Each week, Legal Aid will feature one of our many, dedicated volunteer attorneys. This week, we are proud to feature Brown County attorney, Daniel Reuter. He shares his background, legal career, and what drives him to work towards equal access to justice. Daniel is one of our more active volunteers and works tirelessly for the rights of his clients. Thank you, Dan, for your continued support of Legal Aid!
Attorney Daniel Reuter
I am a (very) senior citizen. My last day job was as a minister in Brown County. I came here in 2004 from a long-term pastorate in western Pennsylvania. By early 2006, it had become clear to me that the job I had here needed to end & that I had to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Some might think this should not be much of a problem at age 71, but my mother was then 95 and still driving and living by herself, so it seemed likely that I needed to do something. My father (who only lived to be 91) had been a lawyer, and this seemed like something to investigate. They told me at IU that I could come to their law school, but I needed to know that nobody would hire me. So I went.
My aim is to provide help to people who need it and can't afford to get it from most lawyers. I do a fair amount of pro bono work. I do a lot more for low fees, taking payments, etc. Few of my clients have bank accounts or credit cards. I get paid mostly in cash or money orders. Folks in these circumstances tend to have a lot of problems with family law and criminal law, so that's what I mostly do. My overhead is low: office in our home, no staff, legal research via Casemaker, not Lexis or Westlaw. I knew this was where I was headed, so passed up the free Lexis & Westlaw while in law school in order to train myself on Casemaker.
I don't think I'm handicapped at all. Because a lot of what I do is criminal defense & my wife has some mobility problems, I don't see people in my home office, but in places such as McDonald's. Sometimes I think Mickey D makes as much out of my practice as I do. However, because the overhead is low, this business has been in the black from day 1. Of course, there wasn't much on the black side until very recently. I have a pension & social security, so could afford to wait, which wouldn't be true for a younger person with family responsibilities.
For money, I practice in seven counties regularly, with an occasional foray into two or three more. I accept pro bono cases only in Brown & Bartholomew counties & try to keep them in Brown. Since law school, I have volunteered in other ways in District 10, currently serving in their Bloomington Justice Building clinics in family law and collection law about once a month. I do sometimes take a pro bono case in Brown County that comes to me directly, rather than through District 11, though I try to funnel it back so District 11 can get credit for it.
Because the people who depend on me (my wife and my mother) have needs, there isn't a lot of time for most forms of community service. I am the preacher (not the pastor--we don't have one of those) in our little church--and sometimes am the church's agent for directing material help to people with financial emergencies. That is about the sum of it.
Thank you again, Daniel, for your support for our cause! For more information visit his site.
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