The Lycoming Law Association’s Patricia (Tricia) Shipman was honored January 9, 2012 with the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s 2011 Pro Bono Award.  Shipman started her career as a legal services attorney.  But it is for her sense of professional and personal responsibility that she was nominated for this award, not for her former employment.  Helping those whose access to the courts is compromised by their economic status is what led Shipman to a career in Legal Services and it is also what she continues to believe and demonstrate in her career as a private attorney.

Since entering private practice Shipman has consistently exceeded the “three referral a year mandate” of the Law Association.  She is known at North Penn Legal Services (NPLS) as one of the attorneys of last resort, someone who can be contacted when the NPLS staffers have tried everyone else to no avail, knowing that Shipman will generally say yes if at all possible to a call for help for the neediest among us.  She also takes cases that NPLS generally doesn’t handle but that are corollary to an issue NLPS is handling and the client has no money to hire someone to represent them in that matter. Shipman was willing to take a very complicated and protracted divorce knowing full well she would be litigating several issues, all pro bono.  Her willingness to handle SSI and SSD cases and children’s cases has enabled NPLS to reduce its caseload in those areas and expand in other areas where there was a great need developing.  And when NPLS is short staff or for some other reason unable to take on new cases Shipman has contracted with NPLS for
Judicare representation.  She champions the cause of legal services not only within the bar but in the community and among other agencies.  Shipman has served on the Legal Services to the Indigent Committee and is one of the main supporters of the Law Association donating money to causes that help the clients of NPLS, like the donation to the Saving Grace shelter.

At a time when Pennsylvania is dealing with a civil legal aid crisis which sees more than half the people who make it to a legal aid office and qualify for legal aid being turned away from receiving such help because of a lack of resources, Shipman’s commitment of pro bono service is a tremendous example for other lawyers and the public at large.