Volunteer Spotlight Published February 23, 2023
Robert Cervone
Meet February’s Volunteer of the Month!
Robert Cervone is VIP’s Volunteer of the Month! His interest in the legal profession began in college as a criminal justice major. After graduating, Robert began working at the Defender Association of Philadelphia while attending law school at night. He eventually began working as an Assistant Defender and later transitioned into family law as a Law Clerk at the Philadelphia Family Court where he was first introduced to Philadelphia VIP.
“Most attorneys go to law school to help people, but sometimes that intent gets lost along the way. I feel I have a commitment to civic duty and did not want to lose it, so I reached out to VIP to start volunteering.” He says that transitioning to pro bono work was easy for him, as he already serves a wide variety of clients in his practice.
I treat all of my clients the same regardless of whether they are a private or pro bono client. I have the same duty to all of them and treat everyone with the same mentality and level of respect regardless of their status.
Robert recognizes the fact that family law is emotionally-charged work. He tries to simplify it by recognizing that he does the work with one ultimate goal – to advise and zealously advocate for his clients.
“Family law can be one big gray area,” Robert says. “The courts look at different factors that aren’t necessarily cut and dry. When advising a client, I try not to have tunnel vision and talk to them about all aspects of the case as well as the potential long-term impacts.”
Beyond the personal satisfaction that Robert feels when doing pro bono work, he encourages others to consider working with VIP because it provides exposure to different areas of law, provides resources that can assist in guiding the volunteers, and is an unofficial way to network.