<< Pittsburgh Lawyers

Looking After
"The Little Ones"

Gary Hunt's extraordinary pro-bono case
has spanned 18 years.

By Dana Black McGrath

Gary Hunt is a trial lawyer who handles commercial and corporate disputes for banks, construction companies and other clients. With those credentials, you wouldn't imagine that he also has been representing a group of six siblings as they moved through Allegheny County's Office of Children, Youth and Families (CYF) system for the last 18 years.

"Children's causes are very important to me and always have been," says the 57-year-old attorney who works for Tucker Arensberg P.C. in downtown Pittsburgh.

Growing up in Wexford, he was among the oldest of 11 children and, at a young age, was trained to look after "the little ones." It was a directive that stayed with him into adulthood, guiding his pro-bono work and volunteer efforts with the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh.

In early 1990, Hunt volunteered to help with this ongoing family case, never imagining that his commitment would span nearly two decades.

CYF uses a county solicitor or assistant county solicitor to represent children who become dependent, meaning the courts have jurisdiction over their care. Dependent children may be placed in a variety of situations: Some are removed from their birth families and are placed into foster care or are adopted, while some stay with the family with support and supervision.

Sometimes these children have children of their own while still dependent, in which case the solicitor cannot legally represent both the dependent child and his or her child because it would create a conflict of interest. In those cases, volunteer attorneys are tapped to represent the interests of the younger child.

That is how Hunt came to be involved. A young woman, who was still a dependent in the system, gave birth to a child of her own. Issues arose with respect to the care of the baby, so Hunt volunteered to help. Eventually the mother gave birth to another child, so Hunt chose to take on the representation of the sibling - a pattern that repeated itself until Hunt found himself representing the interests of six children from the same mother.

"Because I had so much history, I felt I was the best person to represent these children, that it was better than someone new trying to catch up on the years of history."

When he took on the case, he didn't envision that he would still be working on it 18 years later, but once he started, he found it very hard to say no. "These kids don't have much other support," he explains.

Over the course of Hunt's involvement in the case, three of the siblings have been adopted, one is living with the father, and two remain in the system. But Hunt thinks that the case could be coming to a close. The mother's situation has changed - she's no longer a dependent - and he is hopeful that the system won't need to be involved much longer.

Although this assignment has added up to many hours of work over the years - one element of the case even involved an appeal to Pennsylvania Superior Court - Hunt supports other causes as well. He has served as board chair for the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh, and much of his pro-bono work these days is on behalf of that organization.

"I do what I can to help," Hunt says. "My goal is to create opportunities for these kids."