Susan Cole of Arnold & Porter, LLP

Ms. Cole is a highly regarded Senior Paralegal at the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP.  Despite maintaining a strenuous work load, Ms. Cole finds time to give back to her community through organizing and coordinating numerous pro bono activities.  Since 2005, Ms. Cole has shown great dedication to ensuring that quality legal services are provided to individuals who, due to their limited means and life circumstances, may not have access to legal assistance.  Susan coordinates and directs three highly successful Colorado Lawyers Committee projects:  Project Homeless Connect, Legal Night at Mi Casa, and Legal Night at Centro San Juan Diego.

Project Homeless Connect.  In partnership with the City of Denver's "Road Home" (the ten-year plan to end hornelessness), Project Homeless Connect links over 1,000 homeless individuals in Denver to legal information, resources for public benefits, and other valuable services. This full day event occurs twice annually and utilizes legal volunteers in three shifts to address issues including bankxuptcy, fataily law, housing, and immigration.  Though her work on the Steering Committee, Ms. Cole is responsible for organizing all aspects of the legal component to Project Homeless Connect.  In that capacity, Ms. Cole updates and maintains a comprehensive legal binder used by the voluntea lawyers, paralegals, and law students and coordinates the two-hour legal orientation for each volunteer.  Additionally, Ms. Cole organizes the "Homeless Court" component of Project Homeless Connect which provides an opportunity for individual citations to be addressed and resolved.  Every six months, Ms. Cole markets the event to Denver's legal community, organizes over 100 legal volunteers, creates and disseminates a volunteer satisfaction survey, and tracks all survey results.  Ms. Cole is constantly looking for ways to improve the event and meet the legal needs of Denver's homeless community.

Legal Clinics.  Ms. Cole is also responsible for the success of two monthly Legal Clinics that have served more than 1500 people in the last year and a half. In 2006, the Colorado Lawyers Committee began offering a free legal clinic each month at Mi Casa Resource Center for Women.  Due to the high demand for legal information in other Denver neighborhoods, the Colorado Lawyers Committee began a similar Legal Night at Centro Sian Juan Diego in 2007.  The purpose of the legal clinics is to connect individuals that may not be able to afford legal assistance with lawyers and free legal information.  With two separate clinics each month, Ms. Cole organizes, coordinates, and directs the Legal Night events every two weeks. Ms. Cole's work at the Legal Nights begins at 5:00 p.m. and often lasts late into the evening.  Between Legal Night events, she coordinates the database of more than 250 volunteer lawyers, paralegals, law students, and translators, and communicates with all of the volunteers every month.  Ms. Cole ensues that 18-20 lawyers and 5-7 translators attend every Legal Night though constant communication and responses to inquisitive volunteers.  She tracks all of the data and maintains spreadsheets of the legal issues at each Legal Night, the number of clients, the effectiveness of the marketing tools, and the identity of all volunteers.  Ms. Cole also creates, maintains, and updates the resource materials that are critical to the success of the program and are used by each volunteer.  The Colorado Lawyers Committee is extremely grateful to Ms. Cole for her dedication to addressing the legal needs of the underprivileged in Denver.  In giving her time, her spirit, and her good cheer, she exemplifies the pro bono commitment of the legal profession.