The events of September 11, 2001 serve as a stark reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices firefighters, police and emergency medical technicians make for their community every day.  These "first responders" devote their lives to serving their communities, and they are prepared to pay the ultimate price in the line of duty.  The Pro Bono Committee of the Cincinnati Paralegal Association wanted to find a way to give back to these brave men and women.  The CPA's Wills for Heroes were born.  The CPA Will's Event is a program whereby volunteer lawyers and paralegals come together for day long events to provide wills, living wills and health care proxies to first responders and their spouses completely free of charge.  Most importantly, we provide peace of mind to these heroes should the unthinkable occur. 

 

To date the CPA has organized sixteen events serving firefighters and policemen from Boone County, Covington, Wilder, Newport, Taylor Mill, Camp Springs (Melbourne), Independence and Florence, Kentucky and Delhi Township, Norwood, Springdale, Loveland, Anderson Township and Green Township, Ohio.

 

The Wills For Heroes Program has been sidelined for the CPA as a CPA sponsored event.  The reason for this is that the Wills For Heroes Program has been organized as a National Foundation by Anthony Hayes, an attorney from South Carolina and Jeffrey Jacobson, an attorney from Arizona.  They have trademarked the name and they have a 501c3 status.  Mr. Hayes officially requested the CPA  not use the Wills For Heroes name and that any future events we have would have to go through the Wills For Heroes Foundation representative in that state.   Of course, the CPA could still run the program under another name. However, we found out that we also had some liability issues such as insurance, always having current forms, no “waiver of conflict check” and no “termination of attorney/client relationship” letter to name a few. The CPA was told that it would be most beneficial to simply work with the foundation as volunteers when they have an event in our area as the event would be a state bar event therefore eliminating all liability for any of us who volunteer.  The Wills For Heroes Foundation partners up with the state bar associations to conduct their Wills For Heroes clinics.  Jeff Bauer, an attorney in Columbus is the Ohio contact and they have already had an event in Dayton.  When they are ready to come to Cincinnati, the CPA will be invited to participate.  The most important thing of all – the Wills For Heroes program is bigger than all of us and grew a life of its own and is fast becoming a nationwide program which is what we wanted to see all along.

 

If you are a CPA member or an attorney licensed in Ohio or Kentucky and would like to volunteer for an event, please contact Reena Landwehr, Pro Bono Coordinator at the e-mail address or phone number above.  Please note that paralegal volunteers must be members of the CPA in order to participate.