So, I got a call today from my contact at Legal Aid. She informed me that I am being presented with an award tomorrow for performing the most pro bono hours in a certain county. How is that possible? It's not in Big City where I practice, or in the suburb where I live. It is one county over from where I live, and I did pick up a pro bono case there last year. One. And it was not a complex or particularly time-consuming case.
The first thing I asked her, was "are you sure?" And she assured me that she was. Apparently nobody steps up for pro bono work in that county, and it is one where there really is a great deal of need. I interned in the district attorney's office there when I was in law school. As a second year law student I got to work on two capital murder cases (one was a death penalty case, and yes, the D was sentenced to death), a first degree murder, an aggravated kidnapping by a meth dealer (I think I know how to build a meth lab now) and plenty of other drug and child molestation cases. No chance in heck I would have been able to work on those kinds of cases in Big City--their interns worked on DUI cases. But this county is rural and poor and overrun with drug problems--and there were only 4 ADAs
Anyway, I really do not feel like I deserve any kind of award. But the legal aid contact was pushing hard for me to attend. She said that that they already had the plaque engraved and that they had already paid for me to attend the bench/bar conference tomorrow where the awards are being presented. And so I guess I will go and graciously accept an award I don't deserve (and pick up some free CLE credit!).
But I had to reschedule a meeting with a current pro bono client to attend. Can you say irony?
1 comments:
Congrats to you for volunteering your time. So many don't - that's awesome. You may feel you don't deserve it, but clearly they disagree. <3
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