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Hennepin County Bar Association Recognizes Members for
Pro Bono Service
Minneapolis
(3-10-08): -- Each year,
the Hennepin County Bar Association (HCBA) recognizes
three attorneys who have made a significant contribution
through pro bono service. These awards are presented in
recognition of the time, knowledge, and devotion given
utilizing legal skills for the good of our community.
The Pro Bono Publico awards will be presented at the 28th
annual Bar Benefit on Wednesday, March 11, where family,
friends, and colleagues are invited to celebrate, honor,
and support the ideals of services represented by these
individuals. Attorneys Mary Cullen Yeager, Patricia
Siebert, and Gary Hansen will be recognized
for their commitment to pro bono service.
Three distinct award
categories honor the dedication of volunteer services
provided by Hennepin County lawyers. The
Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual
for career-long volunteer work on behalf of the
community and the two Excellence Awards recognize
current or recent excellence in service by
individuals–one from the private sector and one from the
public/judicial sector.
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Mary Cullen Yeager
of Faegre & Benson, recipient of The Distinguished
Service Award, is a partner in the Business
Litigation group at Faegre & Benson LLP and a longtime
member of her firm’s Community Service Committee that
oversees the firm’s pro bono practice. She has
consistently been one of her firm’s most active
individual pro bono practitioners, as well as a leader
in developing Faegre & Benson’s pro bono program. She
has also played a significant role in mentoring less
experienced lawyers at Faegre & Benson on their pro bono
cases.
Over the course of her
career, Yeager has developed a personal pro bono
practice of unusual breadth and depth. Her work spans
almost two decades, and includes direct representation
of low-income and disadvantaged clients in
landlord-tenant cases, tenant remedies actions, juvenile
court abuse and neglect cases, family law matters, and
consumer matters.
She is also a leader of
the firm’s JUSTice FOR KIDS pro bono initiatives,
through which the legal needs of abused and neglected
children are met. She was among the first firm lawyers
to represent lay Guardians ad Litem in juvenile court
proceedings to ensure timely adoptions for foster
children. Yeager is also a member of the Board of
Directors of the Legal Aid Society, and of the William
Mitchell College of Law Board of Trustees.
- - -
Patricia Siebert
of the
Legal Aid Society is the recipient of the Public/Judicial Sector Pro Bono
Excellence Award. For the past 24
years at the Legal Aid Society, Patricia Siebert has
been a leading advocate on behalf of individuals with
mental illness in Hennepin County and throughout the
state.
Siebert has played a
major role in building Legal Aid’s capacity to represent
people with disabilities, particularly mental illness,
and to bring change to how persons with mental illnesses
are served by the justice system.
Siebert has worked
closely with a group of advocacy organizations called
the Mental Health Legislative Network to advocate for
significant reforms, including expanding children’s
therapeutic and treatment services under Medicaid,
adding mental health case management, in‑home services,
and other services to state-funded health services. She
represents the Minnesota Disability Law Center on the
governor’s State Mental Health Advisory Council and on
the Minnesota Mental Health Action Group Steering
Committee.
In addition to her
advocacy, Patricia has made significant contributions to
law-related education as well, training thousands of
service providers, attorneys, physicians, and judges on
the use of advance psychiatric directives, a tool that
was developed by the Minnesota Disability Law Center and
adopted into statute, which enables people with mental
illness to direct their own care. She has also trained
consumers and service providers on Medicaid law and
guardianship, and on the use of restraint and seclusion.
Siebert’s decades of
excellent legal work on behalf of people with mental
illness have immeasurably improved the lives of many who
could not adequately advocate on their own behalf.
- - -
Gary Hanson
will receive the Private
Sector Pro Bono Excellence Award. Gary Hansen was among the first
volunteer attorneys for Children’s Law Center of
Minnesota when, in 1997, he took the CLC training and
immediately began to take cases representing children.
He is one of the Children Law Center’s longest serving
pro bono lawyers.
Given his strong
advocacy for the child’s wishes one might be surprised
to learn that Hansen was not always a believer in
lawyers for children. In his own words: “I’ve learned
that a child needs a voice. A child needs someone to
listen to his or her desires and hopes and then to say
not, ‘Well, I don’t think that is best for you.’ but
‘Okay, let’s see what we can do.’ When you listen to a
child wearing your lawyer’s hat rather than your
parent’s hat, it is amazing what you hear….”
In each of his cases,
Hansen is diligent, staying in touch with his clients,
the county social worker, and others involved with the
case. He investigates each child’s situation and, when
necessary, he is a skilled negotiator and zealous
advocate working to obtain his client’s wishes. Hansen
has earned the trust of his clients and has made the
system work for the children he represents. He has been
the consummate advocate for children. The Children’s
Law Center is privileged to count Hansen among their
volunteers.
- - -
The HCBA is proud to
recognize these members, each highly deserving of honor,
as individuals who rise to the call and volunteer their
time and knowledge for the benefit of our community.
The HCBA also proudly supports legal access for all
through a variety of programs as well as through
significant grants made to legal service providers by
the Hennepin County Bar Foundation.
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