Dallas Bar Association
HEADNOTES
Focus Labor & Employment Law
November 2009 Volume 33 Number 11
Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year By Cherika Latham
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Being able to help people” was central to Amanda B. “Mandy” Childs’ decision to enter the legal field. She’s building that legacy as the 2009 recipient of the Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award. When describing her recent pro bono work with the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program (DVAP), the 7th year Jones Day associate beamed as she told about clients paying what would have been over 700 billable hours in hugs and homemade cookies. Chosen for her evidenced dedication to pro bono work, Mandy was the first to blaze the trail for Jones Day in DVAP’s Lend-A-Lawyer Program. She credits the firm with fostering a commitment to give back and providing an opportunity to do so full time for 3 months at the DVAP office location while the firm continued to pay her salary and benefits. Sally Crawford, who Mandy affectionately refers to as the Pro Bono Queen, is a Jones Day Partner who coordinates pro bono service for the Dallas office and was herself a recipient of the 2005 award. Summarizing Mandy’s energy and excitement as a “shot in the arm for the pro bono program” at Jones Day, Ms. Crawford is quick to return the praises. She noted that Mandy is “very passionate about doing pro bono work,” which is leading to greater interest at the firm. Although Jones Day does not have a mandatory pro bono requirement for its associates, Mandy has a personal goal of continuing to help those who need access to her legal services. She says part of that commitment is due to the Jones Day culture. As one of the founding members of the Jones Day Dallas Associate Pro Bono Committee, Mandy continues to set the pace for innovative ways to match pro bono work with associates. The committee matches associates with pro bono matters in a meaningful and consistent way. Mandy credits the Lend-A-Lawyer program with offering a rigorous and rewarding opportunity. Her personal experience included making two to three court appearances per week, adeptly handling a range of legal matters spanning varied areas of law. When asked about her fondest DVAP experience, she recalled a writ of habeas victory that returned a son to his mother. The attorneys at Jones Day built on Mandy’s win in a big way, striking an on-going partnership with DVAP to handle all emergency cases when the rights and lives of children are involved – matters that might not otherwise be addressed due to time and resource constraints. Thanks to Ms. Childs, Jones Day and DVAP, even more legal resources will be available to those in need. For more information, visit www.dallasbar.org, or contact Alicia Her HN nandez at ahernandez@dallasbar.org. Cherika N. Latham serves as in-house counsel at GuideStone Financial Resources of the SBC. She can be contacted at Cherika.Latham@guidestone.org.
Jones Day: Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year By Claire E. Swann
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he Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program presented the Dallas office of Jones Day with the Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year Award at the annual awards reception October 1. Each year, DVAP, a joint project of the Dallas Bar Association and Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, honors the lawyers, judges, court reporters, paralegals and other support staff who donate pro bono services. This year, the award for Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year was given to the Dallas office of Jones Day, which donated several thousand hours of pro bono services in the last year to DVAP clients. Furthermore, over 90 of the firm’s Dallas lawyers participated in the program by staffing clinics or taking cases. In addition to Jones Day’s pro bono work with DVAP, it is also involved in other pro bono activities throughout Dallas, including Catholic Charities, Dallas Legal Sally Crawford, a partner at Jones Day, accepts the firm’s Hospice, the Housing Crisis award for Firm of the Year. Center, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, the National Veterans Legal Services Program – Lawyers Serving Warriors and the District Attorneys Offices for Grand Prairie and Dallas. Within the last year, the Dallas office of Jones Day has significantly increased its commitment to pro bono services. During this time, a group of associates at Jones Day formed the Jones Day Dallas Associate Pro Bono Committee to help associates get more involved in pro bono activity. This committee has partnered with several pro bono service providers in Dallas to help staff emergency pro bono cases for which there would otherwise be no representation. The Dallas office also joined DVAP’s Lend-a-Lawyer program, lending two associates to DVAP for three months apiece while continuing to pay their salaries and benefits. Sean Whyte was one of the associates that Jones Day selected for the DVAP Lend-aLawyer program. Mr. Whyte stated that it was important to work for a firm with a strong commitment to pro bono work. When asked what he gained from his work with the Lend-a-Lawyer program, he stated, “I had the opportunity to try cases, argue hearings and handle cases from beginning to end. It was a great opportunity to grow as a lawyer, but it also immersed me in all aspects of providing legal services to people who cannot otherwise afford it and showed me how many people need that type of help. The experi HN ence inspired me to commit even more of my time to pro bono activities.” Claire Swann is an associate attorney in the municipal law section of Abernathy, Roeder, Boyd, Joplin P.C. She can be contacted at cswann@abernathy-law.com.
Using the Internet to Research Applicants By Ron Chapman, Jr.
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any employers believe the traditional methods of considering an applicant are insufficient. Routine background checks do not reveal the type of information an employer really wants to know. Checking references can be burdensome and often unproductive since most companies provide very limited information. Even face-to-face interviews of the candidates themselves are frequently ineffective at determining whether the interviewees are a good “fit”
for the particular job and workplace. Faced with these limitations, employers are “mining” the Internet for whatever information they can find. There are over 70 million blogs on the Web, and more than 100 million people maintain personal Web pages on social networking sites. Studies show at least 25 percent of employers check these sites and blogs when compiling information on applicants. There are two categories of risks associated with using Internet searches to obtain information on applicants: (1) risks from
searching for and obtaining information; and (2) risks based on how the employer uses the information learned. Currently, no federal or Texas statute specifically prohibits employers from obtaining or utilizing information gleaned from Internet searches on applicants. Nevertheless, information learned in such searches may implicate several federal statutes, including: n Fair Credit Reporting Act – An employer that conducts its own background or reference checks is not subject to the FCRA, and the FCRA does not specifically
Inside 6 Bench Bar Conference 8 Federal Law Reemployment Rights for Qualifying Veterans 13 When DOL Knocks on Company Doors
prohibit an employer’s Internet search for information on an applicant. However, if the employer uses a third party to conduct a background check that includes an Internet search, the employer would be subject to the FCRA. In that case, the FCRA requires the employer to provide the applicant written notifications and to obtain the applicant’s written authorization. Furthermore, if the employer relies on the information obtained in denying a job to continued on page 12