CAREY KERSTEN | August 27, 2015
Who, what, where? Jane Warring; Graduate of Emory University Law School; Started her career at Holland & Knight, moved to Robins Kaplan Miller and Ciresi (now Robins Kaplan) in 2008. Left in 2013 with three other colleagues to start the Atlanta office of Clyde & Co US LLP. The Clyde & Co Atlanta office now has 10 attorneys and 6 staff members. I am the current President of the Junior Board of AVLF. There are 23 junior board members at the moment. Our main mission is to encourage involvement in AVLF among the young lawyer community in Atlanta. I’m also on the board of the Stonewall Bar Association. This year I have focused my work there on reaching the community of LGBT legal professionals and their allies in the greater Georgia area. The Association represents LGBT legal professionals and allies throughout Georgia, not just Atlanta. We are a powerful force for equality and this year, in particular, we can see the impact the legal profession continues to have on expanding equality for all persons.
How did you get involved with Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation? I first got involved in AVLF as a first-year associate at Holland & Knight. The firm sponsored a Saturday Lawyers Program and I volunteered to go. I had no idea what AVLF was or what I would be doing. Back then, AVLF Saturday Lawyers was hosted in Atlanta Legal Aid’s downtown offices and the Program was run by Michael Lucas. I was immediately impressed by how organized things were and how many clients we were able to serve in just 3 hours. I saw 3 clients. I took 1 case and brought the other 2 back to the associates in my office. My first case was a lemon law situation. I called the car dealer and spoke to him over the phone, followed up with a letter, and he took the car back! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to help this client. In one week, I accomplished what he had been unable to accomplish in months of conversations. It was the first time I realized how much good I could do with my law degree.
Give us your best elevator pitch – what does AVLF mean to you? AVLF provides legal professionals – lawyers / paralegals – with an opportunity to profoundly impact the lives of individuals in need. Through AVLF, you can make a real difference, and better yet, you can get to know the person you are helping and see the good you have done first-hand. This is what life is about: using your skills and talents to make the world a better place. While I enjoy all types of volunteering, as lawyers we are uniquely positioned to help in a way others cannot. It is critical work – sometimes even life and death – and we are here to do that work. AVLF is the most organized and effective volunteer group I have experienced. AVLF’s programs are extremely well run and they make it incredibly easy on their volunteers by providing training, on-going assistance through the life of a case, and flexible volunteer opportunities for even the busiest attorneys. One of my favorite things about AVLF is that they see the whole picture and they make you see it too. It’s not about filing a case and getting a judgment. It’s about restoring a sense of dignity and control to a person who has been wronged or ignored. When that is your goal, you cannot fail. As Cole Thaler recently reminded a group of volunteers, “You may be the first person who has actually listened to this client and made them feel heard, and that alone is a huge weight off their shoulders.”
What is your favorite AVLF moment? I have so many. One of my favorite AVLF moments was celebrating the 88th birthday of one of my former clients at a cafeteria in East Point. Last than a year before, Mr. Sims had been living in a bed-bug infested studio apartment, sleeping in a recliner to avoid the bugs, cooking every meal over the one functioning burner on his stove. Meeting Mr. Sims changed my life. Never had I been so close to someone so poor, so alone, and so vulnerable. Never had I had an opportunity to help someone so profoundly. I thank AVLF for that opportunity every time I see him in his new clean apartment – every time I see him cooking in the microwave donated by another AVLF volunteer – every time I see him sporting the Atlanta Braves baseball cap he received at that birthday party surrounded by volunteers that drastically altered, and perhaps saved, his life.
What are you proudest of professionally? What am I proudest of?… Surviving. This is a tough profession. While I’ve had my fantasies of cashing it all in and joining the Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, I’ve stuck with it. I’m building a law office with colleagues I respect and genuinely like as people. I’m actively involved in two organizations that align with my values and personal missions.
