Legal Aid

Emeka Orjiakor spent his first six months as a real estate lawyer in a sleek glass-and-steel downtown high-rise. Now he's feeling more down to earth in the humble offices of a public-service practice, helping the poor fight foreclosure and eviction. Orjiakor, an associate at Sidley Austin LLP since September, is on loan -- at a substantial pay cut -- to the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice through a program designed to retain young talent whose jobs are disappearing in the recession.

Maria de Leon and her husband, Jesus Batista, were on the verge of homelessness when they arrived at the nonprofit Inner City Law Center on skid row. They'd always paid their rent on time and never complained to their landlord, even as conditions in their unit deteriorated. But then their landlord fell into foreclosure and the bank holding the mortgage attempted -- illegally -- to evict the family. A man who had promised to help with the eviction disappeared with $1,400 of the couple's money.

Richard Massey's suburban Anaheim home was valued at $700,000 two years ago when the bills for his cancer surgery came due and he had to tap the equity to pay them. The cosmetics company executive had lost his job and health insurance just before getting ill -- the start of a run of bad luck that accelerated with the real estate meltdown and has left the 50-year-old and his disabled wife facing eviction from their foreclosed home.

California is embarking on an unprecedented civil court experiment to pay for attorneys to represent poor litigants who find themselves battling powerful adversaries in vital matters affecting their livelihoods and families. The program is the first in the nation to recognize a right to representation in key civil cases and provide it for people fighting eviction, loss of child custody, domestic abuse or neglect of the elderly or disabled. Advocates for the poor say the law, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this week, levels the legal playing field and gives underprivileged litigants a better shot at attaining justice against unscrupulous landlords, abusive spouses, predatory lenders and other foes.

A Los Angeles-based law organization Wednesday launched a program to provide free legal assistance to veterans who hit bureaucratic roadblocks when filing claims for federal medical and mental health benefits. Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm, will offer the free service throughout Southern California and, in partnership with other volunteer attorneys, in more than 25 states. "Many veterans who return home to their families are facing a system that routinely rejects their benefit claims," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a Veterans Day news conference to announce the effort.

The first trial in November's Mumbai terrorist attacks was abruptly adjourned an hour after police pulled a large cloth off the head of the defendant to reveal the blinking, scruffy-bearded Pakistani who police say is the lone surviving gunman. The presiding judge ordered the much-anticipated proceedings delayed after dismissing the defense lawyer for suspect Ajmal Amir Kasab for a conflict of interest. Trial Judge M.L. Tahiliyani said legal aid lawyer Anjali Waghmare failed to disclose that she had agreed to represent a victim in a compensation claim case, who is also a witness against Kasab.

As former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona prepares for trial on criminal charges that he sold access to his office for cash, favors and gifts, he has retained the best lawyers money can buy. And he's getting them nearly free of charge. Jones Day, the fourth-largest law firm in the United States, with 2,300 lawyers worldwide and estimated annual revenue of $1.3 billion, has agreed to represent Carona on a pro bono basis.

A lawsuit filed in federal court last week alleges that a company that purports to offer legal services to low-income people nationwide instead preys on them. According to the suit filed in Denver, the victims had asked for assistance from Legal Aid National Services of Aurora, Colo. -- or one of a dozen related entities -- thinking that they were dealing with a legitimate provider of services for low-income persons.

Upon hearing his name, Alberto Pancho walked alone to the front of the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles. "Do you have a lawyer?" the immigration judge asked during a recent hearing. Pancho, a native of Equatorial Guinea whose student visa had expired, explained that the attorney to whom he had paid $5,000 didn't show up at the last hearing and he couldn't find another one. "You told me if I didn't have a lawyer I'd have to represent myself," he said.

The loose-leaf binders on Beverly Hills attorney Paul Kiesel's blond wood shelves contain hundreds of stories alleging deception, loss and heartache. Kiesel is representing struggling homeowners who contend they were misled about the terms of their mortgages. He is far from the only lawyer finding himself busy these days as a result of the hard economic times.