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NEW YORK, NY March 30, 2005 —Not all New York lawyers make six figure salaries and get to work in offices with expensive art and views of the Manhattan skyline. The New York State Bar Association says about a quarter of its members in New York City work in small firms with fewer than 10 attorneys. A program at CUNY Law School in Queens is helping these kinds of lawyers stay afloat while also serving low-income clients. WNYC’s Beth Fertig has more.

Jasmine Edwards knew all her life that she wanted to be a lawyer. But she didn’t know what type of law she wanted to practice until she worked as a paralegal in a big law firm after college.

EDWARDS: There was no real client. The client was a big company that you know, they sent a representative to pay the bill but you never really met a person behind that huge company. I didn’t feel I was doing anything except running around in a hamster’s wheel.

Today, Edwards is far away from the corporate world. The 29 year old attorney works in a storefront office in Bedford Stuyvesant where she handles everything from real estate to immigration issues. She has one partner. There’s no law library. And no paralegals. But Edwards does have a network of other attorneys like herself she can turn to over the internet.

EDWARDS: You’re going to see how many emails I have a day like 300 because there are so many attorneys going back and forth.

Edwards belongs to the Community Legal Resource Network. It’s a program for graduates of CUNY Law school who work on their own, or in small practices. Edwards says they’re able to help each other with their cases – like lawyers in a bigger firm.

EDWARDS: If I have family law question I call certain people or email them because they’re really like partners, yeah, in a sense.

But the CUNY network is more than just Friendster for lawyers.

ROONEY: What we’re trying to do is to help people strike a balance. A balance between doing well and doing good.

Fred Rooney is director of the Community Legal Resource Network. He was also a member of the first class to graduate from CUNY Law school in 1986. Most of CUNY’s graduates work in small practices scattered in communities throughout the city. Rooney says these are the lawyers who are best suited to help the 60 or 70 percent of New Yorkers who can’t afford a lawyer.

ROONEY: We’re doing that by resourcing lawyers in small firms and solo practice who are willing and able to go and either reduce their fees, slide their fees, take into consideration the economic needs of their client.

Rooney calls this Low Bono legal assistance. By joining forces, he says attorneys can save time and money – savings they can then pass on to their clients. More than 200 graduates have joined the network since it started in 1998 with private grants. They can take classes on running a small business. They get access to legal research tools over the internet which many of them couldn’t otherwise afford. And they can take their required continuing legal education courses at the law school campus in Queens.

LAWYER: It doesn’t matter whether the state of NY calls it a misdemeanor or felony.

Classes like this one on immigration law cost just 10 dollars for members of the CUNY network. Mercedes Cano, who runs her own practice in Jackson Heights, says it’s a bargain compared to what the bar associations would charge.

CANO: You will pay 150 dollars for a course like this. We’re getting it for the price of a pizza – ten dollars. Not only that you get to connect with other attorneys and you know the school is reaching out and helping you.

Cano and the other lawyers say these savings do allow them to lower their fees for needy clients who might not qualify for Legal Aid. Eric Torres works mostly with landlords and tenants in the Bronx.

TORRES: You know today I had a client, the case is worth about $2500. I can’t charge him full price because he’s already in debt – cause that’s what his case is about and I just lower the price for them. And then I give them a long and extended payment plan.

Of course, juggling the demands of a private practice can also be quite stressful. Which is why the CUNY network offers its members a little release.

YOGA TEACHER: Good draw your left knee back, good release your shoulders down.

Lawyers and students can take weekly yoga and meditation classes at the school’s Contemplative Urban Law program. Jean Anselmo is the coordinator.

ANSELMO: This keeps people in touch with the fuel that they need to be able to calm themselves, deal with the stresses and keep centered to be at their best.

With so many resources, CUNY is now at the forefront of a growing movement to help lawyers who work in small practices. There are 17 law schools around the country that offer similar programs through an umbrella organization called the Law School Consortium Project. They include New York Law School, which is starting one this Fall. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.