Legal associations initiate a public interest fellowship

By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer

This month, the New Orleans Bar Association (NOBA) and the New Orleans Bar Foundation (NOBF) announced the beginning of their inaugural Public Interest Fellowship.

The fellow, Laura Malveau, will work as a staff attorney in the family law/domestic violence unit at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, the state’s largest nonprofit law firm. The fellowship is the first of its kind in the United States and will expand the availability of civil legal aid to low-income households in Orleans Parish.

The fellowship will focus this year on providing assistance to survivors of domestic violence and working with at-risk households to increase family stability.

“The NOBA and NOBF’s fellowship provides an opportunity for lawyers who wish to devote their professional lives to serving the poor,” said Mark C. Surprenant, a partner with Adams and Reese LLP and a past president of NOBA. “We thought it fitting in this first year that the majority of the fellow’s work will focus on assisting victims of domestic violence and strengthening family stability in our community.”

According to what Surprenant calls a “conservative” estimate, the fellowship should allow at least 100 families to receive legal assistance they would not have otherwise been able to afford. He emphasized that this service would not be just a 15-minute consultation. It would include ongoing legal assistance for families whose low income would typically exclude them from having their legal rights addressed.

Helena Henderson, executive director of NOBA, said aside from obvious issues like protective orders, there are a whole host of other legal problems domestic violence survivors must deal with, ranging from divorces to custody battles to missed work and financial challenges to landlord disputes.

Laura Tuggle, executive director for Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, said difficulties can also sometimes arise if the victim fights back and defends herself. In some cases, she can be arrested with her abuser if the police can’t figure out who the primary aggressor is. Even if the victim gets charges dismissed, the arrest remains on her record and can affect future employment opportunities. But most can’t afford a lawyer to help sort this out.

“It’s a very complex web of problems,” Henderson said.

Surprenant hopes the work of the New Orleans Bar Association serves as a model and a challenge for other legal organizations across the country by protecting the rights of domestic violence victims. Both Surprenant and Henderson find the work immensely rewarding.

“These are the most vulnerable people in our society, these women and children,” Henderson said. “To protect their rights, to give them hope, that’s the most meaningful work a lawyer can do.”

“You really feel like you’ve a made difference in the lives of these people who often feel like no one cares about them and are lost in the process,” Surprenant said.

Many underprivileged victims of domestic violence are unaware of their rights or unaware of the fact that there are resources available to help them. Tuggle said that anyone who needs assistance should call Southeast Louisiana Legal Services at (504) 529-1000, ext. 270.

This article originally published in the January 19, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.