Community clinic-- Firm starts legal aid for students, families in school

By Christine L. Mobley Legal News A national law firm has taken a local approach to legal aid by providing a unique clinic located in a public school. Dykema Gossett PLLC established a pro bono legal aid clinic for the students and families of Ferndale High School and Ferndale Middle School in Ferndale. "We've always like to perceive ourselves as a front-runner in pro bono initiatives," Heidi Naasko, the firm's Pro Bono coordinator, said of the first legal aid clinic of its kind to take place in Michigan. "We also like to be volunteering in the communities that we work and we thought it would be a very cool idea to start a collaboration with some members of the community to start a legal clinic with the priorities of children and access to, removing obstacles to, education," Naasko explains of the clinic's genesis. At the monthly clinics, Dykema lawyers will conduct 30 minute free and confidential consultations with clients to identify their legal problem and seek potential remedies. The clinic will focus on civil cases relating to family law, domestic violence, immigration, landlord/tenant issues, guardianship, Veteran's benefits, criminal expungement, consumer protection, estate planning, and home contractor problems. Criminal matters or disputes involving the school will not be accepted. The Free Legal Clinic operates in partnership with several non-profit organizations including the Family Law Assistance Project, Lakeshore Legal Aid, The Michigan Poverty Law Project, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and Legal Aid and Defender Association (LAD). "When we took on this project we wanted to make sure we had partnered with agencies that could handle and help us along the way if there was need," Naasko said of the collaborations. "We approached those agencies because we wanted to have the availability of reference. We really don't want to say 'no' to anybody. "If we can send them to a partner agency in a quick and efficient way then we feel like we're doing them a service rather than just giving them a phone number and sending them on their way." The clinic is located in Ferndale High School at 881 Pinecrest Drive and is held between 4 to 6 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month. Potential clients should call the clinic directly at (248) 203-0050 for an appointment. Noting the positive response to the clinic so far, Naasko continues to get the word out to eligible students and their families. "Sometimes the community isn't even aware that there is a legal problem or discovers it so late in the process that the options are limited," Naasko said. "We're here to try to let them know that even if they're not sure there's a legal problem they might want to come in and have us do an issue spot with them. "Our dream case is where we can actually head off major problems when we can get involved earlier." And the hopes for the legal clinic expanding are high. "We're really open to it evolving in a lot of different ways," Naasko noted. "This is really a first, as far as we know, in the state, and we're really open to seeing where it needs to go." Published: Wed, Dec 2, 2009

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