PROBONO Bulletin - Summer 2008 - (Page 4)

CovER SToRy THE PRoBLEM oF HEIRS’ PRoPERTy In the wake of Coastal Mississippi’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi Development Authority, acting through HUD, made grants available to affected homeowners who met certain minimal criteria. Generally speaking, applicants had to prove that they 1) carried homeowners’ insurance that didn’t entirely cover their losses; 2) used the home as their primary residence on the date the hurricane struck; and 3) owned the home at the time of the disaster. To most American homeowners, proving any of these factors would not be particularly difficult. However, for cultural reasons, in some of the regions affected by Katrina, it has been difficult for many individuals to provide that proof. In many of these communities, a significant portion of real property had already fallen into a condition called “heirs’ property” — shorthand for a fractured state of ownership that results from generations of intestate succession following the death of the record title holder. Hurricane Katrina didn’t create this condition, but it exacerbated it. Heirs’ property results from a number of root causes. In some communities, creating wills is considered an invitation to misfortune. In addition, many of these communities have historically had little access to the legal system, much less estate-planning advice. As a result, S STReNgTHeNINg THe gULF REBUILDInG EFFoRTS R informal property distribution systems have arisen, existing silently but in parallel with state intestate succession laws. For instance, in many families, if the youngest child takes care of elderly, ailing parents, the entire family regards that child as the sole owner of the family home once the parents pass away. The ultimate result of this informal system, however, is that owners of heirs’ property cannot do what most middle-class homeowners can: sell, mortgage or refinance their homes. Even before Hurricane Katrina, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCR) and its Mississippi Gulf Coast affiliate, the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ), were doing the very difficult work of helping clients with such problems to obtain clear title to COaST their property. DLA PIPER’S InvoLvEMEnT DLA Piper’s response to the hurricane came in stages. We began by sending donations and groups of volunteer workers to the Gulf Coast. Next, our volunteers went to the Gulf Coast to staff legal aid clinics and take on FEMA appeals cases. At the time, Jay Epstien, chair of the US Real Estate group, and Pro Bono Partner Lisa Dewey (both Washington, DC) were seeking to identify the first practice group-sponsored signature project. LCCR suggested that DLA Piper could create a project to help those whom the hurricane had left in dire need. The needs of the owners of heirs’ property and the skills of the US Real Estate Group were a natural fit. anderia anderia Steward (Chicago), whose family experienced first-hand devastation as a result of Hurricane Katrina, is active in gulf Coast ulf outreach efforts. Last year, she traveled with the Indiana Leadership Forum (ILF) to Washington, DC. There, she and ILF members attended numerous meetings at the Capitol, gathered with leaders from the Israeli embassy and Department of agriculture griculture as well as reporters from C-Span and participated in briefings at the Pentagon and the White House. Through ILF, she was selected by the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to attend The White House Conference on Disaster Relief and Preparedness. anderia anderia comments, “The conference was designed to highlight how faith-based community organizations and the government could further work together in order to help strengthen the gulf gulf Coast rebuilding efforts. I am most appreciative of our firm’s ulf commitment to the gulf Coast region. Together, we are helping to restore the gulf Coast — one person and family at a time.” 04 | PRO BONO BULLETIN

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of PROBONO Bulletin - Summer 2008

PROBONO Bulletin - Summer 2008 Contents A Firm Response to a Natural Disaster Protecting Our Electorate National News An Interview with Sandy Gohn Mapping Impact FourThought Signature Project Update New Perimeter Launches Addis Ababa Law School Project Awards and Recognition What Our Clients Say About Us

PROBONO Bulletin - Summer 2008

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