Joe Bocock Featured in Bar Association Publication

McAfee & Taft shareholder Joe Bocock's community service work was highlighted in the March 2008 issue of Briefcase, a publication of the Oklahoma County Bar Association. The article describes the pro bono services he provides for proverty clients through Legal Aid.

"It is very fulfilling work because you really help people who are powerless and helpless," the article quotes him as saying. Legal Aid attorneys advise and counsel indigent persons who face civil legal problems, the article states.

Through his experience and expertise that he has developed in his law practice at McAfee & Taft, Joe has been able to translate "big-firm strategies to effective indigent representation," the article says.

One of the examples the article cites involved Joe using his experience dealing with the Internal Revenue Service to assist "an impoverished gentleman who had been disabled after a stroke and whose tiny apartment was so devoid of amenities that he slept in a chair."

This gentleman whose sole income was Social Security disability payments, had his bank accountlevied upon by the IRS because of failure to pay income taxes. He literally woke up one morning with no money for food, rent or anything else. This is the kind of problem that can be resolved, but says Bocock, “You need a lawyer to do it for you; one who knows what kind of income is exempt from levy. I have done work like this for many of my business clients, so it was easy to see how to help this very terrified man.” A meeting with an IRS agent and the client in Bocock’s office resulted in a lifting of the levies and a return of the client’s money. Since then the client has not been levied upon again.

Joe volunteers at the pro bono clinic at Epworth Methodist Church on the third Saturday of each month.