Attorney Kristine Havlik: Wills for Heroes is Rewarding Pro Bono Work
December 20th, 2011. By BrendaC
Milwaukee wills and estates lawyer, Kristine Havlik is sending out a clarion call to lawyers in all parts of the state of Wisconsin to share their valuable time to help prepare wills for the first responders who risk their lives each day in the service of others. Havlik, who is senior counsel with the firm of Foley & Lardner, helped establish the Wills for Heroes program in Wisconsin in 2009. Since then, the pro bono wills & estates clinics have prepared more than 1,000 estate planning documents for firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel and their families.
When Havlik heard about the Wills for Heroes Foundation from a colleague in a neighboring state two years ago, she saw an opportunity to help first responders in her home state. “When I realized there was an opportunity to bring the Wills for Heroes Program to Wisconsin I really jumped at the opportunity to find pro bono work in my practice area.”
The Wills for Heroes Foundation was originally the brainchild of Anthony Hayes, a partner with the Columbia, South Carolina firm of Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, conceived of in the aftermath of the September 11th, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers. Since then the program has branched out to 27 states across the U.S. Its mission to is help “those who serve us” by providing free preparation of wills, living trusts, powers of attorney and other important estate documents to qualified persons serving in the military or as civic first responders.
Although the numbers may not be exact, it is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of these individuals do not have estate plans in place and the need to help them is a great according to Havlik.
Apart from the cost, there seem to be two barriers. The first is logistical, the second is psychological. “They work some unusual hours, it is not necessarily 9 to 5” explains Havlik. “It may be difficult for them to find the time to come in and meet with an estate planning attorney.”
“The second reason is that preparing estate documents may put into perspective the real dangers of their occupation and there may be some real fear of dealing with that,” she adds.
She specifically recalls a young man who had signed up to serve with the military after 9-11 and then went on to join the police department in Milwaukee. He brought his wife and baby in to sign estate documents. “He’d never had a will,” says Havlik.
Over the last two years Havlik has trained 500 lawyers to prepare wills and estates at free clinics in the Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay areas of Wisconsin. “We are hoping to launch in northern and western Wisconsin and it is there that we’re struggling to find lawyers to take this on and go with the program,” says Havlik.
Havlik has recently been helping a colleague at the Foley & Lardner office in Tampa to establish a Wills for Heroes program in Florida.
Havlik’s leadership has been recognized in this area with both the Gordon Sinykin Award of Excellence (2010), an award that recognizes attorneys for their work on an individual law related education or public service project, and the coveted Milwaukee Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Award (2011). In addition, Ms. Havlik was named to the 2006, 2007 and 2008 lists of Wisconsin Super Lawyers–Rising Stars for her estates & trusts and tax & individual planning work.
Kristine L. Havlik, University of Virginia 1999, is senior counsel of Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee. She is a founding volunteer and major advocate of the State Bar’s Wills for Heroes program.
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