Pro Bono Volunteer Opportunities in New Orleans (March 2008)

We are pleased to provide you with information on volunteer opportunities to help low-income people with their disaster-related legal needs in the greater New Orleans area. The Pro Bono Project, New Orleans Legal Assistance, and Louisiana Appleseed all work closely with legal volunteers to provide legal services for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims.

ABA Hurricane Katrina Portals

The ABA has prepared a main Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief page with information on the following areas:

• General Information
  • A message to members from ABA President Michael S. Greco
  • Information on Volunteering
  • Law Students & Law Schools
  • FEMA Information
  • Donation Information

• Victims and Families
  • If you need legal help, click here.
  • Pro Bono Networks & Lawyer Referral Services
  • Find your State's Legal Aid web site
  • FEMA hotline information
  • Other disaster links

• Lawyers Wanting to Volunteer or to donate office space
  • If you are a lawyer and wish to volunteer your services to help victims of the disaster, click here.
  • If you wish to offer office space, click here.

• Lawyers Needing Disaster Help
  • Law Practice Management Issues:
    • Managing Practice Interruptions
    • Disaster Recovery for Law Firms

  • Technology Related Resources for Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief
    The ABA LTRC clearinghouse for technology related resources for disaster recovery contains links to articles, websites, communication tools, discounts and companies to help lawyers who are victims of the hurricane.
  • Links to Courts
  • State Bar Association Information

• Military Personnel Needing Legal Help

Calendar of Training Events

• Calendar of Events at Katrinalegalaid.org

Employee Benefits Information

• Frequently Asked Questions About Hurricane Katrina Relief for Employee Benefit Plans and Plan Participants by Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Insurance Information

• A Guide for Individuals to Insurance Coverage for Losses from Hurricane Katrina from Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP

• A Guide to Insurance Coverage for Losses from Hurricane Katrina from Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP

Law Student Information

• Link to AALS Web Site for ABA Law Schools Accomodating New Orleans Students and Help for New Orleans Law Students

• Financial Aid Information for Students Affected by Hurricane Katrina

• Free Textbooks for Students Affected by Hurricane Katrina

• Information from National Association of Law Placement (NALP)
  This site contains career & job related info for students affected by the hurricane, including free career counseling services, deadline extensions for various judicial clerkships and fellowships, law firm hiring issues, etc.

• Message From Dean Bromberger [Loyola University New Orleans]

Tax Information

ABA Tax Section Hot Line
Legal aid, legal services or pro bono advisors who are confronted with tax issues by their clients in preparing tax returns or addressing IRS compliance or audit initiatives relating to Hurricane Katrina or other natural disasters can now contact the American Bar Association's Tax Section for assistance.

The ABA Tax Section's contact person is Janet In, Staff Attorney for the Tax Section, in Washington, DC, tell: (202) 662-8677 or email: inj@staff.abanet.org. Ms. In will put you in touch with a member of the Tax Section's Katrina Task Force or one of the many members of the ABA who have volunteered their assistance. In some cases, Ms. In may be able to assist you directly.

Individual taxpayers should seek help from their local legal aid office or legal services advisors. Those advisors should be able to assist them. If those advisors cannot fully address their needs, then they can ask that advisor to call the Tax Section for help. Individual taxpayers should not contact Ms. In directly.

Tax Relief in Disaster Situations -- Information from the IRS

Taxpayers living in Presidential Disaster Areas struck by Hurricane Katrina will receive special tax relief.

IRS information on Tax relief and charitable giving

Technology Information

• Law Practice Management Issues:
  • Managing Practice Interruptions
  • Disaster Recovery for Law Firms

• Technology Related Resources for Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief
  The ABA LTRC clearinghouse for technology related resources for disaster recovery contains links to articles, websites, communication tools, discounts and companies to help lawyers who are victims of the hurricane.

Useful documents

• ABA/FEMA Memorandum of Understanding and News Release

• A Continuing Storm: The On-going Struggles of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees - A Review of Needs, Best Practices, and Recommendations Alabama Appleseed Releases First Comprehensive Report on Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

• The Bankruptcy Primer is intended to provide guidance to non-bankruptcy attorneys in connection with basic bankruptcy issues that are likely to arise in counseling clients whose businesses have been adversely affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The primer summarizes the main features of bankruptcy and the different types of bankruptcy proceedings. The primer discusses Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 from the debtor's perspective, and includes a section that discusses creditors' rights in bankruptcy cases.

• The Bankruptcy Primer (as above) with hypelinked table of contents

• Bankruptcy documents relating to the effect on Pro Bono of the recent changes in the Bankruptcy Law courtesy of the Pro Bono Subcommittee of the Bankruptcy Committee of the Business Law Section

• Disaster Assistance Manual created by the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyers Division

• Disaster Legal Services Guide prepared by the State Bar of Texas' Hurricane Katrina Task Force, with help from the Houston Bar Association and Texas Young Lawyers Association.

• Emergency Disaster Training Manual for Louisiana Lawyers

• Family Law Resources--The Family Law Section has provided some excellent resources on the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UISFA) and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (1968) and subsequent Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act on their Hurricane relief Resources page.

• Farmers' Guide to Disaster Assistance Part of the Farmers' Legal Action Group (FLAG) disaster resources, the Farmers' Guide to Disaster Assistance describes in plain language the rules for programs such as FEMA assistance, federal crop insurance, USDA's Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, and Emergency Loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency.

• FEMA Answers A Wiki Sponsored by the Public Interest Law Project and The Sargent Shriver National Center On Poverty Law

• FEMA Appeals: Katrina and FEMA Resource Materials

• The Florida Bar Foundation's Legal Assistance Disaster Manual.

• The Guide to SBA Disaster Relief Loans is a concise gathering of key pieces of information from the Small Business Administration related to the types of loans available to impacted businesses and the timing parameters of the application process.

• Hurricane Katrina Helping Handbook: a resource for individuals, families and small businesses 192-page document prepared by Morrison & Foerster, LLP. This resource is available in both English and Spanish.

• LSNY September 11th Report. (Microsoft Word) This report was written by Legal Services of New York to recap their response and efforts after September.

• The FEMA-ABA Young Lawyers Division Manual for Disaster Legal Services (Summer 2004, 6.9 Mb) has information about the FEMA-YLD Disaster Legal Services Program.

• National Response Framework (NRF)

  • National Response Framework (January 2008) (PDF, 968 Kb)

  • National Response Framework (NRF) Brochure (PDF, 495 Kb)

  • National Response Framework Final Rule Press Release January 22, 2008 (PDF, 16 Kb)

  • National Response Framework: Frequently Asked Question (PDF, 103 Kb)

  • National Response Framework – One Pager Fact Sheet (PDF, 82 Kb)

  • What’s New in the National Response Framework (PDF, 95 Kb)

• The question and answer document New Orleans Property Owners' Rights After Hurricane Katrina has been produced by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Weil Gotshal and is a helpful reference for property owners in New Orleans.

• Pro Bono Volunteer Opportunities in New Orleans (March 2008)

  We are pleased to provide you with information on volunteer opportunities to help low-income people with their disaster-related legal needs in the greater New Orleans area. The Pro Bono Project, New Orleans Legal Assistance, and Louisiana Appleseed all work closely with legal volunteers to provide legal services for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims.

• Public Service in a Time of Crisis. This was a 75-page report by the NALP Foundation/City Bar Fund on 9/11 legal relief efforts, and was structured to serve as a guide to the planning/implementation strategies followed here in NYC.

• Young Lawyers Division (YLD) of the American Bar Association
  • Fema Training Presentation: Lifeline of an ABA/YLD FEMA Hotline (10/26/2007, PDF 69 Kb)

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency/American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division Disaster Legal Services Training Session agenda of August 9, 2007, San Francisco, CA (8/9/2007, PDF 15 Kb)

  • Sample Disaster Relief Statistical Report - Lousiana State Bar Association Disaster Legal Hotline Statistics from 10/14/2005 to 1/31/2007 (10/26/2007, PDF 11 Kb)

State, Federal and Disaster Websites

The Katrina Legal Aid Resource Center is the result of a partnership among the American Bar Association (ABA), Legal Services Corporation (LSC), National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) and Pro Bono Net. The Katrina Legal Aid Resource Center offers a significant number of legal aid, public defender, pro bono and referral resources to persons affected by the hurricanes who must navigate a maze of legal, government and insurance issues, and to advocates and lawyers committed to helping them. The site also offers private attorneys information on how they can assist the many legal aid lawyers and advocates in their efforts to serve communities devastated by this unprecedented tragedy.

• Alabama State Bar HURRICANE & DISASTER RELIEF INFORMATION

• Houston Bar Association

• FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Association

• Institute for Business & Home Safety Small Business Protection

• The Louisiana Road Home Program
  The Louisiana Road Home program was developed to help Louisiana residents get back into their homes as quickly and as fairly as possible. Through the Road Home, homeowners affected by Katrina or Rita may be eligible to receive up to $150,000 in compensation for their losses to get them back into their homes. More about the program

• Ready.gov Preparing a Business Emergency Plan

• Small Business Administration Disaster Preparedness

• Southwest Louisiana Cares

• Disaster Help: Katrina Aftermath (Disasterhelp.gov is part of the President's Disaster Management Egov Initiative)

• FEMA Answers
  This wiki is dedicated to help the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita obtain adequate assistance from FEMA. Femaanswers.org is a collaborative effort of the Shriver Center and the California Public Interest Law Project.