The “Personal Crisis Assistance Program” (PCAP) was created in 1996 and provides assistance to Austin-area lawyers who face an immediate need for temporary financial or practice assistance due to a personal crisis. It is funded by the Austin Young Lawyers Association Foundation through the AYLA Fellows Program. Over 115 local lawyers have become AYLA fellows and contributed to the development of this worthwhile program.
The program was designed to provide a safety net to protect lawyers and their clients when personal emergencies not related to the practice of law that strikes a lawyer’s practice. Two examples might illustrate the types of personal crises that might give rise to a grant of assistance from the PCAP project:
A lawyer’s daughter became seriously ill, which required the lawyer—who was a solo practitioner—to spend a lot of time away from work. The lawyer’s practice suffered a great deal due to this family crisis. As the lawyer’s birthday approached, he was unable to afford the registration fees for the CLE courses that were necessary to fulfill the lawyer’s minimum hours for the year. The lawyer approached AYLA and ABA and requested that the Associations waive the registration fees for the lawyer to attend CLE courses. Thanks to the generosity of the organized bar, the lawyer was able to attend the necessary courses free of charge.
A lawyer was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Her doctors recommended that she eliminate all litigation from her practice due to the effects on her health from the stress. She applied for and received practice assistance from the Fellows, who helped her obtain substitute counsel in all of her litigation files.
The PCAP project involves two levels of assistance. Under the first level, limited grant funds can be made available to assist a lawyer on a short-term basis who, due to a personal crisis, is unable to meet certain practice related financial obligations. This grant assistance is administered on a case-by-case basis by the Fellows. The second level of aid is actual short-term practice assistance, in which volunteer attorneys agree to handle professional matters for the affected lawyer during the crisis.
The AYLA Foundation has chosen not to limit participation in PCAP to young lawyers. It was then, and still is today, open to lawyers of all ages.
Interestingly, the very first request for PCAP practice assistance was from the wife of a solo practitioner in his 50’s who suffered a serious health problem. She went through some of her husband’s files at work and saw several letters to the district clerk’s office about cases. So she called the clerk’s office. It turns out the clerk had read about AYLA’s PCAP and referred her to the Bar office. The wife applied for PCAP assistance and the application was granted. Two volunteer young lawyers went to the lawyer’s office and began to get things in order. They juggled hearing dates, contacted clients, and generally kept the ship from sinking. The lawyer ultimately recovered and returned to his practice. Without PCAP, and without the attorneys’ help, his practice might have been lost.
Since the inception of the program, several other local lawyers have been granted assistance from PCAP. Hopefully, you won’t ever need to call upon PCAP. But we hope that you will keep it in mind and pass the word along to individuals who might qualify for assistance.
Administration of the program is conducted entirely through the Fellows of the AYLA Foundation. Membership in the Fellows is open to members of the Austin Young Lawyers Association and Austin Bar Association. Fellows membership requires a one-time pledge of $260, payable in a lump-sum or in four yearly installments of $65. The entire pledge is tax-deductible as a contribution to the AYLA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. For further information, please contact Debbie Kelly at debbie@austinbar.org
