Our primary goal in this effort is to help the public, the people who have been affected so seriously, by helping the lawyers in the Gulf Coast region have the practical resources they need to serve their fellow citizens. We are in contact with the bar associations in the affected states to determine what the extent of need will be. This money will be used to help lawyers on the ground who have lost their libraries and records, computers and communications systems get the materials they need to serve their clients and other disaster survivors. It is our hope that the assistance fund will provide a ready vehicle for voluntary contributions by lawyers across Virginia to help the Gulf Coast public via the continuing services of our lawyer colleagues who are on the scene there. Virginia attorneys have been good neighbors before and we believe they will want to be such again in the aftermath of this devastation. |