TERRE HAUTE- When Judge Phillip I. Adler of the Superior Court, Division 2 became the judicial appointee for the Pro Bono Corp. of District 7 in 1997, he didn't know he would become the longest-tenured judge in the state for pro bono.

"It was supposed to be a two-year appointment, and as it's turned out, it's now grown into almost eight years," he said.

Members of the Indiana Pro Bono Commission gathered Wednesday night in the Kahn Room of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Student Union to for their annual event to honor Adler for his service.
District 7 includes Vigo, Clay, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan and Vermillion counties.

Adler's plan for the district became the first in the state and has sparked an interest for other districts in the state to follow as well as other states such as New Mexico, Maryland and New York, said Indiana's Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard.

"Judge Adler has a remarkable career of public service that among other things has reflected concern about the legal rights of individual citizens," he said. "He seemed not only a natural at a project aimed at individual citizens, but eager to try something new."
Adler said when he was appointed to the position, no one knew anything about a program like this and that there was no history about it to help form a plan.

"The whole promise of it is to develop a program whereby economically disadvantaged citizens of the district can sign up and be paired up with attorneys that have agreed to participate in our program for free and help them with whatever legal problem they have," he said. "… Everyone deserves a slice of justice."

Pro bono doesn't include fee-generated cases such as car accidents and an attempt to sue someone, Adler said. It's primarily in the area of family law such as divorce or custody issues. Other types of cases include unemployment, Social Security or bankruptcy issues.

There are about 80 lawyers currently signed up to cover the district, Adler said.

Shepard said a program like this is important because "there is a group of people who aren't well-off enough to pay market rates or poor enough to qualify for legal aid, the working poor, and they have problems like everyone else."

A very high level of organization, a good response by lawyers as volunteers and a good job connecting lawyers to citizens who need their help is what makes District 7's program stand out, Shepard said.
It was Adler's leadership and commitment to the cause of justice that helped make all of those things happen, he said.

Although Adler insists that he gets more credit for the success of the program than he deserves, "Really the heroes of the program are the participating lawyers. They're the ones that are doing all the heavy lifting," he said. "I'm just the number-one cheerleader."

After about eight years of service, in August, Adler turned over his duties as the president of District 7's Pro Bono Corp. to Division 4 Superior Court Judge Chris Newton.

He said anyone who needs an attorney through the program can sign up at the annex office on Sixth Street and Wabash Avenue, but there are about 253 people on a waiting list.

Since most people don't have a lot of resources, Newton said the most-requested services are dissolutions of marriages and custody battles, but they don't have many lawyers who work with those issues.

"We're working at some new ideas how to give more and better advice in a quicker response time," Newton said.

Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.