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News at VLN
HCBA Announces VLN Volunteer Kate DeVries Smith to receive the HCBA Pro Bono Publico Award The 2012 Hennepin County Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Award for an attorney in the private sector recognizes Kate DeVries Smith. Kate began volunteering for VLN in 1998. Since then she has volunteered regularly at their Housing Court Project Clinic, providing representation to low-income clients dealing with serious housing issues, in danger of being homeless or living in unsafe conditions. Kate has donated more than 600 hours in this time period adn represented almost 100 clients. Kate is one of the primary go-to people when attempting to find a VLN housing attorney. As an intellectual property attorney, you might think that she would be reluctant to volunteer beyond her area of expertise, but Kate started volunteering in housing and has become one of VLN's most knowledgeable volunteers. Kate has also volunteered in the patent law area with LegaCORPS. Some of Kate's pro bono clients have presented extreme challenges in communication. Kate has demonstrated persistence in these situations and worked with some clients long after their housing court cases were resolved to help them obtain appropriate commuinty services, ultimately resulting in new, stable housing for their families. These cases, though not typical VLN cases, are representative of the dedication Kate brings to her volunteer work. VLN Congratulates the recipients of its 2011 Volunteer Awards: VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR: In naming Sam Glover as our 2011 Volunteer of the Year, VLN recognizes Sam's passionate commitment to advocating for low-income and disadvantaged consumers, and also for the continuing support that he provides to stregthen VLN as an organization. DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD: The John D. Levine Distinguished Service Award to Jerry Bergfalk is based upon the exemplary service that he has demonstrated to providing pro bono services to low-income family law clients for many years. He has done this in many capacities, including providing direct services, taking leadership positions on VLN's board and executive committee, and recruiting, mentoring, and training hundreds of new volunteers. Welcome to VLN's 2011-2012 Officers and Board Members: At our annual meeting on June 7th, VLN's Board of Directors elected new officers and welcomed serveral new board members. Congratulations to our new chair: Peter Goss of Faegre & Benson; vice-chair/treasurer: Kate DeVries Smith of Pauly, DeVries Smith & Deffner, LLC; and secretary: Alison Morris of William Mitchell College of Law. We are very pleased to welcome new board members Marcy Harris of Community Action Partnership of Suburban Hennepin (CAPSH), Sten-Erik Hoidal of Fredrikson & Byron, Inchan Hwang of Gray Plant Mooty and Mark Schneebeck of Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly. You may view our full rost of Board members by CLICKING HERE.
VLN Benefactors Board Chair Receives HCBA's Distinguished Service Award Tom Tinkham, who is Of Counsel at Dorsey & Whitney, has been an active volunteer with VLN for more than 35 years in a variety of leadership roles, and has also directly provided legal services to hundreds of disadvantaged individuals.
VLN Director to Receive Bernard P. Becker Award! Suzanne Gautsch Pontinen, Executive Director of VLN, has been selected by the Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA) to receive its 2011 Bernard P. Becker Legal Services Staff Award. The award is presented annually by the MSBA to honor a legal services staff person for dedicated service and demonstrated commitment to serving low-income and disadvantaged Minnesotans. Citing Ms. Pontinen's exemplary leadership during particularly difficult fiscal and strategic challenges, the nomination papers conclude: "There is no doubt that her amazing efforts have ensured that thousands of low-income people will continue to benefit from the great services of VLN volunteers for years to come."
Melanie Wimmer, VISTA Attorney wtih VLN nominated for UST's Living the Mission Award Melanie Wimmer, AmeriCorps VISTA Attorney with VLN's Civil/Clinics, has recently been nominated for University of St. Thomas School of Law's Alumni Living the Mission Award, for her service work at VLN's Legal Access Point Clinic. Melanie is a 2009 UST graduate. Her nomination papers included the following details: Melanie treats low-income clients with respect and dignity by truly listening to their problems and helping them find a solution. Volunteer attorneys rely on her for quick research, additional advice to clients and as a sounding board. Melanie is well liked by clients, attorneys and court staff. She exemplifies the St. Thomas spirit of public service and inspires others to do the same. CONGRATULATIONS, MELANIE!!!
Get your copy of the 2010 Minnesota Rules of Court! Thanks to a generous donation, VLN has dozens of copies of the 2010 Minnesota Rules of Court (Volume I - State), with July 2010 Supplement. Copies are free to active volunteers whiles supplies last! (This site will be updated when we run out). To get a copy, please stop by the VLN office.
VLN hosted its second annual Benefactors' Pro Bono Picnic last Thursday September 2 at the Nicollet Island Pavillion. Nearly 200 attorneys, judges, corporate representatives and legal professionals attended the late summer evening event where former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson was the keynote speaker. Honored at the event was WILLIAM FISHER of Gray Plant Mooty, who received VLN's Volunteer of the Year award and KAREN CANON of U.S. Bancorp, the recipient of VLN's John D. Levine Distinguished Service Award. Congratulations to both of them for all their dedication and hard work in supporting VLN and its mission to promote access to justice. The event raised more than $95,000 in new funding. "The support of the legal community was outstanding, and these funds will be used to increase pro bono legal services to those most in need in our community," said Sue Pontinen, VLN's executive director. Special thanks to the event's many sponsors, donors, and supporters!
Welcome to VLN's New Officers and Board Members: At our Annual Meeting on June 1, 2010, VLN's Board of Directors elected new officers and welcomed several new board members. Congratulations to our new Chair, FRED OJILE of Messinger & Ojile; Vice Chair/Treasurer, PETER GOSS of Faegre & Benson, and Secretary, KATE DeVRIES SMITH of Pauly, DeVries Smith, and Deffner. Please join us in welcoming new board members: SKIP DUROCHER of Dorsey & Whitney, SAM GLOVER of The Glover Law Firm, EDWARD SHEU of Best & Flanagan, and the Honorable LAURIE MILLER, Judge of Hennepin County District Court. You may view our full roster of board members by clicking here. and VLN volunteers TRUDI BUSCH and JENNIFER DOYLE win national award for their volunteer work with VLN! Trudi and Jennifer were the main designers and force behind the Volunteer Librarian Coalition Wiki, an innovative use of technology which organizes VLN legal resources and provides volunteer research for pro bono matters. For this, the American Association of Law Librarians recognized this work with their national Innovations in Technology Award. Congratulations, Trudi and Jennifer, and thanks for all your leadership and support to our volunteers!
VLN Placed 3rd in the West Region for March GOODNESS Thanks to all who donated to VLN in the March Goodness event. VLN placed third in the West Region based on number of unique individuals making donations and won an extra $500! Eighty people donated a total of $1,900 to VLN from March 15 - March 30. Although we did not make the Final Four, we are honored to have been among 64 non-profits selected across the nation to compete for grants and awards based on fundraising through their website. http://www.razoo.com/story/Volunteer-Lawyers-Network
Volunteer Colleen Beebe Honored with Award Park Avenue Youth and Family Services (formerly Park Avenue Foundation) awarded with COLLEEN BEEBE, Director of Education at the Advocates for Human Rights, the 2010 Steven M Birth Award for Inspirational Volunteer Service (one of our four recipients) on January 31, 2010 at its 25th Anniversary celebration dinner. The award recognizes Colleen's work with the Part Avenue Walk-In Legal Clinic, which she helped to found in 1997 and has directed since. The legal clinic has provided brief advice and service to over 4,000 people. It is a joint project of Park Avenue Youth and Family Services, the Volunteer Lawyers Network, and The Advocates for Human Rights (since 2004).
New Linea Legal Latina (Spanish Hotline) Manager For the past two years, Linea Legal Latina (LLL) has been expertly managed by SUZANNE TRESNAK. Now, Suzanne has decided to pursue other career challenges and spend more time with her family. Under Suzanne's leadership the program has thrived, doubling its hours of operation and significanly increasing the number of clients served. Fortunately for VLN, we were able to immediately hire a new managing attorney, DIANA VILLELLA LARSON. Diana has been a regular volunteer at LLL and was previously a staff attorney at Centro Legal. Diana has family and immigration law experience and is eager to build upon Suzanne's wonderful work and grow the program even more. We are excited to have Diana share her energy and experience with us.
HCBA Announces VLN Volunteer Mark Carter to receive the HCBA Distinguished Service Award According to the Inside the Hennepin Lawyer, the Distinguished Service Award is given to a person who demonstrates overall commitment to pro bono work thoughout his or her career. MARK CARTER has been volunteering at VLN for 27 years and is still one of our most active family law volunteers. According to the records for just the past 13 years (since 1997), Mark has worked on more than 645 cases for VLN and has served as VLN's Board Chair, too! CONGRATULATIONS MARK!!!
VLN hires Josh Feneis for Clinics Attorney Fellowship VLN seeks to support the most effective and efficient use of your (our volunteers’) time as possible; at our clinics we do this in part by providing relevant legal resources and trained assistants. Josh will improve the quality and accessibility of our resources to support high quality brief services. He’ll also be doing site visits of various clinics, conducting evaluations of services and more. JOSH FENEIS is a 2009 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and comes to us with a long record of public service and an interest in family and civil law. Thanks to the University of Minnesota Law School for funding this post graduate fellowship and enabling VLN to strengthen our infrastructure in this way.
New Funding for Innovative VLN Programs VLN is very happy to report the support of new funders for our Bankruptcy and Linea Legal Latina programs:· VLN is dedicated to creating innovative new programming to increase the number of clients we can assist in need of bankruptcy services. With new funding from the Dorsey & Whitney Foundation and from Mardag Foundation, we are now in the planning stages of creating new programming which we hope to launch in the summer of 2010. The funding from the Mardag Foundation will focus on serving clients from Greater Minnesota and the East Metro. The St. Paul Foundation has committed funding to Linea Legal Latina to expand the legal services provided to Spanish speaking individuals in Ramsey, Dakota and Washington counties.
GiveMN Update Thanks to all who donated yesterday through GiveMN! We raised $6,735 (before the match).
Resource Update We know it's hard to keep all the links to different legal resources straight so we've gathered them all on one webpage. Please check it out and bookmark it for future reference: http://www.volunteerlawyersnetwork.org/volunteer/clinic. While this will be especially useful for our clinics attorneys, we hope it is helpful for all volunteers. As resources are updated, we’ll post them to this page so check back from time to time!
VLN Picnic Informational Video Online! Watcha short video where VLN volunteer attorneys and clients discuss their own experiences with VLN and why VLN's services are so important to the community at large. Thanks to Troy Zimmeran for capturing so well the essence of our work!
VLN's First Annual Benefactors' Pro Bono Picnic a Great Success! Thanks to all who supported us or joined us last evening at the Nicollet Island Pavilion for a late-afternoon picnic and program celebrating VLN's work in the community. We raised over $60,000, money which will directly support providing more low-income persons with the legal services they need. Check here soon for a short video on some of VLN's work and to mark your calendars for next year's picnic! In the meantime, you can see some pictures on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/VolunteerLawyersNetwork).
Social Networking at VLN VLN has created a Linked-In group - please join and meet other colleagues with a commitment to service! VLN also now has a Facebook page. Please join us!
Volunteer Librarians Offer Support for VLN Volunteers! A message from the Volunteer Librarians Coalition: Are you interested in....
If yes, join the Volunteer Librarians Coalition (VLC) wiki! By doing so, you will have a team of experienced researchers, just a click away, to assist you! VLC librarians have access to Minnesota Practice Series, Minnesota State and Federal Cases, Minnesota Journals and Law Reviews, Minnesota Administrative Code, Minnesota Statute Annotated, and Minnesota Forms via the generosity of Thomson West. VLC librarians are professional, experienced legal researchers; however, we are not licensed to practice law in Minnesota, thus we are prohibited from providing legal advice and from making legal determinations about the law. Our goal mirrors your VLN mission and assists you as you work to "promote access to justice and the administration of justice by providing legal services to low-income people primarily in Hennepin County through volunteer lawyers". To join the wiki go to www.vlcmn.info and click on "join" in the upper right corner of the webpage. You must be a VLN attorney to join the wiki. VLC looks forward to assisting you with your information needs! Post your questions and provide feedback so we can continue to develop the content you need to support your pro bono clients. - VLC Librarians
VLN Completes 2007-2008 Annual Report To download a report of VLN's activities and accomplishments in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, please click here!
VLN Completes 2009-2014 Strategic Plan VLN's Board of Directors is pleased to announce the completion of the 2009-2014 Strategic Plan, which will guide VLN's work for the next five years. Highlights include a focus on protecting basic human needs, achieving positive outcomes for clients, and best practices for effective and efficient governance. Please take a moment to review our guiding document by clicking here.
VLN Hires New Housing Law Resource Attorney Please welcome Christy Szitta as VLN's new Housing Resource Attorney! Ms. Szitta comes to VLN after practicing real estate law at a large Minneapolis law firm for more than four years. She attended Macalester College and the University of Minnesota Law School. Ms. Szitta has been a VLN Housing Court Project volunteer and has served as a board member and president of the Hennepin County Bar Foundation. Darielle Dannen has accepted a position as interim E.D. at HomeLine - we thank her for her years of service to VLN and wish her well!
VLN Has a New Executive Director Upon Brad Thorsen's return to private practice, the VLN Board hired Suzanne Pontinen to be VLN's new E.D. Ms. Pontinen has been with VLN since 2000, when she was hired to be the McKnight Family Law Attorney. Having served for five years as VLN's Assistant Executive Director, Ms. Pontinen is excited to serve VLN in this new capacity. Martha Delaney, hired in 2003 and most recently VLN's Program Director, has accepted Ms. Pontinen's request to be VLN's Assistant Executive Director. Ms. Pontinen and Ms. Delaney have established several goals for the near future and the lean economy, including: focusing VLN's legal service areas on core human needs; renewing focus on client outcomes; diversifying funding sources and stabilizing VLN's financial situation; enhancing our methods of communication with our volunteer attorneys; providing even greater support for our volunteers; and networking with other programs to share best practices. They welcome your feedback at any time.
VLN Announces New Way for People to Support Its Work - Annual Membership Now, for those who wish to support VLN's work in other ways besides (or in addition to) volunteering, VLN has an exciting new way to support equal justice for all. By becoming a Member of VLN, you can support a long tradition of connecting volunteer attorneys with low-income clients who need legal help protecting basic necessities such as housing, sustenance, and child custody/visitation.Your membership will allow VLN to continue providing the high level of support to its volunteers that sets VLN apart, including: cases that are adequately screened before placement; connecting clients with attorneys in various areas of law; the right materials to most effectively represent clients; and the trainings necessary to stay current in the poverty law area. Click here for more information.
VLN and Minnesosta Legal Services Start Collaboration to Produce CLE Webinars This partnership provides both our volunteers and their legal aid attorneys with a convenient new way to learn about issues common to people in poverty without having to travel. Along with receiving CLEs at the initial broadcast without leaving their offices, these webinars may be replayed at volunteers' convenience (nor for CLE credit). VLN also launched a new partnership with MLSC to put our documents onto Hot Docs software, which will make completing some forms much easier for our volunteers.
VLN Ends Third Successful Year of Assisted Pro Se Divorce Workshops With the help of volunteer law students, volunteer attorneys, paralegals and staff from the Hennepin County Self Help Center as well as VLN staff, 48 clients successfully navigated the divorce process. During the past twelve months, the divorce workshop served more clients than the previous two years combined and we plan for continued growth in the program. The family law department also continues its Family Law and Teens outreach program giving presentations to more than 400 area teenagers per year.
Linea Legal Latina Expands Hours and Locations Linea Legal Latina, VLN's legal phone line for Spanish-speaking individuals, announces additional hours and location - Wednesdays from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Minneapolis Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) location. These are in addition to the original hours and location - Tuesdays from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the St. Paul CLUES location.
Consumer Protection Workshop Receives National Award The National Association of Pro Bono Professionals awarded VLN its 2008 Spotlight on Best Practices Award for its Consumer Protection Workshop. This award recognizes innovative ways of providing effective and efficient services for clients. Those interested in more information about replicating this service may contact Martha Delaney or Glen Drew.
VLN Coordinates Provision of Legal Services at Minneapolis Stand Down For two years, VLN has coordinated provision of legal services at StandDown - an annual event providing social and legal services to homeless veterans. At the 2008 event, our volunteers assisted more than 100 clients in need of legal services!
VLN Expands Criminal Expungment Phone Advice Based on popular demand, VLN is expanding our criminal expungement phone advice service to occur twice a month, rather than once a month. Qualifying clients can speak to an experienced attorney to receive advice on how to expunge a criminal record. Clients interested in signing up to speak to an attorney should call the VLN client intake line at (612) 752-6677.
VLN Creates New Educational Brochure "Avoid Legal Trouble" VLN is now distributing a new brochure to help people avoid common mistakes that lead to legal troubles: Avoid Legal Trouble (also available in Spanish and Somali)
VLN Starts New Consumer Protection Workshop VLN launched a new weekly service, the Consumer Protection Workshop, which assists self-represented litigants in completing court documents. The most common forms we assist with are: Answers, Motions to Vacate, Garnishment Exemptions, Motions to Quash Garnishments, Collecting on Judgments (up to $5,000) and expunging criminal cases resolved in the client's favor. Law students and paralegals work on their computers to complete the forms (specifically designed for this workshop) under the supervision of volunteer attorneys. Clients walk out of the workshop with their completed forms and written instructions for next steps to take. This workshop has been popular with clients and volunteers both. Persons interested in signing up for Civil Forms Workshop should call the VLN Client Intake Line at (612) 752-6677.
VLN 2006 Annual Report Click here to see a copy of our 2006 Annual report (covering the period July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006)
Expaned Phone Advice Services Starting Fall 2007 VLN has expanded our phone advice services to include weekly or bi-weekly phone advice appointments on employment and creditor debtor issues. We also created a specific service for clients who wish to negotiate a payment plan with a plaintiff or creditor. Persons interested in signing up for phone advice should call the VLN Client Intake Line at (612) 752-6677.
VLN Wins Non-Profit Excellence Award! On October 4th, 2006 VLN was awarded the Non Profit Excellence Award for a small non profit given by the Minnesota Council of Non Profits, MAP for Non Profits and Marquette Financial Services. The video of the award ceremony was featured on TPT Channel 17. Click here to download the 3 minute video that walks you through a day at VLN offices. (you will need Realplayer to view this file) A special thanks to our 2005 volunteers who made this award happen! Last Updated: 1/25/2010 |