Union Bank Helps Low-Income People Avoid Eviction
GC Morris Hirsch has as personal commitment to community service.
December 31, 2010 at 07:00 PM
6 minute read
For Morris Hirsch, his legal department's pro bono program is not just a way to support his company's social responsibility goals or to provide opportunities for the department's 30 attorneys. It's an integral part of his personal commitment to community service.
In his professional life, Hirsch is senior executive vice president and general counsel for San Francisco-based UnionBanCal Corp. and its principal subsidiary, Union Bank. Outside of work, he is a member of his synagogue's Social Action Committee and regularly volunteers at a food bank and a homeless shelter.
“These aren't things related to my law career; they are things that matter to me as a person,” Hirsch says.
So when Union Bank's Chief Litigation Counsel Joseph Catalano put together a partnership with the Housing Negotiation Project of the San Francisco Bar Association's Volunteer Legal Services Program (VLSP), it was only natural that Hirsch not only endorsed the idea but stepped up to volunteer.
“I thought it was important from a bank perspective and from a legal division perspective, but also from a personal perspective,” Hirsch says.
Union Bank attorneys are offered the equivalent of four paid days a year for pro bono service, and the Housing Negotiation Project is one of several programs for which they volunteer. The program offers representation to every low-income tenant facing eviction in San Francisco at the crucial mandatory settlement conference immediately before trial. VLSP conducts a half-day training program for the volunteers.
Hirsch first volunteered in August 2010, when he handled a difficult negotiation involving parents who were trying to evict their son, daughter-in-law and young grandchild. “It was a domestic dispute masquerading as an eviction,” Hirsch says. “Through very protracted negotiations, we did ultimately come to settlement, but it was a really emotionally charged process to get there.”
Undeterred by this first experience, Hirsch volunteered again in November. He is one of seven Union Bank Housing Negotiation Project volunteers who work alongside law firm attorneys in the Superior Court on the last Wednesday afternoon of every month.
The Housing Negotiation Project works well for in-house attorneys because their commitment is limited to one afternoon and can be calendared far in advance, Catalano says. VLSP attorneys go over the cases with the volunteer attorneys before they meet their client. The afternoon typically is spent negotiating a “pay and stay” agreement with the landlord's attorney.
About 75 percent of the cases are settled in these conferences, according to Tiela Chalmers, VLSP's executive director. Even if the case doesn't settle and proceeds to trial, the volunteers are off the hook, having previously signed a limited scope advocacy agreement.
“It is challenging for in-house counsel to take on continuing cases,” says Chalmers. “This is an opportunity for them to take on something that is not an ongoing case.”
For Morris Hirsch, his legal department's pro bono program is not just a way to support his company's social responsibility goals or to provide opportunities for the department's 30 attorneys. It's an integral part of his personal commitment to community service.
In his professional life, Hirsch is senior executive vice president and general counsel for San Francisco-based UnionBanCal Corp. and its principal subsidiary, Union Bank. Outside of work, he is a member of his synagogue's Social Action Committee and regularly volunteers at a food bank and a homeless shelter.
“These aren't things related to my law career; they are things that matter to me as a person,” Hirsch says.
So when Union Bank's Chief Litigation Counsel Joseph Catalano put together a partnership with the Housing Negotiation Project of the San Francisco Bar Association's Volunteer Legal Services Program (VLSP), it was only natural that Hirsch not only endorsed the idea but stepped up to volunteer.
“I thought it was important from a bank perspective and from a legal division perspective, but also from a personal perspective,” Hirsch says.
Union Bank attorneys are offered the equivalent of four paid days a year for pro bono service, and the Housing Negotiation Project is one of several programs for which they volunteer. The program offers representation to every low-income tenant facing eviction in San Francisco at the crucial mandatory settlement conference immediately before trial. VLSP conducts a half-day training program for the volunteers.
Hirsch first volunteered in August 2010, when he handled a difficult negotiation involving parents who were trying to evict their son, daughter-in-law and young grandchild. “It was a domestic dispute masquerading as an eviction,” Hirsch says. “Through very protracted negotiations, we did ultimately come to settlement, but it was a really emotionally charged process to get there.”
Undeterred by this first experience, Hirsch volunteered again in November. He is one of seven Union Bank Housing Negotiation Project volunteers who work alongside law firm attorneys in the Superior Court on the last Wednesday afternoon of every month.
The Housing Negotiation Project works well for in-house attorneys because their commitment is limited to one afternoon and can be calendared far in advance, Catalano says. VLSP attorneys go over the cases with the volunteer attorneys before they meet their client. The afternoon typically is spent negotiating a “pay and stay” agreement with the landlord's attorney.
About 75 percent of the cases are settled in these conferences, according to Tiela Chalmers, VLSP's executive director. Even if the case doesn't settle and proceeds to trial, the volunteers are off the hook, having previously signed a limited scope advocacy agreement.
“It is challenging for in-house counsel to take on continuing cases,” says Chalmers. “This is an opportunity for them to take on something that is not an ongoing case.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All'The Unheard of Superpower': How Women's Soft Skills Can Drive Success in Negotiations
Want to Get Ahead in Your Career? Find a Truth Teller
Ex-eBay CLO Tells WIPL Attendees: You Can Toot Your Own Horn and 'Still Be a Humble Person'
Trending Stories
- 1The Law Firm Disrupted: Playing the Talent Game to Win
- 2Preparing Your Law Firm for 2025: Smart Ways to Embrace AI & Other Technologies
- 3BD Settles Thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
- 4GlaxoSmithKline Settles Most Zantac Lawsuits for $2.2B
- 5A&O Shearman Adopts 3-Level Lockstep Pay Model Amid Shift to All-Equity Partnership
Who Got The Work
Blank Rome partner Andrew T. Hambelton has stepped in to defend Fragrancenet.com in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The case, filed Aug. 29 in New York Southern District Court by the Blakely Law Group, targets the defendants for allegedly selling counterfeit fragrance products. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield, is 1:24-cv-06521, Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Co. v. Quester (US) Enterprises, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Davis Polk & Wardwell partners Mari Grace and Edmund Polubinski III have entered appearances for Australia-based Bitcoin-mining company Iris Energy and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Eastern District Court by the Rosen Law Firm, contends that the defendants concealed the inadequacy of the company's site in Childress County, Texas, including it being 'ill-equipped' and unable to operate the company's proprietary design. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Peggy Kuo, is 1:24-cv-07046, Williams-Israel v. Iris Energy Limited et al.
Who Got The Work
Ryan S. Stippich of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren has entered an appearance for biopharmaceutical company Veru Inc. and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Sept. 30 in Wisconsin Western District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of June Ovadias, accuses the defendant of failing to disclose that small sample sizes and other issues rendered it unlikely that the FDA would grant Emergency Use Authorization for the cancer drug candidate sabizabulin as a potential treatment for COVID-19. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge William M. Conley, is 3:24-cv-00676, Ovadias, June v. Steiner, Mitchell et al.
Who Got The Work
Holland & Knight partners Cynthia A. Gierhart and Thomas Willcox Brooke have entered appearances for Pakistani American Political Action Committee and Rao Kamran Ali in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The action, filed Sept. 24 in District of Columbia District Court by Jackson Walker on behalf of Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee, accuses the defendants of using a mark that's confusingly similar to the plaintiff's 'Pak-Pac' marks without authorization. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, is 1:24-cv-02727, Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee v. Pakistani American Political Action Committee et al.
Who Got The Work
Lauren M. Rosenberg and Yonatan Even of Cravath, Swaine & Moore have stepped in to represent Israel-based Oddity Tech Ltd. in a pending securities class action. The case, filed Aug. 30 in New York Southern District Court by Pomerantz LLP and Holzer & Holzer, contends that the defendant made materially misleading statements regarding the capability of Oddity's AI technology and ongoing civil litigation, resulting in the artifical inflation of the market price of Oddity's securities. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett, is 1:24-cv-06571, Hoare v. Oddity Tech Ltd. et al.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250