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Penn Law students describe the impact of their pro bono service

September 12, 2016

In 1989, Penn Law established the 70-hour pro bono requirement, which remains to this day the most rigorous in the nation.
In 1989, Penn Law established the 70-hour pro bono requirement, which remains to this day the most rigorous in the nation.
Pro bono service is one of the hallmarks of a Penn Law legal education. In this video feature, three students discuss their individual pro bono experiences and how those experiences influenced their thinking about the law.

Pro bono service is one of the hallmarks of a Penn Law legal education. In this video feature, three students discuss their individual pro bono experiences and how those experiences influenced their thinking about the law.

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null Oluwaseun Familoni JD/MBA’18

My most rewarding pro bono experience at Penn Law was working with Penn Law’s BLSA on a service trip. Some of the lessons I learned through my pro bono project was just the ability and the resilience that these individuals have in addressing the issues in their country and being able to think about their future and take actions toward it.

Fourteen of us were able to go to Peru over spring break and help Afro-Peruvians in Peru address discrimination that they do face. We were able to work with Peruvian agencies, as well as the United Nations, to understand their situation by interviewing them and actually writing a report, which was sent to the United Nations.

I would tell someone who’s an incoming student to get involved right away. They should talk to people, find out about the different projects, find out which projects are interesting to them, and just jump right into it.

Having empathy is a great way to really understand your clients and deliver better results.

 

null David Marvin L’16

I worked with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Federal Re-Entry Court, which is a program designed to help citizens returning from lengthy periods of federal incarceration return to society and re-establish their lives with their family and friends, and hopefully find employment. And what I learned from that community was really how difficult it is to return to society after such a long absence and how many hidden barriers there are.

The most meaningful experience that I’ve had as part of that program has been both working with all of the dedicated lawyers and non-lawyers who help run the program and make sure it works effectively and also the participants themselves. One of the unique aspects of working with the re-entry court as my pro bono service was that I was able to establish relationships with clients that lasted 52 weeks rather than on a case by case basis. And that has been very important to me in its way of letting me get to know the clients on a more personal level, really see what happens day in and day out when you’re returning to society. And it also allowed me to establish better working relationships with the lawyers and non-lawyers who help run the program.

 

Dorian Simmons L’16

I was doing an SDAS hearing — School Discipline Advocacy Service — and I was representing a student, and the student came with their family members. We had prepared for a little bit before the hearing, and in this specific case, the grandmother kind of just took over the hearing. She felt so prepared to speak, and we had practiced for a while, and she just felt so empowered that I didn’t have to do anything. And then for the next 20 minutes, she was just speaking to the principal that was there, she was speaking to the other attorney that was there. She was proud that she could affect the hearing, and she was happy to have that influence.

I would say that SDAS is probably the biggest for me because it taught me, number one: how to listen. Outside of thinking on my feet, it’s also taught me that it’s really, really hard to deliver a message, and you have to tailor that message not just to your clients, but you have to tailor it to multiple people in the room. So it’s not just what you’re saying, but it’s how you say it, and what you say to specific people, and that was definitely a real challenge — a learning experience. 

Along with just learning how to empower clients, when you don’t get the results you want for the client, or the client doesn’t get the results that they want for themselves, it kind of sends you crashing to the floor a little bit. I’ve learned from my clients that there’s definitely a power in having their voice heard, but that’s the floor and not the ceiling, that results still matter, and we have a lot of work to do for them.