Butler County lawyer Marion Laffey-Ferry doesn't like to say she concentrates her legal practice in family law. She prefers to call it "people law."

Not that she has anything against families, or even the phrase family law, which often amounts to shorthand legalese for law that deals with divorces, child custody and spousal support cases.

It's just that the former teacher is intent on seeing the person within each case folder and the people affected by each decision.

Whatever she calls herself or her practice, many of her colleagues in and outside the Butler community call her a practitioner of compassion and generosity.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Marion Laffey-Ferry: "Motivated toward equal justice for everybody" Click photo for larger image.

Those characteristics have long motivated Ms. Laffey-Ferry, 65, to provide free and reduced-fee legal counsel to hundreds of disadvantaged people in Butler County for two decades. For her long service to the poor, Ms. Laffey-Ferry is being honored next week with two statewide awards, one from the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation and the other from the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

She will receive the Louis J. Goffman Award for Excellence in Individual Pro Bono Service on Thursday at the Pennsylvania Bar Association's annual meeting in Hershey, Dauphin County, which runs Wednesday through Friday. The statewide award goes to a lawyer "whose commitment to pro bono work has enhanced the delivery of legal services to Pennsylvania's poor and disadvantaged."

It is awarded annually by the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, the educational and charitable arm of the state bar association.

Marie Queen, executive director of the foundation, described the Goffman award as the "highest honor that our foundation bestows on any individual or organization for pro bono service." The award has been given to one person and one organization each year since 1989 in recognition of the late Mr. Goffman, a past president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association who was known for his work with the poor of the Philadelphia area. The organization receiving this year's award is the Lancaster Bar Association Foundation.

Ms. Queen said her group found Ms. Laffey-Ferry especially worthy of the honor.

"First, she's a solo practitioner and, then, that she's [performing pro bono work for family court cases] is amazing. It's the most emotionally stressful area of the law, bar none," she said.

Along with the award, Ms. Laffey-Ferry will receive $1,000.

The foundation's president, Karen M. Balaban, said Ms. Laffey-Ferry had been recognized with a variety of state and county awards for her pro bono work. Ms. Laffey-Ferry was nominated for the Goffman award by the Butler County Bar Association.

She also has been picked as the Butler County recipient of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Award. She was nominated by Butler County Neighborhood Legal Services, which provides legal assistance for civil cases to income-eligible residents. Each year, the state bar association recognizes one lawyer per county for his or her work on behalf of the indigent. Ms. Laffey-Ferry will receive that award Wednesday.

Ms. Laffey-Ferry's devotion to the disadvantaged is well known.

"She assisted 41 people in our community last year for free or at reduced rates. And that was just one year. She has a lengthy history of helping. Her cases number in the hundreds," said Suzanne Robinson, executive director of the Butler County Bar Association.

Gerry Redmond, office manager for Butler's Neighborhood Legal Services, said that, since 2000, Ms. Laffey-Ferry had taken on 227 free or reduced-fee cases.

"That's just the last few years. She's been doing this for us for close to 20 years. She's definitely someone who ranks among the highest for referrals," Ms. Redmond said.

Each year, Neighborhood Legal Services asks lawyers to sign up for referrals from the agency. There is greater need for representation than can be met by the three lawyers employed in the Butler County office. The staff lawyers handle protection-from-abuse cases, landlord-tenant disputes, emergency child custody cases, emergency bankruptcy and unemployment compensation appeals.

But the agency can't provide representation for divorces, child custody conciliations, support conferences, nonemergency bankruptcy, power of attorney, living wills and wills.

Ms. Redmond said most members of the Butler County Bar Association sign up to take referrals, though the average lawyer might take five to 10 cases a year.

"Marion has always been willing to see many of our clients. She is motivated toward equal justice for everybody," Ms. Redmond said.

In her 21st year as a lawyer, Ms. Laffey-Ferry said, her practice has her involved in cases that include adoptions, residential real estate, divorce and estate work. Her greatest area of concentration is in child custody.

"We have huge numbers of people who need help with getting appropriate child support or custody orders established. As an ex-teacher, I've seen how the collapse of the family affects kids. I can advise my clients so that the children are harmed as little as possible. If I can help a few, I'm happy," she said, noting that she had taken about 20 cases this year in addition to her regular practice. She said her practice is about half full-paying cases and half free or reduced-fee cases.

She credits her husband, Butler lawyer Warren D. Ferry, for supporting her in her mission to help the poor. Married in 1968, the couple live in Butler Township.

She taught high school French and social studies in Pittsburgh for about 10 years, and she moved to Butler Township from Pittsburgh in 2000.

She is a 1963 graduate of Carlow College and a 1985 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh law school.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Marilyn Horan, who wrote a recommendation for Ms. Laffey-Ferry's nomination as a Goffman award recipient, described her as steadfast and valuable. The judge wrote in her letter:

"In all of her endeavors on behalf of the disadvantaged within our community, Ms. Laffey-Ferry has not only devoted her time, but she has also committed her exemplary professional diligence toward those whom she has served. Ms. Laffey-Ferry is an excellent advocate."

Among organizations Ms. Laffey-Ferry has held memberships in are the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Commission on Women in the Profession, American Bar Association, Butler County Bar Association, Women's Bar Association, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Disciplinary Board of the state Supreme Court, Neighborhood Legal Services Association board of directors, United Way of Butler County and committees of these groups.