Angela Novy and Thane Erickson, two of the seven University of Baltimore law students in New Orleans last week volunteering legal assistance for Hurricane Katrina victims, have personal connections to the city.

Erickson received his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University, lived in New Orleans until 2003 and still has his parents and sister in the area. Novy was returning to the Crescent City after being forced to evacuate because of the extensive flooding.

“My basement floor apartment in the Carrollton/Broadmor section took in 5-6 feet of water,” said Novy, a law student at Loyola University in New Orleans before transferring to UB in the aftermath of Katrina. “It was a very emotional experience for me to come back.”

Erickson said his old Lakeview neighborhood, close to the 17th Street levee, was left in ruins.

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Along with three University of Baltimore professors and three local public defenders — two from UB and one from Tulane University in New Orleans, Novy and Erickson aided the city’s public defenders office, understaffed since Katrina.

The students interviewed arrestees, searched for records, helped build cases, looked for prisoners lost in the system, tried to locate family members and communicated with courthouse officials to resolve minor case-related issues.

“These were not just people who were recently arrested, but people who have been in jail 16, 17, 18 months and hadn’t been able to speak to anybody,” said University of Baltimore professor Stephen Harris, who supervised the group. “We were really successful. We got five or six people out of jail — who should’ve been out months ago, but their records got mixed up in the devastation.”

Novy was the lead student organizer from the University of Baltimore working with the Student Hurricane Network, a national organization of 80 law schools providing long-term volunteer assistance to communities affected by Katrina.

Over winter break, more than 200 law students from nine law schools, including UB and the University of Maryland Law School, volunteered with the Katrina Gideon Interview Project, a cooperative effort between the Student Hurricane Network, the New Orleans Public Defenders Office and the Tulane University law clinic.

The University of Baltimore School of Law will hold a panel discussion, titled “Cease and Desist: UB Law Intervenes on Behalf of Victims of Hurricane Katrina,” at noon Thursday. Open to the public, it will be in the fifth-floor multipurpose room of the UB Student Center, 21 W. Mount Royal Ave.

“I have personal ties to the area and to be able to help people in prison was a great experience,” Novy said. “The legal community has a duty to serve any area affected by a catastrophe, and that’s what our volunteers did.”

rcassie@baltimoreexaminer.com