Students find legal work in Gulf Coast

When Andy Miller arrived in New Orleans with 31 other USC Law students over spring break, he was struck by how little had changed since he visited a year ago.

Although most of the debris was gone and crumbling houses demolished, many residents were still in despair and even lacked basic necessities, not to mention legal help.

“It’s amazing how much work there is still to do,” said Miller, a second-year law student, who worked with the Center for Racial Justice and helped organize the trip. “It has been a full year and people are still grappling with the same issues and difficulties that they were a year ago.  It was difficult for many of us to process how little had changed.”

Students recapped their trip during an April 4 reception. Above is a slide showing the destruction at one New Orleans public school.

This year the USC Law students were engaged in substantive legal work in the Gulf Coast. Working alongside practicing attorneys, the future lawyers helped with class-action lawsuits, housing assistance and even sifted through criminal cases at the Department of Justice. They were placed in jobs with a variety of agencies, including the Mississippi Center for Justice, Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, FEMA and the NAACP.

This year’s effort was organized by the new USC Law student organization Legal Aid Alternative Breaks (LAAB). The USC students joined over 500 other law students from across the country to help hurricane victims in New Orleans and Biloxi.

LAAB worked closely with the nationwide Student Hurricane Network, which has assisted or placed more than 2,700 law students with legal organizations in the Gulf since Hurricane Katrina hit the region in August 2005.

“It’s trips like these that re-connect me with the reasons for which I came to law school,” said Greg Pleasants, a fourth-year law student. “It offered me a brief respite from the endless jumping-through-hoops of law school and lets me refocus on the rich relationships and challenging work offered by service and public interest law.”

1L Tim Clark talks about his work in the Gulf Coast, during an April 4 reception.

For about half of the USC Law students, this was their second venture to the area as part of an alternative spring break. The remaining had not visited the region since the hurricane struck.

“I know that many people have lost hope and are frustrated – including the lawyers and other volunteers in the region,” said Paula Mayeda, a first-year law student, who worked with the Student Hurricane Network on a FEMA trailer and survey mapping project. “I'm hoping that our group will publicize the needs that the region still has.”

Stacie Torres, a second-year law student, worked for the Mississippi Center for Justice in Biloxi. Although she felt like she was barely “chipping at the tip of the iceberg,” she said the experience was life changing. “You get a new understanding for that part of the country. It’s really fallen by the wayside,” she said.

Associate Dean Lisa Mead, who joined the students in New Orleans and Biloxi and heads the USC Law’s Office of Public Service, said the type of learning the law students receive is something that can’t be duplicated in the classroom.

“Law students from across the country traveled to the Gulf Coast to lend all kinds of assistance – legal, physical and emotional to the victims of the hurricanes,” Mead said. “There is a very strong interest in service among a significant number of very thoughtful, articulate and motivated students – some of whom are going into public service as a career and some who will be going to law firms – and all have found this experience to be moving, even life changing. The students have a very clear sense of the value of these trips to them as well as to the people they help.”