COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHT

The Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program

By KAREN A. CONTICELLO

Volunteers are precious commodities for the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, which is facing severe funding cuts yet still managing to provide legal services for many of Houston’s working poor.
“It’s difficult. It’s a challenge,” said Sandra Wicoff, executive director of the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program (“HVLP”). “We’ve had to make operations as efficient as possible and still serve as many people as possible.
“Volunteers are even more critical now,” Wicoff said. “A lot of people have been out of work, and more people qualify for our services than did in the past.”
Founded in 1981 by the Houston Bar Association, the HVLP is a 501(c)(3) corporation that seeks to provide legal services to indigent citizens who do not qualify for other programs. Resident aliens and persons with low incomes who do not meet the stringent financial criteria of many federal and state legal service programs are among the primary beneficiaries of the HVLP.
“What distinguishes the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program from other providers of legal services is that we provide services to the ‘working poor,’” said Denise Scofield, chair of the HVLP Board of Directors. While many other programs limit participants to those whose annual income is below 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, the HVLP has a higher limit. “Because we receive substantial funding from the Houston Bar Foundation, we can provide services to applicants whose income is up to 175 percent of the Federal Poverty guidelines,” Scofield said.
The HVLP provides two types of services. First, volunteers provide legal representation on civil matters, ranging from family law cases to tax and deed issues. “We’ll take an individual client and provide representation from start to finish,” Scofield said. Second, the HVLP provides advice and counsel through various community outreach programs. For example, the HVLP provides a lawyer to answer questions and provide information every weekday morning in a booth in the basement of the Family Law Center. The HVLP also sponsors Saturday morning clinics in which private lawyers volunteer to answer questions onsite.
Last year, the HVLP screened 15,000 applicants for legal services, conducted 3,075 interviews, referred 988 cases to attorneys, and closed 3,500 cases. Attorneys volunteered 23,537 reported hours that, when calculated at $150 per hour, translates to $3,530,557 in donated legal services.
The ability to provide services in such a generous amount is particularly compelling in light of the fact that the HVLP has seen a significant decline in funding in recent years. In addition to the overall decrease in funds available to social services providers, there was a large drop in funding from IOLTA. IOLTA contributions to the HVLP have dropped by more than 60 percent since 2001, primarily due to lower interest rates. Finally, there also has been a cut in federal funds from Title I (the Ryan White Project).
The cuts have prompted the board to aggressively seek out volunteers among the Houston Bar. “We need volunteers,” Wicoff said. About 70 percent of the HVLP cases are family law cases, but most of the volunteers are not family lawyers, Wicoff said. “We can always use people who are interested in doing family law. We also have varied opportunities and have been successful in using people with various areas of expertise.”
Participants who lack a background in family law will find plenty of support from the HVLP if they accept a family law case. “The HVLP staff has become creative in using non-family lawyers to help with the cases,” Wicoff said. “Volunteers have access to CLE articles, mentors, forms, and other resources to get up to speed on the cases.”
Despite the challenges, the present HVLP board is up to the task. “This year’s board is exceptionally dynamic,” Scofield said. “Each board member has taken responsibility for specific tasks and committee responsibilities, and we’re off to a great start for this year. Our PR committee is responsible for increasing volunteerism in the bar and getting our message out to the public. We have an educational committee that evaluates various continuing legal education programs offered to volunteers.”
And local firms have pitched in to help. “We’ve been lucky because private sources of funding have increased and helped to at least try and tide us over,” Scofield said.
To qualify for services from the HVLP, applicants must be residents of Harris County and meet certain financial criteria based on household income. For more information on the services or to volunteer, call the HVLP at (713)228-0735.

Karen Conticello practices with the firm of Bracewell & Patterson, L.L.P. She is an associate editor for The Houston Lawyer.

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