Posted November 22, 201710:36 am
From today's edition of The News Herald:
Over the last five years, Willoughby Municipal Court Judge Harry Field has hosted a free full-day legal seminar with continuing education credit to thank attorneys who volunteer their services to impoverished people in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.
In turn, local attorneys who have benefited from the seminars wanted to thank Field for all he’s done to help the less fortunate gain quality legal representation.
Field is the recipient of the 2017 Community Impact Award, which honors an individual or group who has made a mark in ensuring success for a client, community or project.
The judge received the award Nov. 20 at The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s 112th Annual Lunch & Report to the Community. The event was held at Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel.
“I was very surprised. I felt very honored,” Field said. “I believe it to be a prestigious award.”
Field, who was elected judge in 2011, said he first became interested in pro bono work in the late 1960s while working for Legal Aid as a law student.
“When the Legal Aid Society approached me to host the seminars, it seemed like a wonderful thing to do,” he said. “I enjoyed the fact that we were able to open our courthouse to the public and use it as an education for 140 lawyers in one place. The lawyers really liked it. They could socialize and exchange ideas. We were able to gather a lot of really great guest speakers — many Supreme Court justices.
“The Supreme Court has emphasized that attorneys should be doing pro bono work. It’s part of a lawyer’s responsibility. As a society, we have an obligation to have our system of justice work. It only works if both parties are on equal footing as far as counsel.”
Field will be hosting the annual Judicial Forum and Practice Update one last time at the Willoughby court on Nov. 30 before he retires at the end of the year.
Speakers this year include Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick F. Fischer, as well as numerous judges from Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties’ municipal, common pleas and appellate courts.
Willoughby attorney Ann S. Bergen, who has been honored in the past for her own pro bono work, said Field was the ideal Community Impact Award recipient for helping to “shine the light on the need for access to justice for rich and poor alike.”
Bergen noted that although there is a right to court-appointed counsel in criminal cases, there is still no right to counsel in civil cases.
“These cases involve issues threatening the safety, security and economic stability of folks, such as foreclosures by predatory lenders, unscrupulous landlords, barriers to education for children with disabilities and challenges, domestic violence, public benefits, veterans’ benefits and housing violations, such as lead on the carpets on which babies crawl,” she said. “These families cannot hope to remedy dire situations without an attorney to represent them.”
Painesville law firm Dworken & Bernstein also received the Community Impact Award for creating a firm culture that supports pro bono.
“Along with boasting 100 percent participation in Legal Aid’s fundraising campaign, (Dworken & Bernstein) attorneys assist at outreach clinics in Ashtabula County, veterans’ clinics, Lake County pro se divorce clinics and community presentations, and accept extended representation cases,” according to Legal Aid officials.