AZFLSE Newsletter March 19, 2009 - Volume 1, No.12
Nominate Your Legal Hero for a Foundation Award
March 30th is the deadline to nominate individuals for a Foundation excellence award. Awards include Walter E. Craig, William E. Morris, the John J. Ross awards, and others.
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Welcome Foundation's New Board Members
Rodney Glassman, Mikkel Jordahl, Faith C. Klepper, Hon. Patricia A. Orozco, Helen Purcell joined the 2009 Foundation board. The Foundation welcomes and thanks them for their commitment to justice. For more information on these outstanding individuals and all of our wonderful board volunteers, please read more.
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Website Volunteer Spotlight - Scott Zwillinger
The Foundation thanks Scott Zwillinger, shareholder with Zwillinger & Greek PC, for his exceptional service through the Lawyers Helping Homeowners program and AZLawHelp.org. Scott’s practice areas include complex litigation and real estate transactions.
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Law Day 2009 YouTube Contest - A Legacy of Liberty - Celebrating Lincoln�s Bicentennial
The State Bar of Arizona, the judicial branch of Maricopa County, and the Foundation have joined up to create a Law Day video contest. For more information on the contest and to submit your video click below.
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Nominate Sticht and Schubert Memorial Awardees
Each year the Foundation honors attorneys or law students with a financial award under the Sticht and Schubert Memorials awards. Please visit our memorial page to find out how to apply or nominate an outstanding individual.
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Drop in Interest Rates has Devastating Consequences for Legal Aid
Many national media sources have been running stories with similar headlines – New York Times, NPR – all speaking of how the drop in interest rates are greatly affecting legal aid agencies across the country. The same holds true in Arizona, as ‘interest on lawyers trust accounts’ (IOLTA) provides funding to many different legal aid agencies across the state. In 2008, the Foundation funded 24 legal aid agencies including Community Legal Services, Arizona Center for Disability Law and DNA People’s Legal Services as well as funding 13 law related education (LRE) programs in schools, districts, and independent agencies throughout the state. The rate decrease caused the interest gained through IOLTA to severely drop as well, which led to the Foundation only granting to 10 legal service agencies and 12 LRE programs. A total drop of IOLTA funding of over 1.5 million dollars.
In these hard economic times, legal aid is the key to helping many in need. Helping families keep their homes, assisting individuals in receiving needed disability benefits or protecting Arizonans from consumer fraud – these are the every day cases for a legal aid attorney. These are the cases that will keep people out of poverty.
For more information on IOLTA or legal aid contact Lara Slifko at 602-340-7235 or [email protected].
St. Vincent de Paul and CLS Successful in Search for Volunteers for Legal Advice Clinics
St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) and Community Legal Services (CLS) Volunteer Lawyer Program's Legal Advice Clinics have taken off with great success. The two agencies have recruited several law firms and organizations to sponsor their free legal advice clinics. These clinics, held the third Thursday of every month, consist of 3-5 attorneys volunteering from 5 to 6:30 - held in conjunction with the family evening meal. If you or your firm is interested in volunteering, please contact Susan Nusall at 602-340-7361 or [email protected].
Volunteers in the Spotlight! Special Thanks to APS and Intel!
Last September, Kids Voting Arizona had approximately 75 Intel employees volunteer to assist the Foundation’s IT staff with testing its online voting system. The expertise of the Intel volunteers helped to ensure the website could handle record number of voters on November 4th. Six additional Intel coordinators were responsible for assisting with the logistics of this event. A special “thank you” to Renee Levin, Linda Carson, Katherine Princic, Cathy Billiar, Christiaan Mets, and Charles Seeley.
On November 4th, volunteers graciously gave of their time assisting with making the Kids Voting Arizona election a huge success. The assistance of the APS Volunteer coordinator, Maria Maskell, aided in the impressive turnout by APS employees, which included Melisa Carnahan, Michelle Libonati, Jerry Mendoza, Cassius McChesney, Michael Berkley, and Pat Thompson.
We thank you all for volunteering your time and skills to Kids Voting Arizona's most successful election ever!
Corono Del Sol Named State Champions in We the People State Tournament
Competing against Arizona’s top 9 regional teams, Tempe’s Corona del Sol High School captured a first-place ranking in the annual We the People academic competition. The students from Corona del Sol will represent Arizona in Washington, DC at the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution National Finals in April.
