CBA Record October 2017

PRO BONOWEEK 2017– FOR THE SAKE OF THE COMMUNITY

Ley’gacy By Ajay Sundar

fast the car was going when she opened the door and rolled out on the highway. He never stopped or slowed the car. She broke her ankle in so many places it was nearly severed from her leg. Found hours later by police, she was arrested for raping and trafficking the young girl. I was ready to help get her past these ridiculous charges and get home. She was victimized at least as much as her “victim,” but the younger girl had been trained by Him to tell the police Tabitha was in con- trol. He still controlled the young girl. But even as she was facing serious crimi- nal charges because of Him, all Tabitha wanted was to make sure Him still loved her. She was 15 years old, and he had taught her this was love. Tabitha needed to get her legal problems addressed so she could get to the rest of her healing. That was my job as her pro bono lawyer. To beat the case, I cross examined a detective who, himself, had not believed the 12-year-old when he interviewed her and heard her tell the story Him told her to tell. But the state brought charges anyway. Only because I could visit my pro bono client every day, was I able to gain her trust and learn that both girls were forced. We proved it through cross of the police and the young girl. Tabitha could not speak or defend herself. Only nod. Because a court was able to reach out for pro bono help, I am proud to say an injustice was thwarted. But the legal solu- tion was only one piece of what Tabitha needed. She and others like her need so much more.

Legislative LiaisonWorkshop A CBA/YLS Committee Legislative Liaison Workshop will be held on Monday, October 30 at the CBA Building. All CBA and YLS Legislative Liaisons are encouraged to attend. For more information on the workshop or to appoint a liaison for your substantive law committee, contact Loretta Wells, CBA Director of Govern- ment Affairs, at 312/554-2060. might connect her back to Him. “Please call Him and tell him I love Him.” What struck me was how every time she said “Him” it was bathed in reverence, passion, devotion and desperation. She told me in broken pieces about the 18 months she was trafficked, even though she couldn’t face that. A runaway after countless fights with her mom, she met Him at a party and to her, it was the most important thing that had ever happened to her. She was mesmerized by him from the second he targeted her. He told her she was so beautiful. He was the first boy who ever had. Him loved her and convinced her to go to Miami to “see the world” with him. In Miami, he first touched her. Exploring led to intimacy, led to being a couple, led to his needing to find money to support their hotel room, led to his suggesting that if she loved him she should help them by being with another boy “just one time,” led to her being sold to another friend, led to one more time, led to every week, led to every day. When she refused, he beat her. That led to his getting a new young girl, led to Him making Tabitha watch the young girl and Him together, led her to teach the young girls to please him and others, led to his watching Tabitha and the young girl have sex, led to selling it to others to watch, led to a gun to Tabitha’s head while Tabitha held the young girl down while he took the young girl every way he wanted. The drugs he made the girls take numbed Tabitha’s physical pain but not the rest. Tabitha didn’t even think about how

At Skadden Arps, lawyers are free to take on pro bono assignments as though they were billable assignments. My hours didn’t start counting until January, so my girl- friend suggested I take a GAL case. The idea excited me. There was something dif- ferent about being a Guardian Ad Litem. Something real. Then, I got my first and very real case. The mother had a history of homeless- ness and untreated bipolar disorder. She refused to take any prescription, preferring to self-medicate with marijuana. “I’m a be honest–I smoke a LOT,” she said, her eyes unflinching. But she was smart. She knew her grandmother had guardianship. She knew she had rights as the mother. And she was willing to fight to make sure that everybody understood that fact. The grandmother was a sweet, elderly woman on government benefits. She lived with her disabled husband and eight grand- children. The grandmother had lost her house to a reverse mortgage scam, and now rented month to month. Despite this, she felt optimistic about the future of herself and her kin. Any hesitations I had about the case melted away when I saw Ley’gacy, a viva- cious eight year old with the resilience of a Spartan. Despite what she’d been through, her eyes were bright with wonder and opti- mism. “It’s snowing,” she said. I looked out the window and saw a few flakes. “I heard we’re supposed to get a couple of inches this week,” I said. “I hope so,” she replied. “I love snow.” “Me too,” I said, although it has been years since I’d had an opinion about snow. She smiled, and in her eyes I saw why I signed up for the case. The first month of the case went by in a gray blur of appointments and investi- gations. As luck would have it, I quickly became embroiled in a billable deal, a massive M&A assignment that absorbed time and energy. I managed to balance my responsibilities until, one day, the phone rang while I was drafting the first agree-

Angela Vigil is the Pro Bono Partner and Executive Director of Pro Bono Practice at Baker McKenzie.

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