Marilyn Smith, Indiana Bar Foundation senior counsel (right), was recognized recently by Charles Dunlap, president and CEO of the bar foundation, and other members of the legal community for her work in civil legal aid. (Photo/Indiana Bar Foundation)
The Indiana Citizen
December 15, 2023
While many fret about access to justice, Marilyn Smith opened the doors to the courthouse a little wider.
The senior counsel attorney at the Indiana Bar Foundation has spent the last 10 years building partnerships and developing systems to better get civil legal assistance to low-income Hoosiers across the state. Her work at the bar foundation has focused on making legal resources available to people who need help with a divorce, guardianship, eviction prevention, or employment issues.
She was instrumental in ensuring that the Coalition for Court Access, the body that coordinates legal aid in Indiana, became a vibrant and energetic organization that collaborates, studies and seeks solutions to the tenacious problem of poverty and not enough legal aid. She also had a lead in developing the online resource Indiana Legal Help, which has connected Hoosiers with court forms, legal information and attorneys.
Indiana lawyers and judges call her work “transformational” and noted the many partnerships she fostered. They also marvel that she was able to accomplish so much without raising her voice or pounding her fist on the table.
“We have 2.7 million cases pending in Indiana courts right now. Those are people waiting for justice in those civil cases and on top of that, you have all the people who have an unmet civil legal aid need, which they can’t even get into court. Who worries about that? She worries about that,” Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush said of Smith. “She’s a strong advocate. She has an innovative approach.”
Rush and associate justices of the Indiana Supreme Court, along with judges from the Court of Appeals of Indiana and the state courts and attorneys and leaders in the civil legal aid community, gathered Monday at Union Station in Indianapolis to celebrate Smith. Together, they shared a bittersweet moment, as they toasted Smith for her work and wished her well as she prepares to step into retirement at the end of December.
Charles Dunlap, president and CEO of the bar foundation, described Smith as the “heartbeat” of the organization who brought a “unique vision” and became a “driving force behind our efforts to advance access to justice and civil legal aid.”
Smith joined the bar foundation in 2013 as an independent contractor. With the country emerging from the Great Recession, the need for civil legal aid, particularly in the field of mortgage foreclosures, was overwhelmingly high, while the revenue and resources flowing into the foundation were distressingly low.
Undeterred, Smith filled in wherever she was needed. She helped with both of the bar foundation’s two major initiatives – civics education and civil legal aid – before, eventually, settling in to focus on the latter.
Dunlap said Smith’s legacy will continue to influence the bar foundation and the legal aid providers around the state.
“Throughout Marilyn’s tenure with the bar foundation, we’ve witnessed groundbreaking strides in the pursuit of a more accessible legal system,” Dunlap said in his remarks during the reception, noting her work and her “genuine concern for others” will have a lasting impact. “The positive influence Marilyn has had on our organization is immeasurable and will endure long after today. The initiatives that she championed and the values she instilled will serve as a compass guiding our future endeavors.”
‘That wasn’t my future’
Smith had wanted to be an attorney since she was a child, but her legal career did not begin until three days before classes started at Columbia Law School when she was pulled from the wait-list and given a newly opened spot. Despite initially thinking she did not deserve to be there, she did well in her studies and earned an associate position at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., after graduation.
“It was fun, it was exciting, it was fancy and all that, but I knew that wasn’t my future,” Smith said. “I didn’t aspire to become a partner.”
She moved to Chicago and began working in nonprofits. There were stops at ShoreBank, a community development bank, the Equal Justice Foundation, the Center of Conflict Resolution. Then she took “a huge leap of faith” and moved to Indianapolis, where she could be closer to her mother.
Within a few months, she met Dunlap for coffee.
Smith liked that Dunlap saw the bar foundation as part of a larger community of social-service providers. He was thinking of how the bar foundation could use its talents and resources to help the most people possible.
“That was the driving piece for me. It was seeing ourselves as a community and then being able to act from that place, depending on the issue at hand,” Smith said. “What mattered was can we come together around common mutual goals and I felt that was a very strong motivator for me. We build coalitions.”
The need for civil legal aid is great in Indiana. A 2017 study by Indiana University for the Coalition for Court Access found 1.2 million Hoosiers live below 125% of the federal poverty line. In 2016, 80% of low-income Hoosier families experienced at least one civil legal problem but only one in four of those households turned to lawyers for help.
Talking about the bar foundation, Smith downplayed her work and talked excitedly about the ideas and plans her colleagues have for civil legal aid. However, Scott Wylie, executive director of Pro Bono Indiana, pointed out that Smith was key to building the infrastructure and forming the partnerships that are being used to get more legal aid services to indigent Hoosiers.
In particular, Wylie pointed to the online portal which enables Hoosiers to get forms and information just by logging onto the internet. Now, he said, people in Indiana, especially those in rural counties where few lawyers practice, have more understanding and are better prepared when they walk through the courthouse doors.
“I don’t think you can overestimate the impact that Marilyn has had in the last decade to increase access to justice, especially for low-income Hoosiers,” Wylie said. “Her work in technology and policy has made courts more accessible to people across our state. And there’s probably no more important person in the last decade to help make that happen.”
At the bar foundation, Smith said she has been able to “dream about what’s possible” in giving more people access to justice. She was not thinking about retirement, but with her mother’s death, work became a consuming and comforting escape. She said she realized she needed to start a new journey.
“I’d like to bring some of that energy to other places in my life,” Smith said.
Dwight Adams, a freelance editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
