Pro bono campaign continues late government lawyer's work

[babylonsister]

Very fine legacy to leave. RIP, Ms. McDowell.

Pro bono campaign continues late government lawyer's work

By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — The late Barbara McDowell went from California's San Joaquin Valley to the legal summit and into the hearts of those who knew her.

Now, the former member of the solicitor general's office, who died in January at age 56, is being justly honored. A new national pro bono campaign established in McDowell's name will sustain her commitment to using the law as a tool of social justice.

"From the time she was a Girl Scout, doing things for the poor, she was helping people," said her mother, Joyce McDowell, who still lives in Fresno, Calif. "Her whole ambition was helping people, so she would care deeply about this."

The Barbara McDowell Pro Bono Initiative unveiled this week by Drinker Biddle & Reath will give the Philadelphia firm's lawyers time and credit for doing unpaid legal work. Echoing McDowell's own practice, the pro bono attorneys will seek cases of more than singular significance.

As appellate advocacy director at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, for instance, McDowell had represented poor clients threatened with eviction. Her goal was to protect not only the individual client but others finding themselves in similar situations. The new pro bono initiative will be doing the same.

"We will be finding cases that have precedential value, that will change many people's lives," said Drinker Biddle partner Jerry Hartman, who will head the initiative.

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