NEWS FROM THE CLC Consider the CLC
Who does the Community Legal Center help? How many legal aid organizations does one city need? Doesn't Memphis Area Legal Services already do that?
I love these questions, because I love to get the chance to tell people about the great work that both of these wonderful organizations do. As a former staff attorney at Memphis Area Legal Services, I have seen just how very vital their services are for the community. But when it comes to talking about the Community Legal Center, it's not just recognition of value; it's very personal to me, because many years ago, before I ever had the chance to go to law school, begin volunteering with the CLC, and serving on their board of directors, I was one of their clients. When I began volunteering with the CLC in law school, I
answered the phones on the exact same line I had called several years before when I was working to make ends meet, but still couldn't afford an attorney. When I began practicing and volunteering my time at the
Tuesday night intake clinics, I got to sit at the exact same table at which I sat as a new client when I desperately needed an attorney. When I take pro bono cases representing these hard-working
people, I remember the attorney who volunteered to take my case, and how she treated me with dignity and respect in spite of my discomfort with having to ask for help. I can say with certainty that those couple of hours that my
by Betsy Prendergast
CLC pro bono attorney spent working on my case changed my life. It was a hand up, when I was busy pulling myself up by my own bootstraps. Sure, I was lucky enough to be employed and be able to pay most of my bills, but I was far from having enough money for a retainer. What that meant for me, just like it does for so many people, is that I didn't have any meaningful access to our justice system. I was climbing out of the poverty of my early 20s, and was close enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but still far enough from it that any setback could have meant my life would be very different than it is today. We at the CLC are helping the “working poor” every day, to provide that vital hand up when access to the legal system can make all the difference.
I told them at the intake clinic that Tuesday night long ago that I was going to come back and volunteer one day, and I have kept that promise. I can only hope that the couple of hours here or there that I spend working for one of the CLC clients will pay it forward and help improve someone’s life the way someone helped improve mine. I hope you too will consider the Community Legal Center for your chance to give back.
Community Legal Center is a non-profit, legal services agency incorporated in 1994 to provide legal services to people of limited means in Memphis and Shelby County and to educate them as to their rights and responsibilities under the law.
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