Like most of the clients it serves, Western Mass. Legal Services is in dire straits. An agency conditioned to operate with limited resources, WMLS, which provides a wide variety of legal assistance to area low-income residents, has been hobbled by deep cuts to its state-funded budget. Recognizing the consequences of these cutbacks, a group of area lawyers, led by former state Supreme Judicial Court Justice John Greaney, waged a campaign to raise funds for WMLS. The $50,000 collected certainly won’t solve all of the agency’s problems, but it will help, while also shining a needed spotlight on the organization and its critical mission.

John Greaney calls it “an annual that turned into a perennial.”

That’s the phrase the retired state Supreme Judicial Court justice summoned to describe something called the Western Mass. Campaign for Legal Aid, an effort launched earlier this year to collect donations from law firms, individual lawyers, and some businesses to assist Western Mass. Legal Services.

WMLS is the mostly state-funded agency that provides civil legal assistance to low-income area residents, and, like virtually all entities funded all or in part by the Commonwealth, it has been hit hard with budget cuts, said Greaney, who was asked to lead the campaign. These hits, coupled with the Great Recession and its lingering effects — on everything from employment issues to foreclosures — which have dramatically increased the need for services, have put WMLS in a dire situation.

It will remain there for some time, said Tina Sanchez, co-director of WMLS, who told BusinessWest that the budget picture remains bleak for this and seemingly all other agencies involved with the justice system, and there is no indication that things will improve any time soon. But the $50,000 raised through the Western Mass. Campaign for Legal Aid will certainly help, she said, adding that the money will be put toward hiring a part-time lawyer who will work on the mounting number of employment-law-related cases coming into the WMLS offices.

And — here’s where Greaney’s comment comes in — those who managed the first campaign have decided that it won’t be the last.

Indeed, Charles Casertello, current president of the Hampden County Bar Assoc., said organizers of the initiative have agreed to make it an annual project, one that won’t necessarily solve all (or even many) of the ills facing WMLS, but will help its efforts to serve area residents, draw additional attention to its important mission, involve more lawyers and firms in the work handled by that agency, and perhaps get the business community more involved as well.

“These are all important goals,” said Casertello. “The work done by Western Mass. Legal Services is vitally important to the communities of this region, and this campaign, which will be ongoing, will help it meet a need that keeps growing.”

For this issue, BusinessWest looks at how the Western Mass. Campaign for Legal Aid came about, how it will ultimately assist the WMLS in terms of its mission and exposure, and why it is important that this annual became a perennial.

Presenting Critical Evidence

‘Drop in the bucket.’

That’s the term just about everyone we spoke with about the campaign used to describe its impact on the WMLS bottom line. And they’re right.

The amount raised constitutes a tiny fraction of the agency’s current annual budget of approximately $2.9 million — roughly half of what it was just two years ago — and organizers knew going in that this proverbial one drop was probably all it was going to raise given the economy and the difficult times still facing many lawyers and area firms.

But organizers decided that putting one drop in the bucket was certainly much better than doing nothing at all, given the important mission of the WMLS and the fact that those it serves — people who have basic life needs threatened, such as a roof over their heads — have nowhere else to turn.

Tracing the origins of the campaign, Guy Lescault, executive director of the Massachusetts Justice Project, the federally funded agency that does work similar to WMLS, said both his agency and WMLS noted sharp rises in demand for services, especially in the realm of employment law. Recognizing that these trends would continue unabated, Lescault and Sanchez, after meeting with a consultant, agreed to involve the Hampden County Bar Assoc. in efforts to raise funds to address the matter.

The need within WMLS was and is great, said Sanchez, noting that roughly 50% of the operating budget has been cut since the fall of 2008. This precipitous fall has resulted from not only dramatic cuts from the state, but also sharp losses in what is known as IOLTA, or interest on lawyers’ trust accounts. These accounts have long been part of the funding formula for WMLS and similar agencies, but the amounts in them have been plummeting, because interest rates have fallen precipitously in recent years and, in the wake of the recession, there has been less work for lawyers, especially in real estate.

“In the wake of these cuts, we’ve had to cut back on staff and reduce staff — there are very few people on 100% of the time right now,” said Sanchez. “More staff will be laid off as of July 1, and in the meantime, we keep looking at various ways to keep going. And at the same time, the needs of our clients continue to spiral because of the economy.”

To lead the first campaign to assist WMLS, organizers wanted someone who could get and keep the attention of the legal community and drive home the importance of the campaign to further the agency’s mission of creating an environment of equal justice for all citizens.

And Greaney, who retired from the SJC last year and is currently director of the Macaronis Institute for Trial & Appelate Advocacy at Suffok University, was the logical choice, said Casertello.

“When he lends his name to something, people sit up and listen,” he told BusinessWest, adding that a speech given by Greaney at a kickoff function generated both enthusiasm and strong sense of urgency.

To make their case, campaign organizers presented informational packets listing the many programs administered by WMLS through its offices in Springfield, Northampton, Pittsfield, and North Adams. They include:

• Battered Women’s Legal Assistance and Family Law Advocacy Projects: Representation, advice, and community legal education for victims of domestic violence and their children;
• Housing Court Intervention Project: Collaboration with the Housing Court and service providers assisting people with housing and tenancy issues;
• Medicare Advocacy Project: Helping people obtain and retain Medicare benefits;
• Disability Benefits Project: Helping disabled people obtain and retain federal Social Security disability benefits, and utilize work incentives to secure and maintain employment;
• Elder Law Projects: Five separate collaborative programs with local elder-services agencies providing legal services and education for elders in all four Western Mass. counties; and
• North End (Springfield) Outreach Project: Bringing legal aid and education directly to the residents of one of the poorest neighborhoods in Massachusetts.

They also presented the example of Mariam Ramos, an area woman who suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband and, through the assistance of WMLS, waged a long and successful fight to have an abuse-prevention order filed against her by her estranged husband removed, and get her life back together. Such cases, they said, represent the kinds of assistance WMLS provides every day.

Case in Point

For the most part, the case for WMLS was a fairly easy one to sell, said Paul Rothschild, an employment-law specialist at Bacon Wilson, former president of the Hampden County Bar, and one of the organizers of the campaign.

He told BusinessWest that, despite the economic downturn and its ongoing impact on the legal community, the response to the campaign was immediate and quite positive.

Organizers first approached the area’s larger firms, most of them headquartered in Springfield, even before the initiative was officially launched, said Rothschild, in an effort to jumpstart the campaign. Many responded positively, creating needed momentum.

Using a very unofficial “aspiration,” as Rothschild called it (the equivalent of a billable hour for each lawyer in a firm was the chosen yardstick), the committee succeeded in getting many firms and individual to hit or approach that goal.

“Some firms were in a better position to contribute than others,” he said, again noting the downturn and its impact on business. “But for the most part, firms were able to give, and give generously.”

The $50,000 raised in the inaugural campaign will be used to address the soaring number of employment-law-related cases, said Greaney. He noted that, in the current economic climate, there are more wage-and-hour cases, employment-discrimination complaints, matters related to extension of unemployment benefits, and other legal issues to address.

A part-time lawyer will be hired to assist clients with these matters, he said, adding that the additional help will likely make a sizable dent in the caseload now facing WMLS.

But beyond that needed help, the campaign will shed a brighter spotlight on the agency and its many programs, said Rothschild, while giving individual lawyers and firms another avenue with which to support services for low-income residents, and the community as a whole.

Indeed, the campaign has served to supplement several programs, such as volunteer efforts in Housing Court, initiatives involving students at Western New England College School of Law, and other types of pro bono work, said Rothschild, adding that the campaign represents the kind of ‘lawyers giving back’ story that the public rarely hears.

Moving forward, organizers of the campaign expect the legal community to continue its strong support of the campaign for legal aid, but they also hope the business community will step to the plate as well.

MassMutual and Western New England College were contributors to the inaugural campaign, said Greaney, adding that other businesses will be encouraged to participate because it is in their best interest to do so.

Elaborating, he said that, when employees are concerned about whether they’ll have a roof over their heads, or there will be heat in the house, or if a restraining order is needed to help a woman feel safe in her workplace and home, then productivity will definitely suffer.

“Businesses should be supporting agencies like WMAS because, for the clients they serve, we’re literally talking about matters of life and death,” he explained. “And when you’re worried about things like that, it’s hard to function on the job.”

Branching Out

Continuing with his analogies involving flowers, Greaney said that, with the first Western Mass. Campaign for Legal Aid, some important seeds have been planted.

What stems from those seeds remains to be seen, but even though the money raised to date amounts to that drop in the bucket everyone referenced, there is considerable hope that something strong and vibrant will result, something that will have both short- and long-term benefits for the region.

That’s what happens when an annual becomes a perennial.

George O’Brien can be reached at obrien@businesswest.com