The middle-aged mother started to cry as she watched Beth DeSanto fill in the first blank on the four-page questionnaire-the blank that said "name of victim."

"She told me it had been her 24-year-old son's dream to work in the World Trade Center as a financial analyst. Unfortunately, terrorists turned the dream into a nightmare. As she showed me pictures of him, she was rocking herself back and forth and repeating the phrase, 'Oh, my God.'

"It was a very sad day," DeSanto said, describing her first day as one of approximately 60 attorneys from various New York City law firms who are volunteering their time to help families of World Trade Center victims complete the necessary paperwork to obtain expedited death certificates. Volunteers serve five-hour shifts once or twice a week in a project that is expected to take several weeks.

"I sat face-to-face with grieving family members of five victims as they struggled to provide the necessary information," she explained. "For example, the affidavit asks when was the last time the family member spoke to the victim and what did the victim say.

"As you can imagine, I heard many heart-wrenching stories about the events of September 11. Being a corporate lawyer who ordinarily is exposed only to deals, rather than to death and tragedy, I can say that this was the most emotionally draining day of my life so far. Hearing and feeling the utter grief and loss that these families have endured over the past few weeks puts this tragedy into a whole new perspective for me, and it makes the loss even more personal," DeSanto said.

"I could tell it was very difficult for these families to come in and sign an affidavit declaring that their loved ones died as a result of the World Trade Center attack. Up until this time, there was still hope of finding survivors."

Even though the interview took place two weeks after the terrorist attack, one woman asked if it would be possible to cancel the death certificate if her husband were later found alive.

A 1999 graduate of UM Law, DeSanto is a corporate associate of Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells LLP, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions. She was a summer associate of the New York law firm between her second and third years of law school.

She was quick to volunteer when the New York Bar Association asked its members to assist with its World Trade Center Expedited Death Certificates Initiative to help families of the more than 5,000 persons missing and presumed dead following the September 11 disaster.

"In general, New York law requires that the family of a missing person wait three years to obtain a death certificate, but the awful circumstances of this tragedy called for an expedited response," DeSanto pointed out. "Among other things, a death certificate is necessary to obtain life insurance proceeds, to grant families access to bank accounts, to probate estates, and to claim benefits of other relief funds, such as Social Security.

"Therefore, New York City and New York State instituted a special procedure to help families secure death certificates for persons missing after the World Trade Center attack. In most cases, families will be able to obtain the death certificates within a few weeks after the affidavits from family members and employers are submitted to the medical examiner." On October 2, less than a week after the initiative began, death certificates were issued for 41 victims whose families applied through the expedited procedure.

In addition to the death certificate project, DeSanto is volunteering for another New York Bar Association initiative, a program to assist small businesses in the World Trade Center area that have suffered financially following the disaster.

"I will be set up in a 'triage center' to meet with various local business people to determine how the law may help them survive.

"Altogether, I expect that I will be volunteering at least one or two days per week for the next few months," she said. "The Bar Association is not certain how long this process will take, but I plan on seeing it through to the end."