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MBA’s lawyer referral service faces growing demand

By: dmc-admin//March 3, 2008//

MBA’s lawyer referral service faces growing demand

By: dmc-admin//March 3, 2008//

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ImageIncreased demand for the Milwaukee Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral and Information Service has the organization seeking more lawyers.

In the past three years, the number of requests has risen 60 percent, director Britt Bellinger said. At the same time, the number of lawyers participating in LRIS has risen 50 percent.

The 60-year-old program averages about 150 lawyers and about 75 percent of them have been involved for more than 15 years.

Call Screening

Last year, LRIS received 30,000 calls and made about 10,000 referrals. It also receives about 10 referral requests per day on its online site that started two years ago. Bellinger estimates that the referrals from the group netted attorneys $800,000 last year.

“Demand is up all around,” said Bellinger, who took over as director three years ago. “We received a lot of calls from people needing help because they were worried about their houses going into foreclosures.”

Also boosting requests is the LRIS modest means panel, which was created in 2006 to offer legal services to people who can’t afford to pay market rates for legal services. In 2007, modest means referrals made up 8 percent of all LRIS referrals.

“There’s a really big need in the low income population for legal representation,” Bellinger said. “Legal Aid Society and other agencies are overwhelmed.”

Reduced Rates

The panel has 20 lawyers who charge reduced rates, which are typically about 25 percent of their normal fees, Bellinger said. To qualify, clients must receive some type of public assistance. And, unlike the non-income related panel, the lack of an experience requirement provides lawyers an opportunity to gain experience in different practice areas. Those lawyers don’t have to pay an application fee.

LRIS has been seeking more lawyers who specialize in immigration law and employment law to meet demand and more lawyers for the modest means panel.

Lawyers who use the referral service say the $100 annual application fee and the 10 percent fee for attorney fees over $200 aren’t a deterrent to attract lawyers.

“Ten percent of a fee is better than 100 percent of nothing,” said Michael Guerin, a partner with Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown and an LRIS participant for 12 years. “The organization has evolved to the point where the screening process is very good and it saves us time.”

Community Service

Ann S. Jacobs, an attorney with Warshafsky, Rotter, Tarnoff & Bloch, SC and part of the LRIS Committee, said lawyers typically see involvement as a community service.

“A lot of it is simply a benefit to the community,” Jacobs said. “Even though we’re a contingency fee firm, it doesn’t mean people know how to find us.”

Jacques Mann, a sole practitioner who practices in personal injury, medical and legal malpractice and consumer-related law, also says the fees are worth it.

“I don’t advertise anywhere else,” said Mann, who joined LRIS in 2005. “At least these are people who are prescreened. They’re calling because they need help. That’s the best marketing you can have.”

Beyond the Bottom Line

Attorneys acknowledge that getting more lawyers to accept reduced fees for their service is a challenge, especially those who are just starting their careers.

“Can we handle all of the people who can’t afford legal services? We cannot,” Guerin said.

“But people in the community have always responded to the best of their ability.”

Mann, who works on both the modest means and the non-income related panels, said many firms’ focus on the bottom line would discourage participation.

“I’m in a situation now where I can afford to make less and (the modest means panel) gives me an opportunity to help people,” Mann said. “What’s the point in being a lawyer if it’s not to help people?”

To generate interest in both panels, LRIS has been advertising in online publications and with Google ads, Bellinger said. It also has been relying on word of mouth.

LRIS is also using its MBA ties to generate interest, Jacobs said. It offered a free continuing legal education class to draw lawyers and got many to sign up. The organization also reaches out to individual lawyers, especially those who practice in high demand areas.

“It really is in part community outreach and help,” Jacobs said. “It hasn’t been a problem to generate membership.”

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