Learning Lab

Practicing public interest law under Rule 1.8(e) with and without a humanitarian exception

Public defenders, Legal Aid lawyers and pro bono attorneys have long faced the reality of trying to help clients with a legal problem while the client also struggles to secure housing, food, clothing, transportation, medical care and other necessities. Advocates are acutely aware that these life challenges often create barriers to effective legal representation. Nonetheless, Rule of Professional Conduct 1.8(e) in most jurisdictions prohibits attorneys from providing financial assistance to clients in connection with pending or contemplated litigation. In 2020, the ABA adopted a new model rule 1.8(e), also known as "the humanitarian exception," allowing public interest lawyers to provide such assistance in certain circumstances and a few states have followed suit. This session will discuss Rule 1.8(e), its application in the context of legal aid and public defender work, and the benefits and challenges related to implementing the humanitarian exception.

Lora Livingston

Judge Livingston is a 1982 graduate of the UCLA School of Law. She began her legal career as a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellow assigned to the Legal Aid Society of Central Texas in Austin, Texas. After completion of the two-year fellowship, she continued to work in the area of poverty law until she entered private practice with an emphasis on family law. She was an Associate at the law firm of Joel B. Bennett, P.C., and a partner at the law firm Livingston & Parr. She began her judicial service as an Associate Judge for the District Courts of Travis County, Texas and after her successful election, Judge Livingston was sworn in as Judge of the 261st District Court in January 1999. She is the first African American woman to serve on a district court in Travis County, Texas. Her judicial colleagues elected her to serve as the Local Administrative District Judge for the Travis County Courts and she led the council of judges for nine years. Her crowning achievement was overseeing the design and construction of the new Travis County Civil and Family Courts Facility (CFCF). Judge Livingston retired in 2022 and is now serving in the judiciary as a Senior Judge. Since her retirement, Judge Livingston has also served as the Interim Director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, as a mediator and as a legal consultant. She is also an Instructor in the Practice Court at the Baylor University School of Law. Judge Livingston has dedicated her legal career to promoting access to justice for all. She is the current President of the Board of Directors of the American Bar Endowment. She is the Texas State Delegate to the House of Delegates to the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association (ABA). She has served on the boards of the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation, Texas Access to Justice Commission, Texas Center for the Judiciary, and the National Association of IOLTA Programs. She is a member of the National Bar Association and the National Association of Women Judges. She has also served on the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID), the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, and the ABA Judicial Division. She has been active in the Austin Bar Association, the Austin Black Lawyers Association, and the Travis County Women Lawyers Association. She is also a proponent of pro bono activities and she has served on the Board of Volunteer Legal Services (formerly Austin Lawyers Care). She was instrumental in the establishment of the Travis County Self-Help Center for selfrepresented litigants and in recognition of her service, the Travis County Law Library and Self-Help Center has been named in her honor. Her support for access to justice initiatives is unwavering. Judge Livingston is a frequent speaker on administrative, procedural, ethical, and substantive legal issues. She served as Dean of the College for New Judges (Texas) and she continues to mentor newer judges. She especially enjoys teaching trial advocacy skills to law students. Judge Livingston has received a number of awards including: the Distinguished Service Award from the National Center for State Courts, the Distinguished Lawyer Award from the Austin Bar Association, the Outstanding Attorney award from the Travis County Women Lawyers Association, the Texas Access to Justice Commission Pro Bono Champion Award, the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation Harold F. Kleinman Award, the Texas Center for the Judiciary Exemplary Judicial Faculty Award, the Lone Star Girl Scouts Council Women of Distinction Award, the Austin Independent School District Community Service Award, the Lotus Award from Asian Family Support Services, the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association, the Jurisprudence Award from the Anti-Defamation League of Austin, and the Distinguished Jurist Award from the African American Lawyers Section of the State Bar of Texas. An active member of the Austin community, Judge Livingston has served on the boards of the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, Capital Area Food Bank, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Tenants Council, Central East Austin Community Organization, YMCA, Austin Area Urban League, El Buen Samaritano, and the Seminary of the Southwest. Judge Livingston is also a graduate of Leadership Austin.

Connor Barusch

Trainer Director

Committee for Public Counsel Services

Connor M. Barusch, Esq., (he/they) is Training Director for Criminal Defense Training and trial attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services (the Massachusetts public defender agency), where he has worked for over a decade.  In addition to work at CPCS, Barusch serves as a faculty member at the National Criminal Defense College. In his spare time, Barusch consults with and trains public defenders across the country on working with transgender clients. He has run courses with the National Association for Public Defense on both working with trans clients and also train-the-trainers for other public defenders looking to train on working with trans clients. Prior to becoming a public defender, Barusch clerked at the Massachusetts Appeals Court, worked at a small LGBT-focused family law firm and helped found a civil legal services clinic that worked with low income transgender clients.

Jeanne Philips-Roth, JD

Associate Director for Client Services

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri

Since September 2009, Jeanne Philips-Roth has been the Associate Director for Client Services at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM), which serves clients in 21 counties, with its main office in St. Louis, Missouri. She assists the Executive Director in various ways, including supervising the managing attorneys of LSEM’s substantive legal programs and its rural branch offices, and working on a variety of projects that impact the agency as a whole such as strategic planning, needs assessment/priorities setting process, program evaluation, the case management system, and reporting to certain funders, including Legal Services Corporation. From 1991 to 2002, she was the Director of Special Projects at LSEM, principally serving clients who were HIV+, representing them in a wide variety of civil matters, as well as through community education and service on multiple planning bodies dealing with HIV/AIDS. She assisted LSEM in project development and grants in behalf of elderly clients, women facing domestic violence, and clients with housing problems. Jeanne worked for the Legal Aid Society of Dayton, and its successor entities, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality and Legal Aid of Western Ohio from 2002 to July 2009. Jeanne also has practiced at two large private law firms, in New York City and St. Louis, in the areas of commercial and securities litigation, and she clerked for the late Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke, of the New York Court of Appeals. She is a 1983 graduate of Fordham Law School (where she was a member of the Fordham Law Review) and received her Bachelor of Arts, at College of the Holy Cross (cum laude) in 1979.

Shannon Lucas

Shannon has worked in legal services for over 20 years. She spent most of that time as the Managing Attorney in the Monroe Office of Legal Service of South Central Michigan where she represented domestic violence survivors in family law and public benefits cases. She currently serves as the Director of Advocacy where she manages the program's six field offices. She also supports MAP's programwide Employment Barrier's Office which focuses on unemployment, expungement and driver's license restoration, and wage protection. Shannon is also involved at the statewide level and supports advocacy efforts around policy.

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Evaluation
2 Questions