NOLA

Students and faculty provide legal assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina

A young girl chained to a jail bench overnight.  Families waiting 18 months to be provided with the funds necessary to rebuild their devastated neighborhoods. Homeowners searching among the ruins of public records for proof of ownership. These are the faces of the residents of New Orleans still struggling to rebuild their city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

While other spring breakers spent their time at the beach or on the slopes, volunteers from Saint Louis University School of Law spent their vacation providing pro bono legal services to low-income clients in New Orleans. Twenty-four law students, accompanied by law alumni, faculty and attorneys from the Catholic Legal Assistance Ministries, spent the week of March 11-17 spread out among agencies like the Pro Bono Project, the New Orleans Legal Assistance Center (NOLAC) and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana.The trip, aptly named Project Noah, included students from the Legal Clinics and the Public Interest Law Group. Many of those making the trip had personal connections to the area. Law students Luke Stobie and Laura Hawk experienced the devastation of the Hurricane firsthand. They were students at Tulane and Loyola Law Schools when the devastation hit. Professor Kerry Ryan is a Tulane Law School graduate. Professor Sidney Watson began her legal career in New Orleans and founded the legal clinic at Tulane University.

As a Jesuit institution, Saint Louis University School of Law has always emphasized the importance of service. The Legal Clinics and the students who staff them serve the low-income St. Louis community. The Public Interest Law Group, which raises money to fund student internships at non-profit agencies throughout the United States as well as internationally, is also a vital part of the law school community. Members of the law faculty serve on various boards and institutions that serve the greater St. Louis community.

This trip allowed everyone to provide direct service to those who had experienced devastating losses as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Participants spent the majority of the trip in the French Quarter and downtown, areas that escaped most of the damage inflicted on the hurricane and subsequent flooding. The Superdome has been repaired since Hurricane Katrina, and all signs of the devastation, all traces of the chaos, have been erased from the physical structure itself. 

Still, repairs to the physical structure of New Orleans belie the problems that remain in the wake of the devastation. The New Orleans legal system suffered great losses after the hurricane. Many lawyers left to practice in neighboring states like Texas, Mississippi and Georgia. An already struggling public defender system, once chastised by the American Bar Association, found its numbers further devastated by the cutbacks following the flood. Free legal services offices lost funding, files and attorneys.

Most striking was the inequity of the relief available to the low-income and working class of New Orleans. Many homes remained damaged and uninhabitable even one and a half years after the flood. The long expected aid promised by the federal and state governments has been slow in trickling down to homeowners. An informal practice of inheritance has stalled the efforts by many homeowners to receive the money available to repair their homes. Students at the Pro Bono Project assisted these homeowners in establishing a chain of succession. They spent their time counseling clients and running to City Hall to seek documentation. Students at the New Orleans Legal Assistance Center worked in pairs with legal services lawyers handling consumer, housing, domestic relations, homelessness and public benefit issues. 

Students at the Juvenile Justice Project helped represent children who were charged with delinquency. The flooding resulted in the closing of a large portion of the juvenile detention facility in the city. A young girl spent the night chained to a bench in the jail because there is no facility for girls. The students assisted in gaining her freedom from confinement. Three of the St. Louis attorneys on the trip acquired Provisional Louisiana Law Licenses before the trip and appeared in court representing young clients.

But perhaps those who gained the most from the trip were not the clients assisted by Project Noah but those who sought to help them. By serving the people of New Orleans, the participants on the trip gained insight not only into the lives of those affected by the hurricane but into themselves as well. To be allowed to participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans was a privilege.

Professor McGraugh joined the School of Law in 2002 as an adjunct clinical professor while working with the Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry on a program to help incarcerated mothers with custodial issues. Since joining the School full time in 2003, McGraugh has directed the Criminal Clinic’s internships and externships.