Q. Who can qualify for Legal Aid services?

A. First of all, we just represent low-income residents of Hawai'i, and only in civil law. Criminal cases are handled by the public defender. We have income guidelines, and if you're below those income guidelines, we provide help for free. If you're above the income guidelines, you generally don't qualify, but we have a small program called the Affordable Lawyer program where residents who qualify are charged a reduced rate.

Q. Given Hawai'i's high home prices and rents, do you get a lot of housing-related cases, such as evictions?

A. One of the most serious problems we have, and one of the highest demands (for help) is (related to) affordable housing. We see it come in a number of ways. It comes in as an eviction, for example, when somebody needs help with an illegal eviction or negotiating some additional time. We sometimes see it come in as a foreclosure case. We represent a number of homeless folks in their inability to obtain housing or other barriers that might prevent them from taking housing. We also have a fair housing unit which fights discrimination in the provision of housing. We have testers who go out and make sure landlords are abiding by the fair housing laws.

Q. What are some of Legal Aid's other areas of focus?

A. The second is abused and neglected children. We represent with legal assistance in a number of abused and neglected children cases that the state's Department of Children and Family Services is involved in. We act as guardian ad litem for those children appointed by the court to make sure the children are placed in the appropriate placements so that they're safe and secure and have a warm and loving environment. That's very, very important to us. Thirdly is in the public benefits area. We represent a number of disabled folks and often our efforts are to make sure they become eligible for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration, for example, or become eligible for Medicaid benefits.

Q. What is your volume of cases?

A. About 8,500 cases a year. It's about 20,000 people. We have a staff of 94, with 42 lawyers spread out over nine different offices. We have three offices here on O'ahu, we have two on the Big Island, one on Maui, one on Kaua'i, one on Lana'i and one on Moloka'i.

Q. What is the general experience level of your lawyers?

A. We have a mix, but they're primarily on the younger side with less than seven or eight years experience. One of the reasons that is so is because we haven't had enough resources to pay them more adequate salaries. So we've been addressing that in an effort to reduce our staff turnover. That's one of my challenges as the director of the organization is to help retain good quality staff, which we have, and to help increase our ability to recruit folks. One of the ways that we're trying to do that is to increase salaries, increase benefits. But it's tough when you have a limited budget.

Q. What kinds of insights in management have you gained in your years working for nonprofit organizations?

A. One is to make sure you treat your staff as fairly equitably as possible so that the staff can feel like this is a place they want to work. We know that we're not able to pay them the adequate compensation that they're entitled to, that they would be eligible for if they worked for another public entity like the public defender's office or the Corporation Counsel or the attorney general's office. We know that our salaries are below that, but one of the ways we compensate for it is to give generous vacation benefits to allow them to feel that they are in a family organization, to feel good about where they work.

Q. Who do you look for in hiring lawyers for Legal Aid?

A. The key is finding those individuals that have a sense of outrage and injustice, that have a sense that when they see something happening in their community that adversely affects people that they want to do something about it and are motivated to try to improve that condition. Finding those individuals often helps in this business because we need that type of passion, that drive, that concern, that caring approach to people.

Q. How do you see your role as a leader?

A. I think my responsibility is to eliminate barriers when barriers exist. It can be as basic as a computer not working, or a fax machine not working or that I don't have money to pay for this deposition, or that can I really do this case, or should I take this approach. I think it's very, very important that I create an atmosphere where barriers are eliminated, to make it as easy as possible for them to practice. I also think its important for me to lead by example and do some practice as well, to take some cases and be co-counsel. I have a lot of fun doing that.

Q. What have you done to try to reduce turnover?

A. One of the ways we are trying to cut down on turnover is to hire as many local attorneys as we can. And that has been difficult because we've not been paying the kinds of wages we need to. That has forced us to hire from the Mainland. We've had some great lawyers come from the Mainland, but in terms of roots to the community, in terms of willingness to stay with the organization for a number of years, developing local knowledge and expertise, we think the local hires have an advantage. Toward that end, our board just approved a proposal to create a legal aid fellowship this fall in tandem with the Richardson School of Law.

Q. What do your lawyers earn?

A. A starting lawyer makes $40,019 a year. We're finally over $40,000, which was a big challenge for us, but (it's) still not adequate for the cost of living here. The high cost of living hurts us in getting candidates to accept a position, and it makes it difficult for people to stay when they have a situation where they can't adequately afford housing. Sometimes we're fortunate because a number of lawyers at Legal Aid have spouses who make more money than they do, or they are living with their parents or extended family members.

Q. How did you become involved in public interest law?

A. I was interested in law for some years. When I was in college, I had long hair and I was a basketball referee for high schools in Northern California. I was a member of an association of basketball referees and one time they told me I couldn't referee anymore because I had long hair. I tied it back, but I said I didn't want to cut my hair. I had to get a lawyer through the American Civil Liberties Union and eventually forced the association to take me back without having to file suit. The lawyer who represented me happened to volunteer for the American Civil Liberties Union, but he also worked at Legal Aid. In 1975, I went to work for Legal Aid in San Jose, Calif., and became very, very interested in the welfare rights movement. I spent 14 years there working on welfare rights cases.

Reach Alan Yonan Jr. at ayonan@honoluluadvertiser.com.