Dinetia Newman Receives Pro Bono Award for Work with All Saint's Episcopal Church Legal Clinic

Bradley is pleased to announce that Dinetia M. Newman, counsel in the firm’s Jackson office, has received the 2019 Deborah H. Bell Pro Bono Award from the Pro Bono Initiative (PBI) at the University of Mississippi School of Law (Ole Miss Law). Ms. Newman, along with Kay Trapp, a retired litigator and All Saints’ parishioner, was recognized for their work helping to establish and operate the Lawyers in the Parish Hall legal clinic at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Tupelo, Miss.

“We congratulate Dinetia on receiving the Deborah H. Bell Pro Bono Award and commend her for her dedication to making legal services more accessible to the public,” said Bradley Pro Bono Counsel Tiffany Graves. “Dinetia has devoted countless hours to the clinic providing legal services and working diligently with the church to promote the clinic to the local community.”

In 2013, Ms. Newman and Ms. Trapp co-founded Lawyers in the Parish Hall, which is the first and only faith-based pro bono legal partnership in Mississippi. They secured and maintain local and statewide partners to maintain the clinic, including the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project, Mississippi Access to Justice Commission, Ole Miss Law, and Lee County Chancery Court, among others. In addition, Ms. Newman and Ms. Trapp helped to recruit local attorneys to staff the clinic, which is held quarterly in conjunction with Saints Brew, an All Saints’ Episcopal Church program that provides breakfast for the local homeless community. 

The Ole Miss Law PBI is an in-house pro bono program through which Ole Miss Law student volunteers attend legal clinics in courthouses or community centers around the state where they team with attorney volunteers to interview and assist pro se litigants.

A member of Bradley’s Healthcare Practice Group, Ms. Newman represents hospitals and health systems, physicians, and ancillary service providers on regulatory, operational, and transactional matters. These include Medicare and Medicaid payment, Anti-kickback Act, Stark Law, EMTALA, HIPAA privacy and security compliance, state law licensure, and Certificate of Need issues. 

Ms. Newman is a past president of the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA), a past chair and co-chair of the AHLA’s Regulation, Accreditation and Payment practice group, an AHLA Fellow and current member of the AHLA Fellows Coordinating Committee. In addition, she is a past president of both the Health Law Section of the Mississippi Bar and the Mississippi Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association. She also is a frequent speaker and author and has taught health law as an adjunct professor at Ole Miss Law.