Recently, a group of Washington lawyers left their successful lives behind for an alien world.
For a few hours, they assumed new identities. They struggled in school. They lost their jobs. They faced eviction. Bill collectors and criminals haunted their footsteps and they were helpless to defend themselves.
They were poor.
They were participants in a National Pro Bono Week “poverty simulation” workshop sponsored by the National Council of Lawyers. The Oct. 24 program, held at Mayer Brown LLP, was designed to help the legal community better understand the hardships faced by the poor, and to to encourage attorneys to volunteer their time to help low-income people address their legal problems.
During the three-hour interactive training session, known as “Walk a Month in My Shoes,” each participant was asked to step into the life story of a potential client in need of help. Each was assigned a difficult and challenging circumstance that might be faced by a low-income individual attempting to navigate the tricky legal system.
The workshop was led by Tiela Chalmers, a consultant with the organization Access to Justice.
“The purpose of the simulation is to give you all, the participants, a chance to experience what it’s like to live in a low-income community and face the challenges and struggles everyday that members of those communities face,” Chalmers said.
“It’s going to offer you a chance to have some insight into why people make the decisions they do and what you might take into consideration as you work with clients in your daily life,” she added.
The role-play simulated a one-month time frame, with each week consuming four 15-20 minute periods. The participants were divided into “families” ranging in size from one to five persons. There were tables set up throughout the room representing various government agencies: the police, schools, and the department of social services. There was a homeless shelter and businesses like pawn shops, liquor stores and banks.
Each family group was was assigned a different life scenario, and volunteers lived the life of that family for one “month,” trying to work and access benefits, buy food, and maintain housing. The adults had to go to work, kids had to go to school, and the family had to eat and get their bills paid, just like a regular family. The family also had to cope with adverse circumstances as they arose.
Ravi Desai, a lawyer for the firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, played the role of a 15-year-old girl. The parents in the family struggled to make ends meet. According to Desai, during the simulation his family couldn’t pay the bills. He had to pretend like he wasn’t home because bill collectors frequently called the house. His family or her family really tried to get by week by week.
Bread for the City lawyer Esther Adetunji was a 25-year-old homeless man for the simulation. This man had no family support but still had to maintain a job. He didn’t get food until the third week in the simulation and had nowhere to go or no one to turn to.
“I had nothing to do,” said Adetunji.
After the simulation, the participants held a debrief led by Chalmers to discuss their experience.
Many of the attorneys in the room recognized that it was difficult to play the role because they themselves grew up in middle or upper class families and that it was hard to forget the benefits that they had growing up. Their real life experience informed how they interacted or dealt with certain situations in the simulation.
So what should the attorneys have taken away from this simulation? Marcia Maack, Assistant Director of Pro Bono Activities for Mayer Brown LLP, says that it is crucial for a lawyer to have an understanding of clients’ circumstances beyond the legal issues.
“Trying to accommodate their difficult circumstances is important,” Maack said.
