Showing exceptional dedication to VOLS’ mission to aid the local New York City community through pro bono legal services, attorneys Gordana Vasic and Nicole Baffi took on leadership roles and spearheaded the VOLS Immigration Project in 2020. Immigration services were particularly essential this past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed down and complicated the already-treacherous road to legal residency. Gordana and Nicole assisted individuals with citizenship documentation throughout the year. Thanks to their work, the Immigration Project has empowered individuals to know their rights and pursue the American Dream with peace of mind and a sense of belonging.

Through a referral from the Small Business Legal Relief Alliance, David Holmberg has so far devoted 107 hours to advising a photographer in New York who experienced difficulties with her business during the pandemic. Specifically, David did a tax analysis for the client, which ultimately led to her restructuring the business which helped her minimize her tax liabilities.

A&P responded to the pandemic by assisting hundreds of employees impacted by COVID-19 by providing individual counseling on unemployment, food stamps and other benefits. The NY UI team took on many referrals from VOLS’ Unemployed Workers Project (780 hours of pro bono work for VOLS’ clients, including one appeal) as well as other sources of unemployed restaurant employees. The following people are the NY UI team: Matthew Bemis, Eitan Bender, Louis Champagne, Jason Hsu, David Huberman, Mariana Lee, Will Madden – Co-Chair, Manvin Mayell – Chair,  Lucy McMillan, Stivens Ovalle, Michael Rogoff, Michael Schissel, Rafe Serouya, Kathleen Wechter. This group includes partners, counsel, associates, and legal assistants.

Cadwalader’s Private Client team was eager to get involved with VOLS Frontline & Healthcare Workers Initiative. The team did a thorough review of the citywide training materials and provided comments to the VOLS group leading the effort. The Private Client team also offered to serve as supervisors to any Cadwalader attorney taking on a case from the project or for any overflow of work from VOLS in need of review. They continue to supervise and mentor Cadwalader associates assisting clients referred by the project. In addition to our team reviewing and providing comments, the Firm also hosted the citywide training to kickoff the project and provided CLE for attendees the day of, and after.

As part of the VOLS Children’s Hospital Project, these associates represent a patient being treated for chronic kidney disease, who is a candidate for a kidney transplant, with a guardianship proceeding. Due to COVID, guardianship proceedings have been paused unless deemed an emergency. The team demonstrated this and the client’s cousin was appointed as his guardian. The court also granted an order for special findings enabling the client to apply for SIJS, which allows him to obtain lawful immigration status and expand his access to medical insurance necessary for the kidney transplant. The team is assisting with the SIJS application.

This was a Covid-19 limited scope clinic consultation involving a Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan and bankruptcy law. The team advised a small business owner in New York City who was significantly and negatively impacted by the shutdown of his business due to the pandemic. The consultation required explaining the complex interplay of bankruptcy law, corporate law principles, and small business loan documentation to a distressed client in a clear and culturally-sensitive manner.

Giselle and Jason represented a teenager in a custody proceeding in Family Court, in a SIJS application, and in her application to become a legal permanent resident.  The representation started in October 2016 and she became a legal permanent resident in June 2020.  Over the course of nearly four years, Giselle at first, and Jason when he joined the matter, helped our client at every step of the process.  Equally important, they provided her with information and reassurance to address her concerns about the increased danger to undocumented immigrants in the period following Donald Trump’s election.

We’ve had a large team of attorneys who participated in the VOLS Unemployed Workers Hotline project for the past approximately 13 or 14 months.

Volunteers return hotline calls and advise callers who are having trouble accessing benefits.

There are a large number of attorneys involved in the project; they are listed here:
Stewart Ross
Mary Beth Houlihan
Kevin Zhen
Anne Aufhauser
Josh Katz
Michael Turo
Erica Perlmutter
Melissa Kahn
Joanna Rosenberg
Rati Ranga
Christopher Hinojosa
Thomas Bethany
Ashlee Newman
Vivian June
Marie Kwon
Ethan Kamer
Andrea Pollak
Alexander Panisch
Paul Jindra
Denis Fatovic
Sari Rosenfeld
Summer Quintana
Samantha Rozell
Vidit Mehra

Rita runs our PS 188 law clinic through VOLS’ Children’s Project. She has been tireless in recruiting volunteers, showing up at the school once a month (pre-pandemic) and always making sure she and volunteers are updated on changes to laws or policies that affect our clients. When the pandemic first hit, she lead a team of volunteers to create a handbook of resources that we could send to the school for parents addressing housing, immigration and government programs. She is a dedicated and committed leader of our PS 188 project (among many others) and should be recognized for her efforts.

Phil has served as the NY office pro bono leader for McGuireWoods for over 10 years. Phil’s unwavering commitment to pro bono service only strengthened during the pandemic as he led our office to participate in VOLS’s estate planning project for low income health care workers. Not only did Phil personally handle estate planning matters, he supervised and mentored other attorneys during their work and took the lead on coordinating the project. Phil also coordinated our participate in Financial Institution Pro Bono Day by PBI, where we partnered with VOLS on another estate planning clinic. Phil’s leadership and extraordinary service and commitment are greatly appreciated and we want to acknowledge all that he does.

Jen is the engine behind the Morgan Stanley team of 30+ lawyers who comprise our small business relief team. We could not do the work that we do without her incredible organizational skills, compassion and keen matching skills. She always puts together a strong team with the right client and stays on top of the work so that it gets done efficiently and well. She deserves to be recognized for her tremendous efforts.

We proudly nominate Jeff Xu for this recognition. VOLS featured Jeff in a 2020 Pro Bono Spotlight because he has become such a steadfast contributor to the Elderly Project since his first client in 2017. (https://volsprobono.org/pro-bono-week-spotlight-jeff-xu/). Jeff has continued serving Elderly Project clients with dedication throughout the pandemic, while also contributing more than 100 hours to assist small businesses affected by the pandemic through the California Small Enterprise Task Force, an initiative begun in part by our firm (https://case.law.berkeley.edu/). Thanks to Jeff’s offer of mentoring, a new attorney in Jeff’s practice group recently began work with his first Elderly Project client.

Deniz was instrumental in assisting VOLS with the relaunch of the Unemployed Workers Project. Back in March 2020, Deniz reconnected with the then-director of the Unemployed Workers Project which had since shut down, with whom she had worked in representing unemployed workers in administrative proceedings. With the partnership of VOLS, Deniz and the Paul, Weiss Pro Bono team, the project was relaunched in late March 2020. VOLS and Deniz developed a webinar, training materials and resources and the Hotline has since provided crucial legal services and advice to unemployed New Yorkers seeking access to government benefits.

Deniz quickly became the go-to associate at Paul, Weiss for complex calls that required more knowledge and understanding of the unemployment framework. From March through this winter, she often committed up to two pro bono hours per day on the effort. Relaunching the hotline bypassed the bottleneck at the Department of Labor and allowed New York’s jobless to more quickly and effectively file claims. Paul, Weiss was the first firm to staff the Hotline, and under Deniz’s guidance, Paul, Weiss associates have helped hundreds of unemployed New Yorkers.

Deniz’s work did not stop at the Hotline. Once courts began to hold remote hearings, Deniz worked with VOLS to represent and advocate on behalf of claimants with more complex legal issues in administrative proceedings. She currently represents an individual who was stranded in Colombia and denied access to much-needed unemployment benefits on that basis. Reflecting her commitment to each client, Deniz has represented that claimant alone in a hearing before an administrative judge, on appeal to the administrative board, and on further appeal to New York’s Third Department.
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Through VOLS’ Microenterprise Project, the team assisted a Black woman-owned small business that provides financial literacy and media services in connection with their transactional, corporate governance, and intellectual property needs. Given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black- and woman-owned businesses, as well as the great need for financial literacy given the economic turmoil that ensued from it, the pro bono support was crucial in ensuring the business could stay afloat and continue serving its clients.

Sidley served small business owners in New York hard hit by the pandemic, staffing numerous small clinics organized by the City Bar and the Small Business Legal Relief program in which VOLS participated. Mike and Adam did outstanding work in the VOLS commercial lease project, giving advice and guidance to New Yorkers who needed help in negotiating with their commercial landlords.

This team handled multiple unemployment hearings for New Yorkers suffering devastating job losses due to the COVID pandemic, including three NYC public school substitute teachers who were told they were eligible, applied for, and received unemployment insurance benefits through the summer months. In the fall the NYS Department of Labor stated that the teachers should not have received those summer month benefits and asked the teachers to pay the benefits back, which most could not afford to do. The Firm has won all three of those cases on behalf of these teacher-clients.

This team of Stroock attorneys and staff, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, created and has since administered the Small Business Legal Relief Alliance (SBLRA), a coalition of more than two dozen large law firms and seven legal service organizations, including VOLS, that provides expert legal and financial guidance and direct assistance to New York-based small businesses, microenterprises, and nonprofits impacted by the pandemic. The SBLRA, led by our team, has helped over 550 small business owners and nonprofits–many women- and minority-owned or run–navigate and resolve issues including renegotiation of commercial leases, securing access to government loans and grants, employment-related challenges, bankruptcy matters, intellectual property matters, and corporate and transactional matters (among others). Our team has also presented trainings to small business owners and practitioners on issues including economic relief for small business owners, federal and state loan and grant programs, and commercial lease negotiations. We continue to help small businesses and nonprofits through expert legal consultations and full engagements.

Over the course of the last five years, Tim has been a repeated volunteer working with housing clients whose family members suffer from asthma. He has assisted in obtaining remediation of conditions in their apartments, many of which increase the health of the families we serve. He has also assisted in screening potential clients of AIR NYC for this project, in collaboration with VOLS, for the last three years.