Building a human rights framework

Legal Aid Chief Counsel Shawn Boehringer

Maryland Legal Aid Chief Council Shawn Boehringer has an article in the summer edition of the MIE Journal, “Building the Momentum for a Human Rights Framework in Legal Services Programs.” “[T]he human rights framework provides meaningful leadership development for newer staff, can energize their work, and give them a sense of purpose in their day-to-day advocacy,” Boehringer wrote. “These factors will hopefully lead to greater retention of talent and can build on the emerging presence of human rights curricula and programs at U.S. law schools.” Maryland Legal Aid recently adopted a human rights framework for its advocacy.

Maryland Legal Aid adopts a human rights framework

The January-February issue of Clearinghouse Review features an article by Maryland Legal Aid assistant director of advocacy for income security Peter Sabonis, “Using a human rights framework at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau.”

“We did it because our client communities pushed us to align our advocacy with their broader needs, not simply their legal problems,” Sabonis wrote. “A comprehensive 2008 statewide assessment of our client population in all twenty-four Maryland counties showed that our clients’ priority needs were affordable housing; jobs that pay living wages; affordable and comprehensive health care; and strong, safe communities.”

“Beginning with the premise that clients, because of their own humanity, are entitled to civil and economic rights, we hoped to trigger both systemic and individual advocacy that was characteristic our our early history: aggressive, creative, client-centered, and movement-oriented,” he added.

“Reinventing the practice of poverty law”

Legal Aid’s human rights framework was the topic of an article, Shifting the Focus, in the winter edition of Northeastern Law Magazine, published by the Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. “In Maryland, they’re reinventing the practice of poverty law,” the article leads. “In 2008, the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau began its strategic planning process, during which it started asking constituents a new question: not ‘What legal services do you need?’ but ‘What are your needs?’ A subtle shift, perhaps, but one that revealed a major gap between what MLAB was doing for clients and what clients wanted.”

Legal Aid assistant director for advocacy for income security Peter Sabonis, a Northeastern Law alumnus, is quoted extensively in the article. “We were almost like technicians, while our clients wanted economic rights,”  said Sabonis, above. “The human rights framework gives us a legally cognizable way to bring the big picture into legal disputes that are usually seen more narrowly.”

To download a copy of the issue, click here.

Legal Aid awarded $106,547.20 cy pres

A bank accused of overcharging its customers turned into a $106,000 windfall for Maryland Legal Aid yesterday as executive director Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr. (second from left) accepts the cy pres award. The money is left over from a $16 million national class-action settlement fund against Chevy Chase Bank that alleged it overcharged fees to its banking customers in the 1990s. Presenting the award is Thomas J. Minton (left) and Kathryn Miller Goldman (second from right) of Goldman & Minton in Baltimore; and Claire Prestel of Public Justice in Washington. Goldman & Minton, Public Justice and Baltimore attorney John T. Ward represented the plaintiffs in the case, which started in 1999.

“This award couldn’t come at a better time,” Joseph said. “Legal Aid’s funding was cut almost $1 million by the Maryland Legal Services Corp. and this is a significant start to closing the gap.” Joseph added that a portion of the award will fund a one-day, statewide Legal Aid staff conference in the fall on efficient and effective strategies for meeting the needs of low-income Marylanders using a human rights framework.

Workshops planned for ex-offenders

United Workers and Maryland Legal Aid are beginning a series of workshops for ex-offenders facing barriers to employment. “We know that the human rights of ex-offenders are being violated,” said Legal Aid Acting Chief Counsel Peter Sabonis. “We know that employers are breaking the law when they discriminate against them. At the workshops we will share strategies and ideas for gaining full-employment and securing our human rights.” The first workshop is scheduled for Monday, June 8 at Maryland Legal Aid, 500 E. Lexington St. (on bus routes 10, 23, 15, 20, 1, 2, 36, 8, 19, 35, 5, 6), from 5-7 pm (food provided). Call 410-230-1998 for more details.