November 2010 — McDonald Hopkins attorney Anne Owings Ford is committed to Legal Aid’s Volunteer Lawyers Program (VLP). An active pro bono attorney, Ms. Ford sees her service as a reminder “that I am a member of the community; that I don’t remain floating from work to home in my own little bubble.” Ms. Ford’s first pro bono client through Legal Aid was an elderly woman who was sued over a real estate sale. Ms. Ford was able to get a positive outcome for her client, and was energized by the experience. After one meeting, Ms. Ford remembers, “at the elevators [my client] turned to me and said ‘Anne Ford, you are my friend’; and she meant it.”

Ms. Ford often volunteers with colleagues from McDonald Hopkins at VLP’s neighborhood Brief Advice and Referral Clinics. She was also instrumental in the development and ongoing success of the McDonald Hopkins Juvenile Court Pro Se Clinic where volunteer attorneys, supported by mentors from the Juvenile Court, the Cuyahoga Support Enforcement Agency and Legal Aid, provide advice to individuals with child support issues. Ann McGowan Porath, Managing Attorney of the Volunteer Lawyers Program observes, “The ongoing partnership between Anne and Legal Aid creates meaningful pro bono opportunities for attorneys in Northeast Ohio.”

Beyond her work with Legal Aid, Ms. Ford is the immediate past chair of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s Justice For All (JFA) committee, which oversees and coordinates the CMBA’s many public service activities. Ms. Ford believes in recruiting young attorneys for pro bono services. “It is important to volunteer as a lawyer and give financially. Legal Aid gives us the best avenue to do that. There is a wealth of opportunity for every lawyer in Cleveland to do something.”