For Annie Clifford, Law’15, a time of crisis presents an opportunity for lawyers like herself to help society become more fair and just. As the pandemic began to unfold, she came up with an idea to help people most at risk by relieving their minds of one stressful thing. After presenting her idea to the Frontenac Law Association, she’s now one of 21 Kingston-area lawyers – 14 of them Queen’s Law alumni – offering “pay what you can afford” fees for wills and powers of attorney. 

“When COVID-19 first hit Ontario, I was struck by how many fairly low-income frontline workers – grocery store clerks, hospital cleaners and orderlies – were continuing to work,” she says. “Their pay was low, and their risk of exposure was very high. Some kept at it because they felt a duty, and some because they needed to put food on their table. All of them took a risk and continued working, so the rest of us could buy groceries and, if we needed to, go to a safe and clean hospital.”

She also notes how the pandemic is highlighting inequality in society. “Most of these inequalities have nothing do to with merit,” she explains. “Instead, most of them have to do with background, family wealth, class and health. We’re seeing how people with lower education and lower family wealth levels are more likely to work in jobs with more risk and exposure, such as in long-term care homes or as cleaners.”

Due to the expertise required for the careful and precise work involved in drafting wills, lawyers should be well paid, she says, “But caring for the elderly should also be well paid. Since that job isn’t, and my job is, it makes sense that people like me who are properly paid for our work should support the people who, through no fault of their own, aren’t.”
 
“Annie’s idea was met with great enthusiasm in our local membership,” says FLA President Warren WhiteKnight, Law’13. “Practitioners were already looking for ways to give back to our community and to reduce stress and increase certainty for the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

FLA members are aware that many people intend to obtain a will and powers of attorney for personal care and property but put off going about it. Amid the pandemic, the need for these documents weighs heavily on their minds. To provide local frontline and essential service workers a degree of order and certainty in their personal affairs, the FLA launched its “Pay What You Can Afford” Wills Program. 

“The goal of this initiative is to allow those members of the public bearing the brunt of Frontenac County’s community efforts at containing COVID-19 to attain some security in these trying times, and to do so in a way that accommodates the immense financial strain being felt by much of society,” says WhiteKnight.

Twenty-one lawyers are preparing wills and powers of attorney at reduced fees and in some cases, pro bono. They will provide these services throughout the time the Kingston area (as far west as Belleville, east as Brockville and north to Perth, Smith Falls and Sharbot Lake) is under a state of emergency. 

Joining Clifford and seven others providing these services to local essential workers are of her 13 fellow alumni: Andrew Bala, Law’17, Angela Brown, Law’17, Jillian Burford-Grinnell, Law’14, Brittany Fisher, Law’18, Brad Fochesato, Law’16, Jennifer Foster, Law’99, Lulama Kotze, Law’08, Mark LaFrance, Law’89, Gord McDiarmid, Law’77, Yuri Tarnowecky, Law’73, Kevin Walsh, Law’16, Hilary Warder, Law’90, and John Wilson, Law’93. 

As expected, in less than a month, there has been a high demand for these legal services from local frontline workers. “Lawyers have been inundated with requests for consults and retainer work,” says WhiteKnight, “and the feedback has been excellent.”

Clifford is very pleased with the uptake on this project. “I’m proud to be part of this legal community that, at a time of crisis, is actively working for justice and equality,” she says. “I hope that, as we come into our ‘new normal,’ this new normal is more fair and just than the old one, and I know many people in the legal community share that hope.”

For more information on the COVID-19 Wills Program, visit the Frontenac Law Association website. 

By Lisa Graham