Increasingly, young lawyers are the vanguard of pro bonoefforts in Canada’s legal community. Armed with a strong sense of the law’s tradition of giving back and of the duty to help the least fortunate in our society, they are creating a new 21st-century pro bono tradition. Here are two such lawyers.
Shannon Salter: Making a difference
When Shannon Salter joined the Vancouver firm of Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy in 2006, after clerking with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, she had a goal in mind: to devote part of her practice to pro bono cases. While that may seem at first glance an unusual ambition for a former clerk, she says in fact many of her clerking colleagues felt the same way. “When you work so closely with the judges, you begin to see things from their point of view. You see not just the problems dealing with lay litigants themselves, but the pressure it puts on the court system, and how the judges feel the pressure to ensure lay litigants get a fair trial.”
She has taken her promise to heart, and has been recognized by Pro bono Law B.C. for her legal work, which has included helping a single mother avoid eviction, as well as completing a successful bail review for another client. She understands that these are frightening situations for her clients and finds providing her expertise to them gratifying. “You are dealing with the basic struggles of life — losing your house, losing your freedom.”
Salter says she feels an obligation to do pro bono work, as a recognition that she was able to go to law school and that taxpayers helped her achieve her goal. She is struck by the fact that rights mean nothing if you do not have the means to enforce them, and that lawyers who do pro bono work can help to make sure that everyone’s rights are meaningfully protected, including the indigent.
She highly recommends that young lawyers take on pro bono work when they can. Salter’s firm recognizes pro bono hours, which creates a firm culture where such work is valued. The firm also has a trial experience program, in partnership with the Salvation Army pro bono clinic, which Salter has found invaluable for developing trial skills. “It gives you the kind of education you don’t usually get as a one-or-two-year call. By the time you are a fifth year associate, you are at ease in a courtroom and have experience.”
She says her favourite pro bono cases are the ones where the clients are organized and knowledgeable, but can’t go any farther because they lack the expertise to navigate the court system. “The times I feel most proud of being a lawyer are when I’m helping people who could not have helped themselves. You have an opportunity to make a huge difference to them.”
Josh Weinstein: Defending the voiceless
Defending the unpopular cause is one of the finest traditions of the Bar, and Josh Weinstein is upholding that tradition by representing some of society’s most disadvantaged — panhandlers.
In June 2005, the City of Winnipeg passed a bylaw which made it an offence punishable by fine or imprisonment to panhandle, even peacefully, in the downtown core. Weinstein was asked by the Public Interest Law Centre of Legal Aid Manitoba to become involved in a pro bono constitutional challenge to this bylaw on behalf of the National Anti-Poverty Association.
“I didn’t have to think twice about getting involved,” he says. “I knew that panhandlers, if handed an offence notice, would never have the finances or the wherewithal to litigate this issue.” But Weinstein didn’t take on the case just for the sake of the interesting legal and societal issues it highlights, but also because of the opportunity for personal growth.
“The most rewarding part of taking on this case, for me, was realizing my own fallibility in how I regarded panhandlers. I tried to boil it down to what it is the problem we have with them, and I think it is discomfort. When people see poverty staring them right in the face, they are very uncomfortable with it. It scares them to see it in the downtown core. But people have to realize that making this conduct illegal is not needed. Instead, people need to look inside themselves and deal with their discomfort.”
In particular, he says, the absurdity of the law struck him. “If my car broke down outside my office and I went up to someone at the bus stop and asked for two dollars to take the bus home, in theory that is illegal. But I guarantee you that I would not be fined, because of the way I look.” Yet a homeless person, he says, who asked for the same two dollars, would likely be charged with an offence, because of the way he looked.
Weinstein says that he hopes other lawyers can be inspired to take on such projects, even though they are time consuming, once they are in a position to donate their time. And if you are looking for something to get you excited about practising law again, perhaps taking on a pro bono case that interests you is the way to do it. As Weinstein says, “I love everything about this case.”