King Hall HALO Students Provide Volunteer Legal Services in New Orleans

Over the 2016 Spring Break, King Hall's Humanitarian Aid Legal Organization (HALO) sent 12 law students to New Orleans, Louisiana to volunteer for a week with Southeastern Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS).

Participating in the 2016 HALO trip were Chelsea Daughters '16, Katie Rogers '17, Jamie Knauer '17, Sylvia Cunningham '17, Asya Sorokurs '17, Erin Gunter '17, Johnny Tang '17, Hannah Bogen '18, Moji Majekodunmi '18, Kyle Edgerton '18, Kim Massih '18, and Bianca Rodriguez '18.

Students were paired with attorneys and worked on a variety of legal projects, ranging from drafting motions in limine and petitions for custody to working on bankruptcy paperwork and motions to probate wills. Some students were even given the opportunity to accompany their supervising attorneys to court and shadow various hearings.

"I was able to witness a successful criminal record expungement hearing, which allowed the client to continue her nursing education," said Daughters, co-president of HALO.

"I also visited courthouses in multiple parishes of New Orleans with my supervising attorney, which gave me insight into procedural obstacles that public interest lawyers often face," added Bogen.

HALO students stayed in the Gentilly district of New Orleans, one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "I was really surprised at how much devastation remains more than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina hit. Much of the infrastructure is still crumbling, and we walked by abandoned hospitals and schools that were destroyed in the hurricane and have just been left to rot," observed Knauer.

"The HALO trip was a great experience, especially as a first-year law student," said Massih.