How long have you volunteered with MCVLP?

Several years.

Why do you volunteer?

I consider pro bono work to be an obligation of every lawyer, regardless of age or experience. It is also a natural extension of my involvement with legal services throughout my professional life, starting as a staff attorney for Legal Aid in Huntsville in 1971. I am still on the board of Legal Services Alabama, an agency that helps fund MCVLP, so I certainly should volunteer.

What is your most memorable volunteering experience?

Bringing a successful Uniform Parentage Act suit to establish for an infant the paternity of a man who had been dead for several months, so the child would be eligible to draw Social Security survivors benefits based on the father’s earnings. Fortunately the paternal grandfather submitted to a DNA test, which amazingly was sufficient to prove the dead guy’s paternity. It gave me a renewed appreciation of genetic technology, and of a mother’s determination to ensure the welfare of her child.

What advice can you give attorneys thinking about volunteering with the MCVLP?

Do the right thing.