In March 2006, thirty-seven students traveled to Gulfport, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana to collaborate with other law schools to form specialty legal service groups and offer services to those most affected by our nation’s most damaging natural disaster.

Spanish speaking USC students provided aid to migrant workers who had traveled to the heavily ruined cities to provide reconstruction labor. Many were forced to labor through bio-hazardous materials and were continually cheated out of their promised wages and contractual agreements by exploitative contractors and developers who saw reconstruction as an opportunity for personal gain. Guided by lawyers from New Orleans firms, our students documented the workers’ stories in an effort to right a people severely exploited in the post-Katrina frenzy.

Other USC students participated with the Small Business Coalition. These students walked up and down streets attempting to encourage small-business owners to join a coalition aimed at rebuilding the financial foundation of the city and maximizing the financial aid small-business received in the wake of the hurricane from the Federal Government. To our surprise, many of the owners would not have known of the aid available to them but for our efforts in spreading information and signing them up in the coalition. They were very grateful for our efforts and many local businesses in New Orleans today have gathered their strength to stand up once again.

Still other students provided service through the Criminal Justice Triage Program. Here they filled a void that had been created by an almost complete diminution of public defenders and lack of funding following the hurricane. Without Orleans Parish residents, the funding of public defender’s office through traffic violations and parking tickets began to approach zero. The office, which struggled with 36 public defenders, dropped to less than 10. Worse yet, the storm destroyed much of the paper work documenting the release dates for prisoners that had been arrested for petty crimes just before Katrina landed. Our students, under the guidance of a Tulane Law Professor, compiled the information contained in the dockets to help reconstruct the lives of those kept in prison since the hurricane hit.

Although much of the service we provided in March 2006 was temporally related to the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there is still a critical need for legal services in the Gulf Region. We formed LAAB after realizing the great power and drive that law students have to make differences in the community through the simple dedication of week or even a weekend to the cause of public service. Our goal is to continue our commitment to providing legal services in the Gulf Region over spring break. This coming spring break we expect to have similar opportunities available. Since the legal aid effort in New Orleans is more coordinated than a year ago, students will likely find their experience even more beneficial to their legal education than the students this past year.

With help, we hope to fundraise as much money as possible to help make this trip feasible for all USC Law students who are interested in attending. The legal, historical, and cultural education that New Orleans today has to offer aspiring lawyers is one experience that will remain with and stand as an aspiration ideal for those students throughout their legal careers.