Canadian Lawyer InHouse

7 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY/AUGUST 2018 News Roundup A roundup of legal department news and trends AIG lawyers show they can serve up pro bono on demand By Jennifer Brown I n-house lawyers may think their day job expertise doesn't translate well to improving access to justice for the av- erage person, but a group of five lawyers at AIG Canada recently discovered they have hidden talents that can change the lives of many in just one day. Last month, Dahlia Tessler, Soloman Lam, Eric Pardu, Miho Felicio and Len Loewith spent a day working the phones at Pro Bono Ontario's Free Legal Advice Hotline. The hotline deals with five areas of law: civil litigation (not family or crimi - nal law); consumer issues such as consumer debt/protection; corporate law for charities, non-profits and small businesses; housing matters; and employment law. Each call is about 30 minutes in duration. It is estimat - ed that more than 7,100 people have been helped by the hotline since it was launched last September. "The litigators among us took on the civil procedure law matters and some em - ployment law matters and the solicitor side took the consumer, corporate and housing law matters," says Dahlia Tessler, assistant general counsel at AIG Canada in Toronto. AIG initially focused its pro bono efforts on locations where the company has the greatest concentration of lawyers, but Eric Kobrick, deputy general counsel at AIG in New York and founder of the company's pro bono program, says even one lawyer can make a difference. "It makes us appreciate what we have in the way of skills to help others and it makes us better lawyers," says Kobrick. "There have been several instances where attorneys have worked on matters that bear no rela - tionship to what they do on a daily basis. There is just a great need in society for free legal services — we have an ethical duty as lawyers to do it and it's good for the com- pany in terms of strengthening bonds with those we work with." Tessler says it is always surprising to see just how much you can help someone in just 30 minutes. "You're able to walk somebody through a small claims matter or determine what forms they need to fill out for something or what to do if they are thinking of speaking to their employer about something," she says. If they receive a question that stumps them, they can put the call on hold to look up legislation or to research something they haven't addressed in a long time, such as how one goes about issuing stocks — or how to tackle a trademark application for a startup. "Pro Bono Ontario also have excellent resources available based on repeat ques - tions they have received," says Tessler. "I do think the most surprising thing is how much help you're able to provide and how thankful the callers are. You always want to be confident in the advice you're giving, but once you start speaking to them, you realize how much help they need and many ques - tions are consumer-type questions." Kobrick says the hotline demonstrates that pro bono work can come "in all shapes and sizes." While lawyers are, by nature, conservative and don't like to give advice unless they "dot every 'i' and cross every 't,'" at the same time, they don't always realize how much expertise they have. Often, many of the questions that come through on the helpline are common sense and people just need help with some research and decipher - ing forms. "A lot of people are concerned about tak- ing on too much [with a pro bono project] and have the misimpression it involves liti- gation and going to court, so they think you must need to have a litigation background. I think the hotline work is a bite-sized oppor- tunity to make a difference in somebody's life in 30 minutes. You don't have to be a litigator; you don't have to have any special- ized training to participate," he says. AIG did one full day at the hotline and is hoping to do another in the fall. "You really get to speak to a variety of people and [it] is very rewarding and giv - ing back to those who can't afford to see a lawyer in person. The hotline is particularly helpful to members of the community who can't leave their homes due to child care," says Tessler. Pro Bono Ontario executive director Lynn Burns says that, with the introduction last fall of some new technology, those serving on the hotline have been further powered by having a stronger knowledge management system at their fingertips. "It's been beyond our expectations in terms of people calling us for help and the number of people we are able to serve," says Burns.

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