For the attorneys and staff at Stoel Rives, there are no victories sweeter than saving someone’s home, protecting a child’s future or helping a frightened refugee win asylum. Staff at the King County Bar Association say Stoel Rives takes pro bono case after pro bono case, applying high-powered litigation ability to the causes of the poor and the voiceless.
Partner Andy Guy (Stoel’s local pro bono coordinator) is legendary at the KCBA for venturing into unfamiliar territory by taking on a pro bono family law case where the family property could not be sold until the junk in the yard was cleaned up. His solution when the husband would not cooperate: appoint a receiver. It worked. That’s what you get when a commercial and real estate litigator tries out a new field.
Recently, Guy prevented a landlord from evicting an elderly woman recovering from surgery. Her grandson had moved in temporarily to assist her, leading her landlord to seek eviction for having too many people in her unit. “I render pro bono services because there is such a large unmet need and I have skills that can help,” Guy says.
In 2006, his colleagues Maren Norton and Grant Wiens took on a complex case referred by the bar’s Kinship Care Solutions Project. Norton and Weins represented an aunt who had raised her now 6-year-old niece since birth because her biological parents’ drug and legal problems made raising her impossible. Thanks to Stoel Rives’ representation, the court is carefully managing the child’s transition back to her mother’s care.
Norton comments: “How rewarding it is to give legal voice to someone in need or help a family conquer a system foreign and frightening to them.” Still, the attorneys weren’t satisfied by the court’s analytical approach to the case, so they are pursuing an appeal pro bono to challenge whether contract analysis should apply to kinship care arrangements for children.
Other Stoel Rives attorneys Al Day and Gloria Hong recently represented a Congolese journalist seeking asylum; his asylum application has received recommended approval. Hong, Norton and attorney Ken Odza undertook groundbreaking litigation representing a Muslim prison inmate, who was denied a religious diet; as a result of this lawsuit, the Department of Corrections has revised its policy and is now providing Muslim meals. Attorney Eric Laschever assisted Columbia Legal Services with drafting proposed legislation requiring fair treatment for land-use applications submitted for the purpose of building affordable housing.
Andy Guy commends his colleagues who have accepted pro bono assignments even when they had plenty of work to juggle. He says, “They did this simply because they knew there was a need and wanted to help. They have gained my respect for their commitment to service and their concern with fairness and the justice system. It is this group of lawyers who have earned the KCBA’s award, which we are all honored to receive.”
