April CAP/June Non-CAP Volunteer of the Month

Amanda Brookhyser of Garg Golden Law Firm

Amanda Brookhyser was born and raised in Las Vegas.  After graduating from Law School, she made the decision to come back and practice law in her home town.  Amanda spent the first ten years of her career doing professional liability insurance defense but has since moved to the plaintiff side of law and she expresses she’s happier than ever with her decision.

Amanda learned about the Children’s Attorneys Project (CAP) years ago when Barbara Buckley offered a presentation at her former law firm.  She thought it was a great opportunity to help children who have no voice in court and accepted the challenge. After taking her first CAP case, Amanda learned about the “Ask-a-Lawyer Program” and decided to volunteer. She has given her time for many of the sessions answering questions for people who have no idea how to navigate the system or their cases. She indicated that, since the program has now transitioned to telephonic interviews, it has given her the opportunity to participate often.

When asked about the reasons why she does pro bono work, Amanda’s response was very moving. She responded by saying that she feels a certain personal obligation to help those in need. That many times, practicing attorneys take for granted that so much of this comes easy to attorneys but that is not the case for the typical client who has no idea how to do basic things.  She said she feels grateful to share and spend fifteen minutes of her time explaining to clients what an opposition should include or what it means to do discovery – things that seem obvious to her, but mean so much to those clients in need.  Amanda said that she can feel how grateful these clients are in her conversations with them. She does not even meet them in person but simply offering them advice over the phone can be truly life-changing for them.

We asked Amanda to tell us about a memorable client and she indicated that she feels every CAP case she’s taken on has been memorable in their own way.  She said: “These kids are thrust into the system based on nothing that they have done.  They are confused, homesick, and scared.  Just having someone who is on their side, who listens to them, and who is genuinely interested in what they want gives them a semblance of control and it means the world.”

Amanda’s passion, conviction, and eagerness to help those most vulnerable is what makes her such an extraordinary person, attorney, and April’s Pro Bono Volunteer of the month.  We are extremely grateful to work along with her to provide much needed access to justice to vulnerable children in the foster care system.