Editor’s column
The Legal Aid Society will hold a Great Gatsby themed dinner and ceremony March 4 to honor five people the group is celebrating for increasing access to justice in the Inland Empire.
I chatted with Joyce Holcomb, Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino president, and Pablo Ramirez, the LAS executive director this week about the event and the organization.
“Donations are extremely important so we can provide access to justice for our community,”
Legal Aid Society President Joyce Holcomb
Holcomb is the first African American to lead the group, which she says is part of the organization’s current focus of representational diversity.“We want people on the board to represent the people in the community we serve,” she said. “We also want the recipients of the award to be diversified.”
The honorees will be Assemblymember (and attorney) Eloise Gómez Reyes (D -Colton), Associate Justice Richard T. Fields (California Fourth District Court of Appeal) and attorney Derek S. Raynes. Attorneys Mitchell Roth and Florentino Garza will be awarded posthumously.
“We chose people who have done the work and did it from the bottom of their heart,”
Legal Aid Society President Joyce Holcomb
“What we looked to are the people in the legal community who are doing it on their own,” Holcomb said. “They’re volunteering. They’re making a difference.”
In 2019 the LAS honored first responders from the Dec. 2 terrorist attack, and this list of names was selected for 2020, but the ceremony was postponed. During the postponement, Garza died.
“When we were on lockdown we were talking about having access to justice and there was the George Floyd (murder) and not everyone having access to court,” she said of the current honoree selection.
“These are good people. Sometimes with honorees it’s kind of political. They donate money or something. We chose people who have done the work and did it from the bottom of their heart.”
Access to justice
We talked a little bit about the phrase “access to justice,” and how it’s becoming ubiquitous. Holcomb said to some degree it’s replacing the term “pro bono” to more accurately describe the feeling of what the volunteers do.
“Someone is being denied access to the courtroom,” she said. “Someone is being denied the opportunity to present their side of the case.”
Holcomb is a family law attorney, but she has thrown herself into community service, not only through LAS, but as the chairwoman for Vision 2020 and Beyond.
“I was always aware of Legal Aid and their presence in the community, but in 2013 I felt I had my practice in a spot where it was running itself. I wasn’t worried about getting new clients. I come from a family where the belief is you don’t just take from a community; you give back. I wanted to serve people who did not have access to justice.”
About Legal Aid Services
“We have two actual kinds of programs,” Holcomb said. “We help with landlord-tenant, family law, limited civil issues, but for people who cannot afford an attorney, they contact us and give legal advice we have a triage to determine what your issues are and then coordinate with an attorney to discuss your case with you, then if there is paperwork that needs to be done, we have paralegals who prepare it for the self-represented person to go into court and handle the matter.”
All of this is free for the client who needs it.
“When I talk to a person, I’m looking at how I can better serve them. My goal is to serve the entire low-income and senior population and not have a reason we can’t help them,”
Legal Aid Services Executive Director Pablo Ramirez
“We do not charge a fee but we accept donations. We live off those donations. We also get some money from the state bar but it doesn’t cover our costs. Donations are extremely important so we can provide access to justice for our community.”
Ramirez is the executive director as of September, 2020, and his immediate challenge was keeping staff and clients safe, but he balanced that with technology innovation that serves his general vision for LAS.
“I love technology and worked to fix our technology, maximizing the amount of people we could help,” he said.
He did this by increasing clinic space and online access to services. This alleviates the workload on paralegals and attorneys. “Now they can focus on substantive legal issues instead of paperwork,” he said.
“The pandemic hurt a lot of people but helped a lot of people learn technologies that help us bridge the gap among socio-economic disparities. Now people are seeing what they can do remotely.”
He is also leading the way in doing virtual and outdoor clinics, and forming partnerships with other charitable agencies.
Ramirez used to be the managing attorney for Inland Counties Legal Services. The two agencies are similar, but not the same, “We don’t receive federal funding, which allows us to help anyone – documented or undocumented,” he said of LAS. “We have a large undocumented population – for us to not be able to serve that community would be drastic.
“We do conservatorships where we help caregivers who need to get conservatorship over a minor grandchild or aging parents, not ICLS. Meanwhile, ICLS does consumer programs and we do not.”
So they partner where they can. Collaboration is important for serving the largest possible population, he said.
“When I talk to a person, I’m looking at how I can better serve them. My goal is to serve the entire low-income and senior population and not have a reason we can’t help them.”
Awards ceremony
The Access to Justice Awards Ceremony will be March 4 at 5 p.m. at the Kimberly Crest House and Gardens in Redlands, 1325 Prospect Drive.
Tickets are available at LegalAidofSB.org
For more information or to make a donation, contact info@legalaidofsb.org or 909-406-5302.
