the Wisconsin Lawyer editorial advisory board. She is retired and of counsel with Davis & Kuelthau S.C., Oshkosh.  

The Chippewa County clinic is held at the Chippewa Falls Public Library, and King appreciates the library staff’s support for the clinic’s work. Library employees field calls asking about clinic hours and post information about the clinic. An initial State Bar of Wisconsin local bar grant paid for early clinic promotion, including ads, posters, and materials. Information about the clinic also is posted at the Chippewa County courthouse, District Attorney’s office, and Clerk of Court’s office.

At least 36 different attorneys from four counties have helped to staff the Chippewa County clinics. “The reason it [the clinic] works,” says King, “is that when the attorneys do it, they like it, and get satisfaction from it.”

“It’s a good way to [conduct] outreach and provide service to the community,” King says. “It’s appreciated by people – and it doesn’t take that much time.” he adds.

King and the lawyers who’ve worked at the Chippewa County Free Legal Clinic over the past nine years have proved that the ability to provide this service doesn’t depend on the size of the county – but rather, on the size of the hearts and imaginations of its lawyers.

• Wisconsin local bars
• Local bar grant competition

Wisconsin Lawyer