Pro Bono Spotlight: Bringing you news of pro bono opportunities and accomplishments.
The plaques on the wall of David King’s office are evidence of the vast number of pro bono cases the Orange Park attorney handles every year, but there’s so much more to it than the few words of praise inscribed upon shiny metal keepsakes can possibly relay.
“I’m a lucky guy,” says the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid February Pro Bono Attorney of the Month, trying to explain how working in the law doesn’t really feel like work to him, and how pro bono cases are just more opportunities to do what he loves.
Though he describes his work as “all the stuff most other lawyers don’t want to do,” King somehow manages to find his passion in corporate law, commercial real estate transactions, wills, trusts and estates, and, perhaps especially, the bankruptcy law that he now only practices when called upon to do so by Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
“I pretty much take everything they send down to me as long as it’s dealing with Clay County residents,” he says. “As long as it’s a Clay resident, I’ll take care of them.”
While the Ohio State, Florida State Law School graduate draws his pro bono line at Clay County, that doesn’t mean his pro bono work remains in Clay County. Some of it has grown so large in scope that it has taken him all the way to Tallahassee. A lot. In fact, his pro bono cases have not only afforded him endless opportunities to practice the law that he loves, but they have actually inspired him to write a couple of laws as well.
“Sometimes you run across other things while you’re doing these cases,” King says. And while some people would choose to run around these “things,” King has twice chosen to run right through them — a choice that has cost him several years of work in each instance.
The first issue King ran into concerned the state’s doc stamp tax for real estate transactions.
“The state started applying the doc stamps to divorce settlements,” a situation in which there wasn’t actually any sale of a home, just a court-ordered transfer of property, usually from a husband to a wife.
“I can’t tell you how many of these cases I had,” King recalls. The state had begun applying the tax to divorce settlements in 1991. “I started getting calls from these ex-wives — tearful phone calls saying how the state was claiming they owed thousands of dollars in taxes that they couldn’t possibly afford to pay.”
Most of these women were recently divorced and had considerable expenses just raising their children.
“Nobody thought it was right, yet nobody was trying to do anything about it,” King says.
Finally, in 1995, King decided he would have to be the one to take a stand.
“Republicans, Democrats … everyone thought it was a great idea to change the law,” he remembers, yet it still took three years before the legislature found the time to correct the doc stamp issue by passing Florida Statute 201.02 (7), authored by one relatively unknown sole practitioner from Orange Park.
“I can’t tell you how many times I went back and forth to Tallahassee on that,” King says. “Every time they would have a hearing on it, if you weren’t there to defend it, it would get scrapped. So I had to be there.”
For his efforts, King received a letter from Speaker of the House John Thrasher.
“Through your personal efforts and determination, a wrong was righted, and a law was created to protect the citizens of our great state,” Thrasher wrote. “I believe this citizen involvement in government is what the founding fathers of our great nation envisioned for America.”
King’s long, costly run-in with the state over the doc stamp issue apparently didn’t discourage him from standing up for the little guy because again, in 2000, more pro bono cases had brought yet another injustice to his attention and, again, no one was doing anything about it.
This time it was the Earned Income Credit payroll tax refund that was irritating King’s sense of fair play. Hard-working, low-income people with dependent children were coming to him with bankruptcy cases in which this Earned Income Credit was being “snatched” by creditors. Again, it was single working mothers who were suffering the most, so King went to bat in Tallahassee once again.
“The Earned Income Credit was a government benefit, like food stamps, and it needed to be protected during bankruptcy,” King said.
The average EIC benefit at the time was $1,611, though people with more kids could receive several thousand more.
This time, King only had to commute to Tallahassee for two years until his House Bill 791 was passed into law as Florida Statute 222.25(3).
“I want to commend you for never compromising the content of your bill and never giving up on an idea that is good for the State of Florida,” wrote bill sponsor and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd. “Due in part to your work, many of Florida’s low income families will be protected in their greatest times of need.”
So, while the three pro bono awards from the Clay County Bar and the one from the Fourth Circuit mean enough to King to find places upon his walls, it’s the unburdened people, the sense of accomplishment and the quest for fairness that those trophies represent that mean the most to him.
“I really just enjoy the work,” King says. “And the people are always so appreciative of the help they receive. Money just can’t buy you all the warm, fuzzy feelings you get from helping others.”
King technically runs a solo practice on Kingsley Avenue, though, with the four best legal secretaries on Kingsley Avenue, he doesn’t consider himself a “sole practitioner.”
King also resides in Orange Park with his wife, Jane Bromagen, and enjoys spending time with his daughter Amy and his three grandchildren.
One Client. One Attorney. One Promise.
Requests for civil legal assistance from the Fourth Circuit’s low-income families have never been greater. Attorneys are needed in all areas of civil law for pro bono representation. Contact Kathy Para, Chairperson, JBA
Pro Bono Committee, for information on areas of greatest need, volunteer opportunities in Fourth Circuit legal services organizations, and support for pro bono attorneys. [email protected]; 356-8371, ext. 363.