Honoring California’s pro bono
standouts
By Amy Yarbrough
Staff Writer
In huge demand for the pro bono legal services she provides
veterans, Nicole Heffel struggled to pay her bills in 2014, borrowing money from
her family so she could continue helping those who needed her.
One of them was former Marine Darren D’Ambrogi, who says the
La Jolla woman turned out to be the “miracle” he was praying for, helping him
to get on the right track after his release from jail.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Nicole Heffel saved my
life,” he wrote in a letter to the State Bar. “She believed in me when no one
else would listen. She encouraged me, guided me and never let me give up on
myself.”
A veteran herself, Heffel is just one of nine extraordinary
individuals, firms and programs to be recognized with President’s
Pro Bono Service Awards on Oct. 9 during the State Bar’s Annual Meeting in
Anaheim. The awards are given annually to attorneys, law firms, law schools,
law students and legal organizations who have provided, or enabled legal
services to be provided, to the poor or disadvantaged.
Here is a little more about Heffel as well as the four other
attorneys, two teams, law firm branch office and project selected to receive
this year’s pro
bono awards.
Recently admitted
Although her paid work as a sole practitioner is primarily
in estate planning, wealth management and asset protection, Heffel logged more
than 1,500 pro bono hours on behalf of 500 veterans in 2014. A Navy veteran
admitted to the practice of law in December 2013, she did most of her pro bono
work through American Combat Veterans of War, which helps veterans cope after
returning from war.
Heffel quashed warrants for veterans so they could qualify
for residential treatment centers, helped them get driver’s licenses by helping
them dismiss old traffic cases and – as in the case of D’Ambrogi – ensured
their probation lined up with treatment services. She meets weekly with
veterans in jail, offering counseling and legal services, volunteers monthly
with a veterans legal self-help clinic and participates in a program that helps
active-duty military members avoid default judgments while they are serving
their country.
Distinguished pro bono service
Launched in 2013, the Los Angeles HIV Law and Policy Project
provides legal services to county residents, offering immigration assistance
and making sure they have access to healthcare, housing and employment. It is a
collaboration between the Disability Rights Legal Center, the Los Angeles
County Bar Association’s AIDS Legal Services Project, Inner City Law Center and
UCLA Law Center, but relies heavily on pro bono resources.
Last year, nearly 50 law students volunteered on its intake
line, helping to screen cases, interview potential clients and perform research
and writing. The project also provided 54 trainings, clinics, outreach and
other events aimed at expanding access to information and resources and handled
more than 600 separate legal matters.
Additionally, 85 pro bono attorneys contributed more than
2,600 hours, working with staff attorneys to help more than 500 clients.
Individual from a law firm
 |
| Powell |
In 2014, after eight years of work and more than 2,000 pro
bono hours, Sarah Powell of San Bernardino got justice for her client Tina Satterwhite.
After suffering the loss of her job as a correctional officer, the death of her
only child and the threatened foreclosure on her home, Satterwhite turned to
her pastor Terrance Elliott for help. Elliott convinced her to sell her home
and turn over the funds to him, purportedly for safekeeping. In the end, he
defrauded her of more than $100,000, leading her to be evicted from her
apartment and become homeless.
The litigation against Elliott involved 13 different judges
at the state, federal and appellate court level and was set for trial five
different times before it actually happened.
Powell wrote in a synopsis of the case that it was better
that the matter was handled pro bono because it helped eliminate money worries
in making decisions about prosecuting the case. “Further, I believe the case is
a shining example of why we all become attorneys: To stand up to any injustice
that has been done and to try and make right the things that went wrong,” she
wrote.
Solo practitioner
 |
| Matloob |
A longtime and dedicated volunteer immigration attorney who
works with a number of San Francisco Bay Area legal nonprofits, Shahpour
“Shawn” Matloob gave more than 150 hours of his time and served nearly 100 pro
bono clients last year. Matloob participated in immigration clinics to assist
clients with cancellation or removal proceedings, U visas, asylum, naturalization
and adjustment of status and took on 17 referrals from the AIDS Legal Referral
Panel. His work in these cases included successfully petitioning for asylum and
obtaining a green card for the same-sex partner of a client.
He also works with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
of the San Francisco Bay Area, which helps save the lives of low-income refugees
by winning asylum for them in the U.S. Since 2004, Matloob has mentored fellow
members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association on asylum issues.
Limited active practice
 |
| Zeff |
Though technically retired, Ophelia Zeff of Sacramento has
been the “backbone” of the Voluntary Legal Services Program of Northern California’s
employment law clinic since 2000. Zeff is a fixture in the clinic, which convenes
every Tuesday evening. She is also a role model to many, mentoring law students
at the clinic. She also appears at administrative hearings before the state Employment
Development Department and Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and provides
practical skills training and help in analyzing employment cases.
In a letter submitted in support of her award nomination,
Victoria Jacobs, VLSP’s managing attorney, wrote that Zeff had already been
given the group’s volunteer award, but that her many years of pro bono work
deserved statewide recognition.
“Ms. Zeff’s expertise in the area of employment law is
invaluable in the operating of our Employment Law Clinic, and we don’t know
what we’d do without her,” she added.
Individual from a law firm
 |
| Soloff |
Called a “true champion of social justice” and a “stalwart
supporter of legal services,” Michael Soloff’s pro bono service grew out of
work he did on a landmark 2009 case protecting Section 8 tenants against illegal
eviction. Since then, he has continued to work on Section 8 issues with Bet
Tzedek Legal Services and other Los Angeles-area groups, spending 650 pro bono
hours defending 16 elderly and disabled tenants from wrongful eviction in 2014.
One was a widowed 82-year-old Holocaust survivor with Alzheimer’s who needed to
stay in her West Hollywood home because it was familiar to her. Soloff was not
only successful in her case but went on work with other tenants in West
Hollywood, many of whom are disabled, elderly and could speak only Russian.
Zachary Bray and Zachary Katz, who as junior associates were
part of Soloff’s team protecting Section 8 tenants, called him “one of those
truly rare people who are both benevolent and compassionate in the highest
degree.
“He would drive to the moon in the middle of the night to
meet with a potential client in trouble if need be, and once he arrived would
work until daybreak to fix their problems,” Bray and Katz wrote.
Law firm team
 |
| Arnold & Porter LLP |
As supporting letters note, it can be difficult to get lawyers
to take on time consuming pro bono cases in the Central Valley, particularly if
the matter is controversial. Yet Arnold & Porter LLP’s Fresno Homeless
Litigation Team dove right in, challenging, as co-counsel with Central
California Legal Services, the so-called “clean-ups” of homeless encampments
and seizure and destruction of homeless people’s property.
The team represented 30 homeless clients against the city of
Fresno, requiring more than 80 depositions, numerous motions and discovery
hearings and many trips to the city. During the course of the litigation,
Arnold & Porter attorneys racked up 2,201 hours of attorney time and 2,311
hours of support staff time. The team’s efforts led to an overall settlement that
included cash payments to the homeless and key policy changes.
“Their efforts changed public policy in Fresno and made
government agencies around the county carefully consider their policies of
taking and destroying homeless people’s property,” homeless advocate Mike
Rhodes wrote.
Law firm branch office
 |
| Orange County branch of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP |
In 2014, the Orange County branch of Gibson, Dunn &
Crutcher LLP contributed some 2,500 hours to the Public Law Center, helping 56
clients and taking on what were often complex and time-consuming matters. Among
them was the case of a low-income senior who risked losing her home of 40 years
because her housing co-op wanted to sell the building. The office also took on
a time-sensitive emergency guardianship involving a grandmother trying to
protect a child from an abusive parent and helped a veteran be more employable
and an elderly disabled man grappling with student loan debt collections.
On top of their work with the Public Law Center, attorneys
in the office volunteered their time to an array of other groups, including the
Alliance for Children’s Rights, Family Violence Appellate Project and Inner
City Law Center.
Law firm team
In 2014, a team at Cooley LLP’s San Diego office saw a big
payoff in the many pro bono hours they logged on behalf of immigrants. Working
with the ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties, the ACLU of
Southern California and the ACLU Immigrations’ Rights Project, the team notched
a huge win in Lopez-Venegas v. Johnson, a class action alleging abusive
immigration practices by immigration enforcement officers.
As a result of the historic settlement, significant reforms
were made to a process known as “voluntary departure,” in which immigration
enforcement agencies used coercion or misinformation to expel non-citizens without
a hearing. Certain Mexican nationals who were coerced into leaving as a result
of the flawed voluntary departure procedures will also be allowed to return to
the U.S. to pursue immigration relief. Ultimately, many others could benefit.
Cooley attorneys Anthony Stiegler and Darcie Tilly spent 553
hours on the matter in 2014, and the firm as a whole has devoted more than
2,500 since 2013.