celebrating service
AVLF Pro Bono Awards
By Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation Staff
S. Phillip Heiner Award
The S. Phillip Heiner Award is presented annually by
the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF) to the
person or organization that best exemplifies the high
ideals and selfless dedication displayed by Phil Heiner in
the provision of legal services to indigents. This award,
named for the wonderful lawyer and gentleman who in his
life was a champion of private volunteer legal service to
the poor, is awarded this year to a law firm that is just such
a champion - the law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan.
Sutherland – long a supporter of AVLF across the
organization’s many programs – took their commitment
to AVLF to another level in 2012 by serving Atlanta’s lowincome families. In addition to continuing the firm’s longrunning sponsorship of multiple Saturday lawyer clinics
every year, which involves sending amazing attorneys,
including Managing Partner Mark Wasserman, to help run
the weekend clinic and take on cases, Sutherland further
Mark Wasserman, Recipient of the AVLF 2012
S. Phillip Heiner Award
committed to accepting and finding counsel for as many
cases as the Saturday Lawyer Program could send to the firm.
That has been a game-changer for AVLF and for its clients.
Most Saturdays bring high volumes of clients to the Saturday
Lawyer Program, and since there are normally not enough
“Saturday attorneys” to handle the volume, cases often
need to be assigned attorneys after the clinics. While
AVLF’s efforts to find a home for those cases have always
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THE ATLANTA LAWYER
October 2012
been successful – thanks to the incredible generosity of the
Bar – it has required a significant commitment of resources
simply to recruit and convince new attorneys to take on
those matters. Worse, those recruitment efforts can mean
a delay in getting clients help in their time of crisis. Thanks
to Sutherland’s remarkable commitment – one which they
have honored, consistently taking on three to five cases
every month – all it takes now is an e-mail to Judy O’Brien
and Terri Hendley, and the legal needs of Atlanta’s less
fortunate are nearly instantly met, and met with compassion
and the highest quality of legal representation. Thanks to
Sutherland, struggling single-mothers and families get help
and get it right when it is most needed. Thanks to Sutherland,
deserving, low-income families are never turned away in the
Saturday Lawyer Program for lack of an attorney to take up
their causes. Phil Heiner would be proud – and, Sutherland,
you should be too.
Outstanding Paralegal Service
The Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF) is proud
to present its first “Outstanding Paralegal Service” award to
a dedicated and deserving group of individuals. Historically,
our Saturday Lawyer Program – an Atlanta institution over
40 years old – has served tens of thousands of low-income
clients through the generosity of volunteer attorneys.
Increasingly, AVLF began to receive calls from paralegals
inquiring about ways to get involved in serving the community
in such a meaningful way through their profession.
In September 2011, AVLF decided to respond to those
calls by expanding the Saturday Lawyer Program to
include volunteer paralegals. At that time, two enthusiastic
paralegals stepped forward to lead the charge – Corey Lyles
and Eveth McPherson. Corey and Eveth committed to
assisting our volunteer attorneys and clients each Saturday
for the remainder of the calendar year, faithfully participating
on a rotating schedule. It soon became clear that AVLF and
the Saturday Lawyer Program were much stronger for the
efforts of volunteer paralegals.
By January 2012, we determined that our volunteer attorneys
and the clients AVLF serves would greatly benefit from the
presence of volunteer paralegals on each Saturday, as the
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association