By Anna Marie Kukec
The Indianapolis Bar Association and the Indianapolis Bar Foundation are partnering with retired Judge Paul Buchanan Jr., to produce an ongoing multi-faceted project to enhance the image of lawyers. With a $100,000 endowment from the foundation and several thousand more from Buchanan, the project began this summer and will continue throughout next year.In late 1998, bar and foundation leaders hired Hetrick Communications in Indianapolis to help frame the project, which includes an Ask A Lawyer program and Lawyers United for Community Kids (LUCK), with various media strategies.
"We’re very proud of this project. Here are two separate boards with two separate agendas rallying around this one theme. We’re encompassing all types of things and putting it all together. It’s become one of the largest volunteer undertakings we’ve ever had," says bar Executive Director Julie Armstrong.
The bar and foundation have spread the word about good deeds done by lawyers involved in such programs as the Homeless Project, which assists the less fortunate at six local shelters, and the Juvenile Project, which provides mentoring to teens in the court system and their families.
Bar members are available to the media to address various legal issues, including the legal needs of the homeless, pro bono efforts and the use of cameras in the courtroom. In addition, the bar and foundation will prepare columns on legal topics--such as bank account fraud, slip and fall lawsuits, employment issues and tax issues for the business owner--for publication in general circulation newspapers and magazines. The effort has paid off as newspapers and television stations have covered some of the bar’s efforts. For example, in July, the NBC affiliate, WTHR-TV, taped a segment for a newscast that featured 30 judicial leaders talking about a variety of legal issues.
Besides the media thrust, the project includes rejuvenating the Ask A Lawyer program initiated by Buchanan during his 1968 bar presidency. This program will place hundreds of bar members at shopping areas around Indianapolis to offer free legal advice to the public for Law Day 2000. Volunteers will receive a reference manual on various areas of the law published by the bar foundation.
Another focus involves children through the LUCK program. Foundation contributions will establish a children’s waiting room, called A Child’s Haven, in the City-County Building where most courts are located. The foundation is also funding the development of a publication that will explain to parents that children have a safe and friendly environment in which to wait at the court.
Next year, a novel fund-raiser involving the legal, business and general communities will be held. During the event, called "Lawyers for the Little Guys Ambulance Chase," ambulances will lead off a marathon that will raise money for the local children’s hospital.
The author is the reporter for Bar Leader
