New York State Pro Bono Opportunities Guide
Out of Africa
New York Lawyer
February 20, 2008
By Christian Nolan
The Connecticut Law Tribune
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Evan Posner will hear tales of death and torture, of refugees living under the most squalid conditions. He will hear about how women were raped by soldiers and how children were forced to wield weapons.
He will learn more about a civil war that raged for more than two decades, that took thousands upon thousands of lives, yet was virtually ignored in the United States.
Posner, an associate in the Dechert law firm's Hartford office, is one of dozens of lawyers who will collect statements from Liberian refugees now living in the United States in hopes of documenting human rights abuses.
"We get a bunch of opportunities here to do pro bono work but rarely do you get the opportunity to take part in a process of healing for a country," said Posner. During training for the project, he heard one Liberian man tell his tale of tragedy and near-starvation. He called it "powerful."
"You really have to think about it before you participate in a project like this," Posner said. "I'm sure it'll be emotionally draining. I think that'll be the toughest part about it."
Between 1979 and 2003, the people of the African nation of Liberia were faced with extreme violence during a civil war that killed 200,000 and forced a million more to other countries.
Following a period of transitional government, the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Project was launched in 2006 by the Advocates for Human Rights, a non-profit group formed by a collection of Minnesota lawyers. Assisting the group in documenting refugees' stories are 30 law firms around the globe, including Dechert LLP, an international law firm with an office in Hartford.
About 10 Dechert lawyers in Hartford, and another 20 or so in the Boston office, have been training to work on the project.
"I signed up because I felt like it was a great way to allow the Liberian folks' voices to be heard in a more public way," said Andrea Levine, a Dechert associate in Hartford. "I can't think of a more worthwhile project."
Levine said training this month has been intense, particularly the interviewing. She watched a video in which a Liberian man spoke of fleeing his neighborhood with his family, just ahead of rebel soldiers who would have surely killed them.
The family did not escape unscathed. The man's 6-month-old baby died along the way. Other family members had virtually no food. Some days, all they had to eat were packets of mustard or ketchup.
Levine said the man also witnessed a neighbor killed and his body stuffed into a car.
"Horrendous, atrocities for sure," Levine said.
A Chance To Heal
Posner and Anthony Zacharski, a Dechert Hartford partner, will be taking statements. Levine and first-year associate David Pildis will focus on doing background research on political and economic issues in Liberia; their work will be included in Advocates for Human Rights' final report.
Jennifer Prestholdt, deputy director for Advocates for Human Rights, said there are already 40 to 50 Liberian refugees ready to give statements in New England. Prestholdt said most statements are taken in person, usually at the refugee's home, church or school.
There are an estimated 15,000 Liberians in Providence, R.I., alone and the Hartford lawyers may need to travel there to take statements because Connecticut does not have a large Liberian population. She said there is also a fairly large Liberian contingent in Boston and Worcester, Mass.
The statements will be entered into a database online formulated by Advocates for Human Rights. The statement-taking will culminate in a public hearing sometime this summer.
"They want to create a historical record of what happened during this time period in Liberia," said Zacharski, the Dechert partner. He said it is now important that the word is spread amongst the Liberian community encouraging refugees to give a statement.
Blood Diamonds
Suzanne Turner, a Dechert partner in the Washington, D.C., office who runs the firm's pro bono program, said Dechert has an annual mandatory minimum of 25 hours of pro bono work, which counts towards their billable hours.
David Pildis said he can do up to 200 hours of pro bono work in Hartford and have it count towards his billable hours "without anybody asking a question."
Pildis has been researching such topics as the rebels' exploitation of Liberia's natural resources through the selling of so-called "blood diamonds." The proceeds from sales of the jewels went to fund massacres.
Pildis said he had heard about the conflict and blood diamonds, but the research he's done already has "really opened my eyes" to the extent of the human rights violations in Liberia. He will spend a lot of his research time looking at the treaties between the once-warring parties, looking for loopholes that might lead to the civil war erupting again.
"It's a great opportunity to do at least what I set out to do in law school — make a difference where I could," said Pildis.
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