In my time at the Kittanning branch office of Laurel
Legal Services, I have spent countless hours providing help. However, the
help that I have been asked to provide is not of the sort that most people
think of when they think of legal services. In a nutshell, the help I have
been providing has not focused on the public as a whole, but on the
overworked attorneys of the office so those attorneys can help the public.
When I was first sent to Kittanning for the summer, I was told that I
was being sent here, instead of the Indiana branch where I had worked last
summer, because the Kittanning branch was in the greatest need of help. My
first thought was that the office would only have a little more work than
normal, and that it would otherwise be like my externship last year. As the
phrase I had heard goes, “No matter how many people are working at legal
services, it isn’t enough.” In other words, this office would only be
slightly more overloaded than the Indiana office.
It was only after I entered the office that I found out how much I was
needed. Workflow suffered while a key employee recovered from a medical
condition. The other office attorney had been there for two years and was
still working her way through a large backlog of paperwork from her
predecessor, which in turn, had been inherited from her predecessor and so
on. And the paperwork, including the data needed to close files, had been
piling up so much that our office had been given an order by our directors –
all closable files must be closed by the beginning of August, no exceptions.
Thus, my job focused on relieving the load of those two attorneys in all
aspects of their work. I have spent most of my time conducting follow-up on
cases and closing old files, but at various times I have had to do
everything except handle the paperwork for incoming clients. I’ve filed
papers at the Prothonotary’s office, sat in on negotiations and hearings,
suggested lines of argument and tested the logic of the attorney’s arguments
for upcoming cases, and have even written a complaint for a custody case. As
the backlog of paperwork has lessened, I have become more involved in case
discussions and analysis, as well as in research and other substantive legal
analysis.
Ultimately, though, much of my work has come down to satisfying the
bureaucratic needs that exist in the organization. And in my discussions
with the office attorneys, that is typical for them as well. Because of the
specific requirements of legal services and the guidelines that need to be
followed to gain funding, much of our time is spent ensuring others that we
are actually doing what we are supposed to be doing.
From my experience last year, I had already learned about the necessity
of legal services to help those who cannot otherwise receive help. My work
this year has taught me something equally important, however: the necessity
of hefty manpower to make legal services possible. All the funding in the
world for legal services is irrelevant unless there are good people around
who are willing to do the work, meet with clients, and even wade through the
paperwork that results. And because of that, I am proud to help this office
complete its duties, even if only in my own small way.
