ATJ Pro Bono Champion
The ATJ Pro Bono Champion is a quarterly feature highlighting the work of an attorney chosen by the Texas Access to Justice Commission. To learn more about pro bono work in Texas or to get involved, go to probonotexas.org.
Fawaz A. Bham
Interview by Adam Faderewski
Photo courtesy of Fawaz A. Bham
Fawaz A. Bham is an associate of Hunton Andrews Kurth in
Dallas, where he serves on the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. He launched
and leads the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s virtual legal clinic
platform in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bham leads the DVAP small
business clinics in the Dallas area and volunteers at the Dallas Bar
Association LegalLine clinics.
What kind of pro bono do you do and how long have you been doing
it?
Since joining the Texas Bar in 2013, I have worked on different pro
bono matters including forming LLCs, drafting estate documents,
volunteering at legal clinics, advising entrepreneurs on small business
issues, assisting immigrants preparing personal statements for their
immigration applications, presenting real estate 101 seminars, and being
part of a team litigating to resolve clients’ issues. Prior to the
pandemic, a pro bono initiative that took the majority of my pro bono
time was organizing and leading in-person small business clinics with an
array of community partners in Dallas, such as the Dallas Volunteer
Attorney Program, WiNGs, Texas CBAR, LiftFund DFW Women’s Business
Center, BCL of Texas, and many more organizations. We created these
clinics a bit differently than other intake clinics by allowing clients
to hold a one-on-one consultation with the volunteering attorney for 15
minutes to discuss any small business issues they may be facing
regardless of whether or not the client may ultimately qualify for
further assistance due to a particular organization’s income/revenue
qualification requirements. This allowed the clients to sit down with a
professional to gain meaningful insights into their legal issues and
possible solutions for their business. Clients left the clinic more
oriented in understanding what resources they may need to consult and
the direction they may need to take their business to continue their
success.
Why is pro bono important to you?
While it is often easier to think of an attorney’s career in a linear
fashion (i.e., the more time billed to matters involving one’s
specialty, the better attorney that results), I believe it is the time
you commit to other causes while upholding the high standards of your
practice that increases your intellectual stamina, deepens your resolve
to excel in this demanding profession, and accelerates the use of your
legal knowledge to real-world matters. Hearing a pro bono client’s
issues quickly places an attorney’s own daily struggles in perspective
and assisting a pro bono client with their issues is often akin to
restoring their faith in our legal system. Every time you are given the
opportunity to serve, try to avail it!
What have you learned from doing pro bono?
I am always amazed at how many resources from different organizations
are available to assist attorneys who are volunteering in a practice
area that is different than their own practice and how colleagues,
judicial staff, judges, and others step up to assist you when you are
assisting others. I learned early on that the hardest aspect of pro bono
work is actually stepping up. The resources, answers, guidance, and
practical tips all come because you essentially join a pro bono
community that has the same goal in mind—placing your client in a better
place than he or she was in before you volunteered to help. I have also
learned different areas of law that I would never have ventured into but
for the pro bono work. My advice to young lawyers starting out in the
field is to start pro bono work sooner than when they feel “ready” and
just take the leap.
What would you say to an attorney who is thinking about doing pro bono
for the first time?
It only takes a limited interaction with a pro bono client to remember
how fundamental and essential the pro bono help one offers is for
clients and to realize how your small drop in the pro bono service
bucket ripples into an incredible wave of relief in their lives. Pro
bono work expands your scope of legal knowledge, promotes your own
business development, and reenergizes your legal passion. Pro bono work
is an indispensable part of being the best lawyer you can be,
period.
Share one of your favorite pro bono success stories.
Since April 2020, my focus has changed from driving in-person clinics to
creating and leading the first-ever virtual legal intake clinic platform
for the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program. DVAP was forced to close all
of its 14 in-person clinics in March, and soon thereafter, we were able
to deliver a platform taking the in-person clinics virtual. Since April,
the platform has enabled us to hold a virtual clinic every week where
volunteering attorneys connect with clients seeking assistance with
divorce, custody, landlord/tenant, employment, estate, small business
issues, and other legal issues. To date, we have held close to 30
clinics and helped over 1,500 applicants in the Dallas area. The
platform is a win for our community because of the increase of
accessibility to pro bono services, a win for our colleagues because it
provides greater flexibility in when and how attorneys can provide pro
bono services with resources at their fingertips, and a win for DVAP
because it has streamlined the clinic process enabling DVAP to
ultimately help even more individuals that need help the most. It has
been a rewarding experience because during this pandemic, everyone is
taking a leap in the technology space and it was finally time to move
pro bono legal services into the next realm as well.TBJ
