JC employs two full-time lawyers whose duties include teaching a clinic at the UVA law school where 15 law students participate. A psychologist works for JC on a pro bono basis, acting as a consultant, reviewing records, charts, etc, relating to social services, mental health evaluations, educational evaluations. At some point, he said, it would be desirable to have professionals on staff, but he worries about the conflicting ethical duties of a social worker, on the one hand, and the duties of a lawyer. Assuming these conflicts can be worked out, a multidisciplinary approach in most effective, as clients can have access to a number of different professional services under one roof. LINC also has a lay mission involving educating people with terminal illnesses through community education programs.
Cancer patients have a plethora of problems, legal and non-legal.
Some of them involve creditors, medical care providers, landlords, and financial. Phyllis Katz indicated that their Legal Aid section uses non-lawyers, i.e., social workers, to counsel cancer patients and they train 30 to 40 individuals to perform this work. The only attorney on staff is the Executive Director. Patients needing legal services are referred to outside counsel. If lay social workers encounter legal issues while counseling a patient, they refer that matter to the Executive Director who calls upon volunteer attorneys in private practice.