News Article

Pro Bono at Womble Carlyle

NEW ORLEANS—New Orleans has a well-deserved reputation as a vacation destination, but for Womble Carlyle attorneys working pro bono to help Hurricane Katrina victims, their stay has hardly been "The Big Easy."

The day gets off to a quiet but busy start at Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann L.L.C., a New Orleans law firm that is providing office space and legal assistance for the pro bono project.

Attorneys Tripp Greason, Susan Giamportone, Kevin Pigott, John Still and summer associate Tina Thomas sort through the mounds of paperwork generated the previous day and prepare for client interviews that afternoon.

The goal of the work is to establish proper succession for low-income homeowners whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm. Without succession papers establishing home ownership, these residents can’t get the FEMA money, state aid or insurance payments they need to rebuild or repair.

While there are similarities, each case is its own unique set of circumstances, requiring significant attention from an attorney. For example, the attorneys need important documents, such as mortgage records, to establish homeownership. If the homeowner cannot provide those documents, then the attorneys must search public records for them.

The attorneys also document the progress made on each case, so that subsequent teams of attorneys can build on the work already accomplished.

In the afternoon—sometimes following a lunch meeting—the attorneys move to the New Orleans Legal Assistance (NOLAC) offices, where the real one-on-one work takes place in the form of client interviews.

The pace is hectic The meetings are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., but several clients show up by 1:40, so the attorneys bring them back early. Space is at a premium, so Giamportone and Thomas hold their meetings in NOLAC’s small legal library.

These client interviews take about an hour each. The attorneys ask questions that might help establish any and all claims to the property: How many children are living? Might any grandchildren have claims? How much property is at issue? Does the family have any documents that might support their claim?

Once all of the questions have been asked and the answers recorded, the attorneys reconvene for an early evening meeting with NOLAC Co-Director Mark Moreau. The attorneys and Moreau divvy up the cases, with Womble Carlyle taking some and NOLAC taking others.

Each case is discussed in detail and debated. At Wednesday’s meeting, for example, Pigott brings in several cases for consideration. Everyone quickly agrees that one is a straightforward succession that can be handled by the pro bono attorneys.

One of the other cases isn’t so simple. Eleven heirs all share in a claim on a property in the city’s hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward. Moreau suggests that with so many people to interview, it might be best for his agency to handle this one.

But even though Womble Carlyle won’t take these cases, the interviews and fact-finding conducted by Womble Carlyle attorneys will aid NOLAC attorneys greatly.

The day’s work isn’t finished, though. Following the meeting, the attorneys return to the Stone Pigman offices, where they catch up on paperwork until nearly 8 p.m.

Teams of Womble Carlyle attorneys will continue working in one-week shifts in New Orleans through the end of August.