Michigan Bar Journal; October, 2011 - The Power of Pro Bono - By Heidi Naasko

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"While I felt good about volunteering for the bar association, I always felt like I could have done more," he said. "I wanted to take their cases in house and finish the work that I started."

Willis Law established a free legal clinic in 2004. The clinic was first run out of the local public library where librarian Martha Lohrstorfer was helping pro se litigants research their legal matters. When library funding ran out in 2009, the clinic was welcomed by the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, where it currently operates monthly. Willis Law brings four lawyers and several staff members, legal forms, and legal pads.

"We essentially relocate our office for an afternoon," Willis said "We provide full billable-hour credit for our attorney volunteers so they are focused on the task at hand."

The clinic's participants are low income, and most of the cases deal with family law, poverty law, small employment matters, criminal law, probate, and estate issues.

"Many of my clients call on my counselor function rather than my litigator function. They just need someone to help work through life struggles and the bureaucracy holding them back," says Willis. If a case creates a business or ethical confl ict, Willis
refers it to one of his colleagues in the community.

The vast majority of cases don't require that much time to complete, but Willis says a few occasionally go to trial.

"One time, we had a pro bono case go to a jury over an insurance dispute," Willis said. "The opposing counsel fi led so many motions and stacks of discovery that our then-employee, Ryan Wurtzel, stepped up to the plate and devoted hours and hours of
pro bono time to defend our client. Our client needed the $15,000 in insurance benefits because she could not afford the repairs on her house without the money."

The jury returned a verdict in his client's favor. And though Willis didn't earn a fee, he did get a return on his investment of time.

"She did bake us a cake. And that was thanks enough."