Like most people, Anthony Hayes, a lawyer in his 30s, felt helpless after the Sept. 11th attacks of 2001.
He watched as other people tried to make sense of the collapsed towers, the smoking Pentagon, the burning hole in Pennsylvania.
Then something that an officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said on the “Today” show just after the attacks struck a nerve: “You don’t have to come to New York and pick up a rock to help. Everybody can do something.”
Hayes, who was working at the time at 4 World Trade Center, did do something. He returned to his firm in Columbia, SC, met with a local assistant fire chief and several firefighters and came up with “Wills for Heroes.” The program teams up lawyers who work with firefighters — free of charge — to develop last wills, health care powers of attorney, living wills and estate planning.
Once initial paperwork is completed, sessions with the lawyers take roughly an hour.
“Considering what firefighters are prepared to do on a daily basis, the fact that so many of these folks don’t have wills is crazy,” Hayes said.
In the nearly five years since the start of the program, it’s spread to four other states — Georgia (where it’s also run by Hayes’ firm: Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough), Ohio, Virginia and Arizona.
Fire chiefs and firefighters at first found the “pro bono” aspect of the program hard to believe, said Hayes. “They thought lawyers were going to want something in return. But this is a one-sided gift. It’s a chance to give back.”
Hundreds have benefited. Hayes’ firm has worked with more than 1,500 first responders in South Carolina and Georgia. In Arizona, the Young Lawyers Division of the state bar association, which adopted the program in 2004, developed a Web site (www.azbar.org/willsforheroes) as well as other marketing materials. Arizona also expanded the program to include corrections officers.
Getting emergency responders to buy into the program can require clearing some psychological barriers. Clearly, it’s not exactly optimistic to plan for possible death and Hayes has found a certain amount of reluctance to admit the possibilities of doing a dangerous job.
“If you have the guts to run into a burning building, you definitely have a little bit of an immortality complex,” he said.
But Hayes points out that all branches of the military require its members have wills. So it makes sense that firefighters should have them, too. “They’re our local heroes, they’re the ones saving people’s lives at home,” he said.
The program has spread primarily through word of mouth. “I think we’re at a tipping point,” said Hayes. Currently, lawyers in a few states are running the program. To find out more and to see if it can work in your state, visit www.azbar.org/willsforheroes or contact Hayes at Anthony.hayes@nelsonmullins.com or 803/255-9416.