Ed Ford: 50th Anniversary Guest Blogger

Councilman Ed Ford, Kansas City Missouri City Council 

Councilman Ed Ford (circa 1979)

I started working for Legal Aid when I was a third year law student at UMKC (1977-1978), and upon graduation, was hired full-time. The Professional Building, Linwood Multipurpose Building (now the Mohart Center) and the Jackson County Juvenile Court were all places I called home during my Legal Aid tenure. I was a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children, represented alleged mentally ill folks who were staving off commitment (back in the day before one had to be both mentally ill and dangerous to oneself or others) and worked on education issues of children with disabilities.

It was during these early years at Legal Aid that I was first introduced to City Government and its politics. In 1978, a fellow Legal Aid Attorney, Jerry Riffel, was running for KCMO City Council. Jerry was a long haired liberal leaning candidate who headed up Legal Aid's housing unit. None of us really thought Jerry had a chance as he was running against an “establishment” attorney, with plenty of campaign money and the support of the powerful Citizens' Association. To make it even more of an uphill battle, Jerry was running in-district for the affluent 4th district- the political heart of the city. Jerry and his team of volunteers staged an impressive grass roots campaign that outworked his opponent and ended up winning the Council seat in 1979. “Wow,” I thought. What a great city we lived in when someone like Jerry could get elected.

My final years with Legal Aid were spent at the South Office, where we represented our clients on a variety of issues including many landlord tenant matters. It became apparent that many of the legal issues that confronted our clients were primarily financial in nature. Clients were being evicted not because they were bad tenants but because they didn't have the money to pay the rent.  The South Office is where I first met an energetic minister by the name of Rev. Emmanuel Cleaver II who was advocating for the same folks Legal Aid was representing. 

My opportunity to serve as an elected official began when I was first elected to the KCMO City Council in 1995. I am now starting my 16th and final year (term limits). I have been privileged to serve with four Mayors including Kansas City's first African- American Mayor, Emmanuel Cleaver II, and its first woman Mayor, Kay Barnes.  I am proud of the progress we have made in many areas of Kansas City, especially Downtown and in the Northland. Unfortunately, the problems of poverty, crime and racism continue to hold back progress in other areas, especially the urban core. 

I still believe in Legal Aid and its mission. I continue to be an advocate for Legal Aid funding recognizing its great work in neighborhoods, housing issues and municipal court. If it wasn't for my time at Legal Aid, I don't believe I would have run for City Council. I still practice law with a small firm in Kansas City North and am pleased to be a part of the Volunteer Attorney Project (VAP).

[In celebration of Legal Aid of Western Missouri's 50th anniversary, we will feature guest bloggers. If you have Legal Aid memories or reflections you would like to share in a guest post, please contact Karen Cutliff - kcutliff@lawmo.org.)

An Alternative to Pay Day Loans

Gregg Lombardi-Executive Director

I am pleased to announce that, as a result of the work of volunteer attorneys at three major law firms, low-income Kansas Citians now have an alternative to Pay Day loans.

For many years Pay Day loans have been the scourge of low income neighborhoods.  The average interest rate on these short term loans is 450% APR.  Although the default rate on these loans is about 6% and they are obscenely profitable, traditional major banks have, to date, not offered competitive alternatives and efforts to find a legislative solution to the problem in Missouri have failed.

About two years ago, CCO, a local community organizing group, started working to create a competitive alternative to Pay Day loans.  Legal Aid joined the effort about 18 months ago.  Our Volunteer Attorney Project has recruited talented volunteer attorneys including Adam LaBoda from Spencer Fane Britt & Browne, Kyle McCurry from Stinson Morrison Hecker and Tom Schenkelberg of Polsinelli Shughart to work on the project. Kyle initially provided pro bono representation in support of the project generally and subsequently represented Central Bank, which will actually be making the loans.

Other partners in the project include the FDIC, Commerce Bank, United Way and numerous other community stakeholders.

As a result of the attorneys' work, a new not-for-profit-- Fair Community Corporation-- has been formed, complex banking regulations have been navigated, funds raised and FCC is now taking applications for loans.  The loans will be at 36% APR and will come with the opportunity for financial education to allow the borrowers to gain access to even lower interest loans.  A set of referring agencies will be referring qualified, low-income borrowers to the project for loans.  For now at least, borrowers will have to go through a referring agency. 

If the project is as successful, as we think it will be, it is likely to be a powerful tool in driving Pay Day lenders out of Kansas City and may well be replicated elsewhere.

The project is also an excellent demonstration of what talented pro bono attorneys working through VAP can accomplish.  We are tremendously grateful for the excellent work that Adam, Kyle and Tom have done on this project.

Zombie Debt - The Bills That Won't Die

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

The Zombie Debt Eradication Team has been busy this summer. If you’re not familiar with Zombie debts, they are aged credit card debts sold for less than 5 cents on the dollar to collection agencies. When they’re sold, the buyer generally doesn’t receive any evidence of the debt and they cannot prove up the cases in court, but they still get thousands of judgments per year.

Last year the five largest Zombie debt collectors filed more than 5,600 of these cases in Jackson County. I had Ben Embry, my law clerk for the summer and a former KCUR reporter, do a random study of 200 of these cases. He found that in 95% of the cases defendants are not represented by counsel and in roughly 70% of the cases the plaintiffs obtain default judgments (excluding cases in which the defendant is not served).

In contrast, when Legal Aid and other private attorneys represent the defendants in these cases and ask the defendants to prove that they own the debt and prove that they are entitled to judgment, the Zombie plaintiffs routinely are unable to do so and dismiss their cases.

This summer the Zombie Debt Eradication Team, which consists of VAP attorneys: Dale Irwin, Bernard Brown, Amy Sweeney Davis, Michael Williams, Scott Bethune, David DeSimone and Jim Jarrow, along with Legal Aid attorneys Lisa Livingston Martin, Doug Tschauder, Amber Cutler, James Jenkins and myself drafted a proposed local rule that would require plaintiffs in Zombie Debt cases to file a copy of the assignment that gives them the right to sue with the Petition in their case—something that they have been unable to do in virtually every individual cases we’ve worked on.

Today, the Local Rules Committee of the Jackson County Circuit Court, the Honorable Justine Del Muro, Chair, met for an initial consideration of the rule. The Committee expressed interest in the proposed rule and Judge Del Muro indicated she would pursue it. I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

Fun with Legal Aid

by Gregg Lombardi, Executive Director

We had two great fundraising events over the weekend. Friday night was the first annual Volunteer Attorney Project Team Trivia Night contest. 120 participants tested their knowledge of the arts, literature, food and bearded coaches in the NCAA basketball tournament-- among other things. It was a blast.

The competition was intense but Mizzou Minutiae a team organized by stalwart VAP supporter Tim Monsees emerged victorious.

And in the beautiful weather on Sunday morning, 175 runners and walkers participated in the Lawyers’ Association of Kansas City’s Run for Justice on the Plaza. Proceeds from the event go to support Legal Aid. Many thanks to the LAKC’s Kent Erickson, Corey Unrein (who was on sight at 4:30 in the morning getting things set up) for their work in organizing another great run.

I am also pleased to report that we had two Legal Aid runners win their age division. Amber Cutler won the women’s 25-30 category and Dick Halliburton completed the course in under 25 minutes to win the men’s 70 and over category. In addition to being a fundraiser for Legal Aid, this was also a Legal Aid Wellness Committee event and we had lots of runners and walkers out soaking up the beautiful morning.

Thanks again to everyone who worked on these events.

Volunteer Attorneys Give Marlborough Neighborhood a Bright Future

by Gregg Lombardi, Executive Director

There are times when you have to fight and scratch to make a project work and then, thankfully, there are times when things work out much better than you had even hoped.

Steve Chinn’s work for the Marlborough Neighborhood is a shining example of the latter. About a year ago Latricia Scott Adams, the Director of our Volunteer Attorney Project and I made a presentation to a group of about 30 Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP attorneys about possible volunteer projects that the firm could take on. One we suggested was adopting an urban core neighborhood. Steve was at that meeting and immediately took interest in the idea.

As the Chair of Stinson's Public Law Practice Group, Steve knows a lot about community problem solving. It’s just that normally he devotes his time to massive, multi-million dollar projects like developing the Kansas Speedway.

Under Steve’s leadership, Stinson Morrison Hecker adopted the Marlborough neighborhood, a low-income neighborhood in southeastern Kansas City. Steve immediately put his skill and experience to work in solving problems for the neighborhood.

And the work that they have done has been tremendous. They have gotten the state and federal government to approve the neighborhood association as a tax exempt not-for-profit organization. They are fighting an unlicensed, under-aged drinking establishment that is a major nuisance and serious danger in the neighborhood. When the federal government suggested using the old Bendix plant, which is just outside the neighborhood, as a lead waste storage facility, Stinson attorneys drafted comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement and the proposal appears to be dead.

Stinson attorneys are also working closely with the neighborhood and a local community development corporation to create a model block in the neighborhood, in which the city will focus resources.

Steve goes to all the neighborhood association meetings, so he can address whatever legal questions come up. All told, 13 Stinson attorneys and one Stinson paralegal have put in over 300 hours on the project.

Steve reports that the work is gratifying and fulfilling. The neighborhood, in turn, is ecstatic about the firm’s work. Betty Ost-Everly, the Marlborough Community Coalition President reports:

Many people have commented at what Marlborough has been able to accomplish in a very short amount of time and have wondered how. From start-up discussions in May 2008 to present, we have established governance, received Nonprofit status from the State of Missouri and our 501(c)(3), protested against the Federal Government's proposal of placing a Mercury storage facility at the Bannister Federal Complex, and started on the long and arduous task of stablizing housing in the four neighborhood association areas that make up the Coalition. Absolutely none of that could have been possible without Stinson. The firm came to us as part of Legal Aid’s Volunteer Attorney Project, and has worked alongside the Coalition and in partnership with Legal Aid and Neighborhood Housing Services to help us. This area has been neglected for a number of years, but with Stinson's help, we are looking to a much brighter future.

Many thanks to Steve and to Stinson for their fantastic ongoing work on this project.

Lunch Hour Ethics

by Gregg Lombardi, Executive Director

It’s always been hard to get the mandatory one hour of ethics CLE’s each year and, in January, the Missouri Supreme Court announced that all Missouri lawyers will now be required to have two hours of ethics CLE each year, even in the current reporting year.

If you want a free and easy way of picking up an extra hour of ethics credit, Legal Aid can help. As you know, Missouri lawyers all have an ethical responsibility to do pro bono work. Legal Aid’s Volunteer Attorney Project team has created a free, one-hour CLE reviewing the ethical responsibility to do pro bono work and discussing the pro bono projects that VAP offers and which attorneys can use to satisfy their pro bono responsibility.

And we’re taking the CLE on the road. We will do over-the-lunch hour presentations to law firms and other groups of 10 or more attorneys. We’ll even come to your office. If you’re a solo practitioner or in a small firm, there’s no problem. Give us a call and we will get you signed up for a session at another firm or we’ll put together a group of attorneys for a CLE.

Call our Volunteer Attorney Project Director, Latricia Scott Adams at (816)474-1413 x 234 to schedule your CLE.