VLJ is pleased to celebrate Michael Golden, Assistant VP and Senior Legal Counsel at AT&T, as the April Volunteer of the Month.
Michael is a long-standing volunteer with VLJ’s Consumer Law Clinic. He was encouraged to participate back in 2013 through AT&T’s pro bono program and has been consistently volunteering ever since. Michael has attended over 60 Consumer Law Clinics over the past seven years.
The Consumer Law Clinic is a walk-in clinic that allows consumers coping with debt collection to meet with attorneys one-on-one. This direct client work is different from Michael’s responsibilities at AT&T, where he supports the company’s supply chain group. But Michael has come to realize that skills from his role as a corporate attorney, like negotiations and analyzing contracts, transfer well to helping consumers. “When I first started volunteering, I was intimidated,” Michael shared, “but that quickly went away, because so much of this is practical knowledge. You have the opportunity to clean up issues for the clients, and provide them with hope. Any lawyer can do this, and it’s so worthwhile.”
At the clinic, volunteers like Michael draft simple pleadings, negotiate settlements with creditors, or screen clients to see if they are appropriate candidates for bankruptcy. In spite of the many ways attorneys can help, Michael realizes the most important part of these clinic appointments is fundamentally the same. As he says, “I know that each time I come to the clinic, I can help someone.”
Michael said that when he comes to the clinic, it feels like he’s giving back in a way that corporate attorneys don’t always get to experience in their day-to-day work. “It feels like: ‘I’m going to do some good today.’” Michael is grateful that AT&T actively promotes and supports its Legal Department’s pro bono participation.