The American Bar Association (ABA) recently released a video highlighting how law students can get involved in pro bono work, using the efforts of Jeff Jiang ’22 and other law students on a wide-ranging benefits case in Appalachia as an example of the impact law students can have on the lives of clients in need. Jiang is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School and was a clinical student in the Safety Net Project at the Legal Services Center.
Law students should get involved in pro bono to understand what they can actually do and what they can actually accomplish in the world.
– Jeff Jiang ’22
The video, released as part of a Law School Pro Bono Toolkit from the ABA’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono & Public Service, details how attorney Eric Conn perpetrated the largest Social Security fraud in American history, falsifying documents and paying bribes instead of pursuing his clients’ legitimate applications for disability benefits. When Conn’s fraud was exposed, his former clients, who had no knowledge of his illegal scheme, faced the loss of their benefits. For many, this meant losing their only source of income, and it had grave consequences in their everyday lives. A coalition of attorneys in Appalachia worked tirelessly to right this wrong, bringing in pro bono attorneys and students like Jiang from across the country to argue cases on half of Conn’s clients.