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While he was earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia in Athens, ALRP Board member and Panel Attorney Adam Podowitz-Thomas worked as an HIV counselor, and it was the plight of one of his clients that pushed him towards a career in law. My client was dropped by his insurance company after being diagnosed HIV+, Adam said. I was so horrified by it. I became dedicated to making sure this didnt happen to anyone else in the future.

As soon as my clients landlord found out he was HIV+, she started harassing him, said Panel Attorney Jin Shim. Suddenly she was filing eviction papers and trying to get a restraining order against him. Jins client was woken up at 3 a.m. one night because his landlord was running a paper shredder right outside his front door. When the landlord wasnt running a shredder, she was banging on the stairs or playing the TV or radio upstairs at full blast all night long.

For ALRP Panel Attorney Selby Lighthill, ALRPs services hit pretty close to home. I received a referral for a client who lived only a few blocks from me and was facing an eviction, he said. ALRP called me on a Thursday and said that the trial for the eviction was set for Monday, and could I help? Selby met with the client that day.

At age 57, Cassandra has survived an HIV diagnosis, a painful divorce, and assuming custody of her five-year-old granddaughter. But as strong as she is, the debts she faced after her marriage ended threatened to overwhelm her. After ALRP helped her file for divorce a few years ago, she turned to ALRP once again to ask about the possibility of declaring bankruptcy.