Pro Bono Volunteer of the Month – June 2018

James Claflin Jr. of Claflin Law Ltd.

James graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1991. He began his law career in complex commercial litigation at a national law firm, Brown & Bain (now Perkins Coie) in Phoenix, Arizona.  James has served as the Command Judge Advocate in the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) of the Army National Guard where he advised Army officers and soldiers in the areas of family law, small business law, and basic estate planning. He was promoted to the rank of Major, earned his jump wings at the US Army jump school at Ft. Benning, Georgia, and was recognized by the Army for his meritorious service. Now with more than two decades of legal experience, James is the managing attorney of Claflin Law Ltd, where he practices business and family law.

Since the opening of Claflin Law, James has always had at least one open pro-bono case through the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. He took his first LACSN case as part of the bargain exchange for a free CLE. James has played a big part in the Pro Bono Project by helping clients with family law issues and by participating in the Family Law Ask-A-Lawyer program.

When we asked James why he does pro bono work, he responded “I was reared by a single parent in poverty; I have benefitted from the generosity of others, from aid, from grants, from scholarships, from loans. I have dipped into the bucket when in need and desire to refill the bucket. I have been given an education, a profession, a life that is the result of my hard work, yes, but that has also been assisted by many helping hands along the way. I will be a helping hand for others. It is only fair. Mine is a profession where I am paid to assert and defend the rights of others; this is personally rewarding and gratifying. But I like so many others see many cases where justice is a theory and not a reality for those whose poverty may foreclose their access to justice. I wish this were not so; I wish that I could solve this problem alone. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. I will not do nothing. It is not a sense of guilt that inspires my desire to provide pro-bono services; it is a sense of gratitude.”

For his commitment to representing pro bono clients, we honor James Claflin Jr. as the June Pro Bono Volunteer of the Month.