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Helping Children with Special Needs
Throughout the world, Operation Smile volunteers repair childhood facial deformities especially in cleft lips and palates while building public and private partnerships that advocate for sustainable healthcare systems for children and families. Together, volunteers create smiles, change lives, and heal humanity. The Operation Smile China Medical Mission was established in Hong Kong in 1991 to carry out medical missions and fund medical programs especially in China. Its voluntary medical teams have since traveled to over 24 cities and helped more than 8,800 children in China. A Troutman Sanders associate in the Hong Kong office sits on the board of Operation Smile China Medical Mission and is currently assisting it to set up its non-profit branch in China under new regulations allowing foreign non-profit organizations to be established in China.
Eviction Defense
Volunteer attorneys from Troutman Sanders Atlanta Office and another Atlanta law firm handled over 60 landlord tenant cases for Atlanta Legal Aid over the past year through the Eviction Defense Project, a pro bono effort between Legal Aid and the firms.
In our New York Office, Troutman lawyers serve as court-appointed advocates for tenants facing eviction from their New York City apartments. Many of these clients have a physical or mental disability which prevents them from properly protecting their rights. Each case is different but invariably involves low or no-income adults who must get city, state or federal funds to assist in the payment of rent. Consequently, Troutman volunteers spend a fair amount of time assisting in advocating for eligibility in Medicaid, Social Security disability, food stamps, or other benefits programs.
Helping a Prisoner Establish a Claim of Innocence
A team of lawyers in the Richmond office made history in June of 2005, when the Roanoke County Circuit Court held a hearing on Aleck Carpitcher’s Petition for Writ of Actual Innocence, making him one of the first people to receive a hearing since the writ was created in 2004.
“This is a landmark case because it is one of the first hearings involving non-biological evidence held under the Writ of Actual Innocence statute,” said Steve Northup, a partner in the Richmond office and a board member of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which recruited Troutman Sanders to take the lead in the case.
In 1999, Carpitcher was convicted of sexually assaulting a then 9-year-old girl and was sentenced to 73 years in prison. The girl was the only witness against Carpitcher, but he nonetheless was convicted.
The girl recanted her testimony in 2000 – nine months after Carpitcher was convicted – but Carpitcher could not present the evidence because of Virginia’s 21-Day Rule. She has not changed her testimony since 2000, and Virginia’s Writ of Actual Innocence statute made it possible to bring the evidence before the court.
In November 2004, as the statute requires, the Petition was filed with the Virginia Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals ordered the Circuit Court to determine: (1) whether the girl recanted; and (2) whether she was pressured or coerced to change her story.
Following the Circuit Court's findings in October, 2005, the Court of Appeals declined to issue a writ of innocence notwithstanding the girl’s recantation. The case is now on appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court. A final ruling in the case is expected later this year. Notwithstanding the inability to obtain relief for the client thus far, the case is important and historic because it is one of the few cases under Virginia’s Writ of Actual Innocence statute to have survived the initial filing of the Petition with the Court of Appeals and to have proceeded to a hearing.
Disaster Relief
Lawyers from several Troutman offices have assisted The Pro Bono Project in New Orleans (“The Project”). The Project is a volunteer lawyer organization in New Orleans, organized to provide services to qualifying low income clients on non-criminal legal matters such as successions (probate to non-Louisianans), custody cases and divorce. In the wake of Katrina, The Project lost nearly all of its volunteer lawyers. Lawyers who have returned to New Orleans are trying to put their own personal and professional lives together again and do not have the time to volunteer. In addition, roughly one-half of The Project's staff have moved away and have not come back to New Orleans and the remaining staff members had significant flooding of their homes requiring relocation as they repair their homes. The Project now relies on volunteer law students and lawyers from around the country to support the staff and serve clients.
The recovery in the area has only just begun and has a very long way to go. The completion of successions is just one part of the rebuilding process. Clients cannot pursue collecting benefits and funds to rebuild until title to the property that was lost or damaged is in their name. Some clients have insurance checks that have been issued to a mother or father who had title to the property but is now deceased. Assisting people in ways that will allow them to access funds to rebuild is a very tangible way in which to help New Orleans and its residents rebuild. Troutman lawyers have joined the hundreds of volunteers from around the country helping Katrina victims rebuild their lives.
Death Penalty Representation
Teams of lawyers in our Richmond and Atlanta offices have represented both state and federal death row prisoners in pursuing habeas corpus relief from their death sentences.
Troutman Partners with the American Cancer Society
Troutman Sanders has established a new partnership with the American Cancer Society and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society in which it will provide free basic estate planning on a pro bono basis to low-income individuals with cancer.
Estate planning is an essential part of dealing with a life threatening illness, but is frequently overlooked or avoided because of cost and a lack of education about end of life or incapacitation decision-making. Through this partnership, Troutman Sanders attorneys will work to eliminate these barriers, while at the same time empowering patients with control over these important decisions. Pro bono services provided will include the drafting and execution of documents, such as a Last Will and Testament, Financial Power of Attorney, Health Care Power of Attorney, Living Will, and Nomination of Guardian.
Contact Information
For more information about the firm’s pro bono program, please contact Dorothy Jackson, Pro Bono Coordinator, at or 404.885.3836.
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