2024 recipients what an incredible impact your donations continue to have:
Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland( 4 th Circuit): In March of 2025, we met Mr. C. in line waiting to enter the courtroom in Prince George’ s County. An older man using a cane, he told our paralegal through tears that he’ d used the last of his money putting gas in his car to come to court. He was being sued for $ 899.00 on a Visa, which he said he had opened to help make ends meet. He was living with his disabled sister in a rental apartment. Despite two strokes in the past few years that left him physically impaired and made his job doing maintenance exceedingly difficult, he said that he had no choice but to keep working since they needed his income. He was so emotional after the PBRC lawyer delivered the good news that his case was being dismissed due to hardship that he had to sit in our office a few moments with a box of tissues.
Volunteer Lawyers Network( 8 th Circuit): A client came to VLN seeking help with a court-ordered mediation in his Adversary Proceeding. His case involved several complex issues, and it was clear that full representation would demand significant volunteer time— something that had proven difficult to secure. By shifting our focus to supporting him specifically through mediation, VLN was able to connect him with an attorney and give him the opportunity for meaningful representation. The volunteer attorney met with the client beforehand to understand the case in depth and research the key legal issues. During mediation, the parties met separately with the neutral judge. Remarkably, within three hours, they reached a full resolution. The client agreed to pay a modest settlement— far less than the amount originally sought— and, most importantly, the trustee and the court agreed that the debtor would receive a full discharge of all debts listed in
the bankruptcy case. Thanks to the focused approach and the dedication of a volunteer attorney, the client achieved a fair and life-changing outcome through mediation.
Michael L. Cook Grant Award. The Foundation established the Michael L. Cook Extraordinary Grant for a program that is“ such an innovative and exemplary approach to a previously under-served area of need as to justify an extraordinary grant in excess of the grant limits customarily applied by the Foundation.” The budget for the Cook Grant is $ 20,000.
This year, based on the recommendation of its Working Group consisting of Chief Judge Laurel Myerson Isicoff and James Baillie, the Committee selected a new grantee, Neighborhood Legal Services of LA County, to fund a new project involving artificial intelligence. The program proposes, with professional help, to leverage technology by using artificial intelligence to make“ enhanced videos” in the languages of the many groups that the organization serves; in addition to English and Spanish these languages are Armenian, Persian, Tagalog, Russian, Korean, Mandarin, and Cantonese. While this program has staff members who are familiar with these languages, they don’ t have the time to do all of those translations themselves. This model may be replicable elsewhere in the country. Professional Pipeline Grants This year the Committee, primarily through its Professional Pipeline Working Group, again continued its role of processing, evaluating and making recommendations on Professional Pipeline grant applications to the Foundation and the Professional Pipeline Committee. The Professional Pipeline Working Group works closely with the College’ s Professional Pipeline Committee in reviewing and approving those grants. continued on page 31
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