Vivien Wiggins Crews spent about an hour working with a trio of free attorneys and more than a dozen financial institutions to create her will, power of attorney and more. All all this was for free.
"I understood now what it means to be prepared," she said.
More than 200 clients got services at multiple locations where lawyers from groups like TD, BNY Mellon and JPMorgan. Mark Gittleman is managing chief counsel at PNC Bank and says the effort is part of the first ever Financial Institution's Pro Bono Day.
The event was designed by PNC and went national.
In Philadelphia, 100 lawyers got trained to provide estate planning, immigration services and expungement service under the new Clean Slate law.
Gittleman is working on clean slate expungements thanks to training by Community Legal Services.
"In going to the records takes a lot of time and effort, but it's very rewarding, we are rooting for people to be eligible," Gittleman said.
Wendy Booklar of Senior Law Center says law firms usually help out, "But to have the legal departments at the financial institutions come out, it's a big plus for the public interest."