Human Rights
Volume 24
Number 1
Winter 1997
D.C. Lawyers Lend Hand (and Heart) to Area Schools
By Tena Jamison LeeAttorney Lewis Rosman noticed Willie Starks almost immediately. Rosman, an associate with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., had been observing as the wife of one of his partners addressed a group of Cardozo Senior High School students on the importance of listening skills.
The partner's wife instructed some of the teens to leave the room, and told a story while they were out of the room. When the first student returned, someone recounted the story to the young girl. The student then relayed it to the next person returning into the room. As each person returned, the story deviated more and more from the original narrative. By the time the last person heard the story, it was a markedly different version from the first one. Students witnessed first-hand how rumors get started and facts get confused.
Rosman had noticed a student sitting in the back, eyes shut tight, repeating the story to himself. "I told [the class], 'this kid in the back of the room can tell you the story,' and he basically recited it word for word," said Rosman. "It was remarkable. I immediately liked this kid and wanted to be his mentor."
Rosman has become Starks' mentor. The 17-year-old was hired on at Covington & Burling for the summer and now works at the firm after school. Rosman occasionally takes him to lunch and encourages him to go to college, a feat no one in his family has accomplished. Covington & Burling and Cardozo are involved in a unique partnership with one another, one in which Iris J. Toyer, director of the Public Education Legal Services Project (PELSP) would like to see more of.
(PELSP) is one of the projects of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, a non-profit organization established in 1968 in the aftermath of the civil disturbances that erupted in many urban centers. Staffed by 13 lawyers and 12 support staff, the Committee provides assistance in cases of gender bias, national origin discrimination and disability rights. Through its public education projects, the committee established itself as the district's major link between the public school system and the legal community.
In 1978, the committee, through PELSP, began offering legal assistance to D.C. public school parent groups in low-income areas of the city. While the effort faded five years later, it produced two still successful parent organizations--Parents United and the Washington Parent Group Fund.
The Committee has reinstated PELSP which again supplies volunteer attorneys to assist organized parent groups in city schools to create a renewable network of activist parents seeking to improve the quality of their children's education. PELSP is based on the premise that proper legal advice and advocacy provided at needy public schools can help parents more fully participate in their own children's education, local school improvement and citywide education issues.
"The job of the Lawyer's Committee is not necessarily so much dealing with the legal aspects as much as making sure school boards are following the rules and regulations already set before them," said Toyer, stressing that committee lawyers are not there to mediate between the parents and teachers as much as they are to aid in the process of shifting responsibility from central administration to the individual schools.
"We are here to help with this evolving process of school based management. Each school will eventually be run like a business," said Toyer. The committee has always encouraged private firms to become involved, she added.
According to Toyer, close to 200 firms serve the Washington Lawyer's Committee with the level of involvement of each firm changing. About 14 firms are involved intimately with area inner city schools.
The plight of the D.C. public school system has received a lot of publicity of late. The Washington Post and national news organizations have publicized such events as the schools not opening on time due to fire and safety violations, and the problem of violence in the schools.
"Oftentimes," began Toyer, "firms feel that there is so much of a problem that they ask 'what can I do?'" Besides the feeling of hopelessness, most attorneys don't live in the city and they go home to the suburbs. "People who don't have children in the schools don't see it as their issue." Toyer doesn't think that D.C. is any different from other urban areas in this respect.
"Due to the crisis we find our schools in today, we decided to reactivate the program," said Toyer who has been directing PELSP for two years. She was a PTA officer when the Lawyer's Committee came to her school 20 years ago. "We have a whole new crop of parents," said Toyer whose children are now in their 20's. "We need to grow some more advocates."
According to Toyer, the program had a tremendous impact in the late 1970's. "Active parents were provided with good, solid facts, and elected officials listened."
She admitted that it is a more difficult job getting parents involved this time because the parents are younger. However, the work is tremendously rewarding. "People who demand good schools get them, but we have to know what they look like," said Toyer.
One partnership the Lawyer's Committee helped initiate is that between Covington & Burling and Cardozo in 1992. "I think Covington [& Burling] stands out among firms--they have an enduring partnership working primarily with students. They have become part of the school," said Toyer.
Jan L. Flack is coordinator of public service activities for Covington & Burling, a 300-attorney corporate law firm. "We decided to do some outreach into the community and chose a high school two-three miles from the firm with a multicultural student body which reflected the make up of our firm," she said, adding that mentoring and tutoring particularly appealed to lawyers. The firm decided on Cardozo located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
Flack said the number of attorneys involved in the program varies. It is a small, constant program. The firm's Saturday Academy, where Rosman met Starks, is the partnership's strongest program. At 9 a.m., students and lawyers convene at the school on Saturday mornings to discuss things like mediation skills, listening skills, how to get one's point across in a non-confrontational way and how to interview or apply for a job. Last spring's Saturday Academy visited the Holocaust Museum.
Covington & Burling has done other things for Cardozo. Last year they put on a spaghetti dinner where 300 people showed up to a function that was traditionally sparsely attended. In the past they have collaborated on community projects like Christmas in April, when the school received a new paint job courtesy of students and Covington & Burling employees. The firm has provided some legal work for the school as well, said Flack. The firm represented the parents association in their plea to get their roof fixed. "Now," she chuckled, "the roof doesn't leak."
Flack admitted that not everyone in the firm participates by any stretch, but she added it is a program the whole firm can be proud of. The firm also hires students to work at the firm. One-third of the slots each summer are reserved for Cardozo students like Willie Starks.
Covington & Burling does not have pro bono requirements but has billable targets. Flack acknowledged the program benefits the firm as well as students "It is good for us to be able to tell clients we are active in the city," she said, admitting that the firm's partnership with the school is also a good recruiting tool.
"We have 10 full-time employees who were Cardozo students. We are really helping ourselves in a business sense by training future employees," she added. "I don't see any negatives to this program," added Flack.
The firm has even persuaded vendors to chip in by donating furniture, computers, and even one vendor went in and took out an old three-story high incinerator that students and faculty were complaining about. "We don't know where this will take us," said Flack who pointed out that in the future the firm may start providing legal pro bono services. "Once you choose a school, it is a focus, a way to pare down the problem to a manageable size," she said.
According to Rosman, the firm has established a billing number for the high school and he gets credit for the work he does. "I'm happy the firm recognizes it," he said. Besides Saturday Academy, Rosman has also been involved in a citywide mock trial program sponsored by Georgetown University.
Rosman said his participation in the partnership has given him a greater appreciation for the cultural gap between a law firm that services multi-national companies and the public schools in Washington, D.C. "I have a greater appreciation for what needs to be done to bridge that gap.
I think the only way to do that is one-on-one," he said.
"Working in a law firm like this, one could easily ignore the reality that most of the citizens of Washington face," acknowledged Rosman.
Another successful partnership is one between Holland & Knight's D.C. office and Cleveland Elementary School. According to Theodore W. Small, a lawyer for the community services team of Holland & Knight in D.C., his firm has a pro bono policy that sets the expectation of 50 hours a year per lawyer. It is an aspiration, not a requirement, he noted.
"For a more holistic approach to pro bono and community services, we decided to adopt a school," said Small. "We wanted to put as much of the firm's involvement in one area in order to have an identifiable impact on one area," he said. After meeting with Principal Annie Mair and the school's PTA President, Nancy Griffin, the firm decided on Cleveland who, according to Mair, had been trying to round up interested businesses for quite some time.
Originally the firm was interested in tutoring and making charitable donations to the school, noted Small, but as he and others listened to the comments of Mair and Griffin, it became clear to them that the firm could help out in other ways as well. The firm could help with such tasks as preparing parents for presentations to school boards and city council for funding requests and helping them contact the appropriate school officials.
"Lawyers often ignore the very simple type of assistance parent groups need. We don't necessarily need to go in and file a law suit to be effective," said Small. "Simply knowing how administrative bureaucracies work and how to present issues in a clear, concise manner is often all one needs to do to be of great assistance."
The firm has many programs for students as well. Small is involved with the firm's After Care program. Once a week, two to four people from Holland & Knight go to the school from 3:30-6 p.m. Their involvement includes tutoring, playing games and organizing activities for the students.
Six lawyers are currently donating their time in the After Care program. Although attorneys don't get billable credit, Small says it is the most rewarding, satisfying time he spends.
"Once you go up [to the school] a couple of times, they expect you to be there and ask you where you were if you missed a week. For them if you miss a week it's as if you've abandoned them."
The one-year partnership has been "very, very, very positive said Principal Mair. We would not have a lot of the things we do have if not for the partnership," she added. "They come in and tutor in our After Care program, they have given us eight computers, and have come in Saturdays and painted. They have purchased supplies, brought in clothing and coats their children can no longer use and have sponsored some enrichment programs in the evening and on weekends."
According to Cleveland's principal, the program has helped the morale of staff, students and parents. "They are not the kind of partners who stand back and send things every now and then. They are here every week. Those who get personally involved in a personal commitment are hard to find," said Mair. "I am very grateful they work with us," she added. "It is refreshing to know folks are really and truly interested in our kids."
Tena Jamison Lee is a writer in Little Rock, Arkansas, and a frequent contributor to Human Rights.