LAWYERS RALLY TO SIDE OF THE HOMELESS

On a bitter night in December, a high-powered team of lawyers headed for heating grates at 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, for a fire barrel near Fifth and K streets, for all the spots where homeless people gather for warmth.

Led by John W. Nields Jr., former chief counsel to the House Iran-contra panel, the team was on a mission of legal research. They were representing advocate for the homeless Mitch Snyder and scores of homeless people throughout the District. For the crew from the prominent firm of Howrey & Simon, work had never been quite like this.

Huddled in Nields' Plymouth or crouched under street lights, the lawyers interviewed the homeless about crowding and poor conditions at the city's shelters. A notary public traveled from site to site, certifying the witnesses' statements.

Within days, those affidavits became ammunition in a class action lawsuit against the city. And last month, the lawsuit ended in a major victory for the homeless -- a court settlement requiring the city to vastly improve conditions and provide more shelters.

In the months between, the firm would throw as many as 10 lawyers into the case, and, all told, about 5,000 hours of their time -- time worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In recent years, as the homeless have captured headlines and galvanized public opinion, the issue has become the pro bono passion of the 1980s -- the cause to which lawyers love to donate their time.

The reasons? It depends on whom you ask.

"It is a visible and crying need," Nields said simply.

"Homelessness is not a partisan battle . . . . It is not an ideological crusade," said Robert Hayes, who left one of New York's top firms and started the Coalition for the Homeless. "That is the appeal."

And Marla Hollandsworth, who runs a legal program for the homeless in Baltimore, has her own thoughts on the subject. "Because it's sexy right now, homelessness is sexy," she said. "Abortion, civil rights or, god forbid, gay rights, are controversial. We may be ambivalent {about those issues} , but homeless people . . . everybody agrees that's terrible."

Bar associations throughout the country can never seem to fill the need for free legal services to the poor. The D.C. Bar's program, for instance, was forced to stop taking calls briefly on two occasions this year, said Tony Cramer, head of the Bar's public service activities. "The membership is making a solid effort," he said. "But the need is just so great now that we are going to have to have more involvement."

But when it comes to the homeless, lawyers are clamoring to get involved, and programs are proliferating throughout the country.

In Boston, one program matches lawyers in private practice with nonprofit groups that want to build housing for the homeless. The program has caught fire with lawyers who don't usually get involved in work for the poor.

"The average corporate or tax attorney may say, 'I'd like to help out on issues of housing, but poor people don't have corporate problems, or need tax advice,' " said David M. Abromowitz, one of the program's founders. "Now, we expose them to opportunities in their own field."

In Los Angeles, law firms are signing up in droves for a program in which law students with summer jobs volunteer to help homeless people seeking benefits at county welfare offices. Last summer, firms were "falling all over each other . . . waiting to participate," said Steven Nissen, the project's coordinator. "Can you imagine the phenomenon of having law firms demanding to volunteer?"

The University of Maryland Law School offers a course in policy and law affecting the homeless, and at Yale, law students participate in a seminar in which they work to develop low-income housing. Lawyers already in practice want to learn about the homeless as well, and one of their major educational programs is catering to that need.

In February, Hayes taught a course called "Rights of the Homeless" at the Hyatt Regency in Miami.

"To preach the gospel of representing homeless people in a luxury hotel conference center, now that is a little nutty," Hayes said. But he said he's just glad lawyers are listening.

And listening, they are. The American Bar Association started a project last year to promote local legal programs for the homeless, hoping to establish 25 within the year, according to Paul L. Friedman, a D.C. lawyer who is cochairman of the project's steering committee. "We exceeded that goal in our first four months," he said. "Nothing has been as successful in attracting lawyers as homeless problems throughout the country."

The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, one of the pioneers in the field, started with about 20 volunteers and now has more than 200, said Susie Sinclair-Smith, its director. "We had to turn people away from the last recruitment program," she said. The D.C. Bar's training room wasn't big enough to accommodate them.

The clinic sends lawyers to shelters and soup kitchens to interview prospective clients. If their problems can't be handled on the spot, the cases go to the clinic to be parceled out to other volunteers.

Carol Oberdorfer, a D.C. lawyer and legal editor at the Bureau of National Affairs, sets up shop one Friday a month at Rachel's Women's Center. Some clients there seek custody of children. Others need help in coping with government bureaucracies. One woman was raped and complained of treatment at a hospital. Another was seeking a visa to remain in the United States.

"You are humbled by the things you hear," Oberdorfer said, "and that is reason enough to do it."

The clinic also has collected information about broader problems, and sometimes plays a "brokering role" to get major firms involved, according to Sinclair-Smith.

It was at Sinclair-Smith's recruitment session in December that Snyder sought a top law firm, and ended up with Howrey & Simon to take his shelter case. For several years, Snyder has had no problem attracting the best for major lawsuits.

Court action in the District has led to the establishment of major rights for the homeless. Legal battles helped ensure a place on the ballot for Initiative 17, which established the city's obligation to give overnight shelter to those who request it. Last month's settlement fleshed out their rights under that initiative.

Stephen Easley, who worked with Nields on the case, said: "All the negative stuff you hear about lawyers, it can poison your mind against your own profession. But a case like this can make you feel that what you do is important to people . . . that you can really make a difference in people's lives."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.