KCBA’s Neighborhood Legal Clinics now number over 30. But, like the mustard seed, the program started with a single clinic — Country Doctor, in old Fire Station 7 on Capitol Hill. We are proud to have had a role in making it happen.
It was 1973. Joe Gaffney and Phil Cutler were young associates at Perkins Coie; Joe in the estate planning department, Phil in the antitrust litigation department. Joe Murphy was a more seasoned sole practitioner, representing all manner of clients. All three of us were active members of St. Patrick’s, the Catholic parish across from Roanoke Park, itself deeply committed to social justice, and looking for a pro bono outlet. Believing that many in Seattle had legal problems they weren’t even aware of, and many more were aware but had no idea how to deal with them or access help, Joe Gaffney conceived of a volunteer-run program offering this clientele free legal advice and recruited Phil Cutler and Joe Murphy who eagerly agreed to help.
We envisioned a small cadre of lawyers who would devote one or two evenings a month meeting with clients pro bono, listening to their stories, identifying any legal issues presented and giving appropriate advice, referring the client to others who might more directly help the client if the problem could not be resolved on the spot. We recognized, however, that our target clientele had to be made aware of the program for it to be successful. Creating awareness necessarily invoked publicity and the organized bar viewed lawyer advertising very differently then than it does now. As a consequence, Joe Gaffney approached then-KCBA Executive Director Helen Geisness with the idea. Our memories are a little hazy after 50 years, but we remember working with Helen and, probably at her suggestion, KCBA’s New Lawyers Division and KCBA’s Lawyer Referral Service to see how it could happen.
We realized that community support would be critical so, contemporaneously, we broached the idea with St. Patrick parish’s social justice committee, which enthusiastically embraced the concept and suggested that the ecumenical C.H.O.I.C.E. churches (Churches Organized in Common Effort) might be interested in supporting the concept. C.H.O.I.C.E. was on board quickly, agreeing to publicize the service to their parishioners once developed.
Finally, we needed a brick-and-mortar location from which to offer this service. Country Doctor, a free community clinic founded by social justice advocates in 1971 and working out of abandoned Fire Station 7 on the top of Capitol Hill, saw patients and community members principally during the day and offered its second floor during the evening. It was an ideal match as many of Country Doctor’s clients were also dealing with precisely the sort of issues we envisioned they needed help with . . . landlord-tenant, family law, immigration, social security, and consumer issues, among others.
After several months of work, and with the informal approval of the bar, the first neighborhood legal clinic, at Country Doctor, began seeing clients in 1974, one night each week from 7 to 9pm though we stayed as long as it took to see all clients. The three of us were the only lawyers on the rotation at first, but colleagues heard of the clinic and its success and soon many others joined the rotation so there were usually two of us. The program had no staff and neither received nor spent money. Scheduling lawyers was done by one of us and the schedule circulated by phone or mail, e-mail not having yet been invented. Our clients were seen on a walk-in basis for 30 minutes, sometimes an hour. Most often the volunteer lawyer handled the problem that night. When more in-depth work was needed, the volunteer lawyer might continue at his or her office (at no charge, of course), or would refer the matter to KCBA’s Lawyer Referral Service.
The three of us volunteered at Country Doctor for several years. Joe Gaffney took a break starting in the mid ‘80’s but returned several years later to continue volunteering until the late 2010’s. Since we are harking back 50 years (and no files, paper or digital to refresh our recollection), none of us have a clear memory of all the lawyers who volunteered with us at Country Doctor. Some who we do remember include family law lawyer Joan Du Buque (later a Superior Court judge) and Tom Thorbeck and Ping Kiang from Davis Wright. A few years later, Thorbeck and Kiang inspired Ken Lawson, a new Davis Wright associate who, with the backing of 43rd District Representative Frank Chopp, founded the Fremont Clinic in 1977. By the early ‘80s, several more clinics had opened, and the popularity of the program necessitated scheduling appointments rather than relying on the volunteer lawyers to see all walk-ins. Ultimately, at some point in the ‘80s (neither we nor KCBA can really say when), KCBA designated a staff member Neighborhood Legal Clinics director and became directly involved in scheduling both lawyers and clients at all the neighborhood clinics.
While most clients presented fairly mundane, predictable, and quickly solved legal problems, there were exceptions. Phil remembers one woman in particular, who he saw one evening. A renter, she had found a home she wished to buy and gave the seller $5,000 earnest money (a very sizeable $31,000 in today’s dollars). But the seller stalled and stalled, giving one excuse after another why the sale could not close. Phil took the problem back to his office. A quick check of property records revealed the source of the problem: the “seller” did not own the property. Mrs. X, however, really wanted that house and it took some persuasion to convince her to accept the only possible remedy, a return of her earnest money — if the seller could be made to part with it! A very stern, and ultimately persuasive, letter was dispatched to the “seller,” and shortly thereafter a cashier’s check for $5,000 was delivered to Phil’s office and victory was declared. Without a service like KCBA’s NLC, the client would have lost her hard-earned $5,000.
Phil Cutler is retired from the practice of law but continues to arbitrate business and commercial disputes; he lives in Seattle. Joe Gaffney is retired and divides time between Seattle and Guemes Island. Joe Murphy is retired and lives in Venice, California.
