summer 2020 justice in action

Gregory Zlotnick won the Pro Bono Coordinator Award at the 2020 Texas Indigent Defense Awards. We asked him about his work as Director of Pro Bono Programs at the St. Mary’s University’s Center for Legal and Social Justice, the future of pro bono work in a time of social distancing, and the ways he and his students continue to help those in need of legal assistance.

During the 2019-2020 school year, 359 law students worked for more than 3,300 hours through various St. Mary’s programs managed by Zlotnick.

Zlotnick has served as the pro bono coordinator at the St. Mary’s University School of Law since August 2014. Before that, he worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Fort Worth. Zlotnick also had a private practice in San Antonio. At St. Mary’s, he oversaw the implementation of a community service graduation requirement for law students, resulting in a significant expansion of the school’s pro bono programs.

Pro bono programs done in conjunction with TRLA include a psychiatric advance directive workshop, a pro se divorce clinic, and a clinic on alternatives to traditional guardianship done with TRLA and Disability Rights Texas.

Justice In Action: You manage many pro bono programs at St. Mary’s. Did you create any of those yourself? Which are the biggest drivers of pro bono work?

Some of them have started since I joined six years ago. I’m cautious to say that I’ve created them. Ideas have come from different partners and our students, too.

One example is our Supported Decision-Making Workshop. It’s about alternatives to guardianship: Folks with disabilities can name a supporter to help them in their decision-making process. It’s a process that empowers the person with disabilities to make decisions with the help of their supporter.

That idea came from Leslie Alvarez, one of our students who was interning with TRLA and now works with Disability Rights Texas. That’s a program with a great collaboration with TRLA.

So I view my job as helping to facilitate on the back end. As a former professor of mine said, you have to view paperwork as a vocation. In a coordinating role like mine, sometimes it’s just making sure that people are getting in touch with the right folks. It’s making sure that you’ve got rooms booked for a training. It’s making that students feel prepared to go out and do what they need. It’s a way of keeping the trains running on time.

JIA: Do you view a lot of your job as empowering your students’ ideas?

There are several other programs that have come from students. Like our reentry clinic working with returning citizens on expunctions and non-disclosures of parts of folks’ criminal records. That was another idea that a student approached about. With the help of TRLA, we were able to get started a month before the pandemic hit. So we’ve been pivoting some of that stuff online.

My job is to help the students.

They’re not just the leaders of our bar to come. They’re leaders already.

JIA: Speaking of the pandemic, you helped create a hotline specifically to help Texans with virus-related housing issues. You have worked on the hotline yourself as an attorney. How many people have used this service, and how have you been able to help them?

From June 1 to August 17, about 363 people. Of those, 78 needed legal advice beyond general information. . . So it has been nice to be able to connect. Sometimes I’ve been able to direct them over to programs to help assist with rental payments. That’s a real tangible outcome. It’s not necessarily some big legal victory, but it’s a real victory, because that’s peace of mind and that’s a stable place to stay for at least the duration of the assistance.

And for other folks I’ve spoken to, it’s been about identifying what their legal rights are. It may be that they are facing an eviction suit, but because they weren’t served notice, the suit can’t proceed at that point. That can be temporary, but that is also a benefit. A lot of times, because eviction cases move so quickly and because housing can be so fluid, the difference of having a few extra days or a few extra weeks can make a big difference in people’s lives.

It’s not necessarily the size and scope of victories they make movies about, but we’re not here to make movies, we’re here to try and help folks with their real lives.

JIA: That program is one of several partnerships with TRLA. What has your experience been working with TRLA on these pro bono programs?

What’s inspiring about working with colleagues at TRLA is just to be inspired by the dedication of fellow attorneys and the fact that they provide this expert and thoughtful and effective service to their clients. It motivates me to keep trying to do the best that I can.

JIA: Are there any programs you’d still like to create? Where is the need?

 A common theme that has emerged is that a lot of people’s problems can be fixed with money.

If there were a way for folks to earn more or have access to more financial support, that would make a big difference. It would add to people’s peace of mind. It’s something I come back to. Removing financial barriers, or just adding financial support to the folks we get a chance to work with . . . I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet. There’s so much great work that has been done around legal issues.

The corollary to that is about the great work of our students. Growing the amount of positions in the public interest for new attorneys would be a long-term goal. If we could focus resources in the legal community and philanthropic community to expanding those positions, I think that could be transformative for expanding access to justice.

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