February News: The Stories of Our City
As we prepare for Volunteers of Legal Service’s New York, Together Gala 2022: Resilient City – Pro Bono Leadership on April 28, the stories of New Yorkers served by VOLS are on our minds.
In this month’s newsletter, we feature a case at the intersection of immigration law and unemployment benefits law. Read about VOLS client Ms. M, an immigrant New Yorker and asylum-seeker from Guinea, who won her unemployment insurance hearing and therefore avoided paying back more than $5,000 in alleged overpayments. We are introduced to Sandra Ortega, who worked with VOLS to ensure that her 92-year-old mother’s wishes and needs would be addressed at end of life. And we learn about the challenges facing small business owners navigating landlord relations after the commercial eviction moratorium expired last month.
VOLS is able to empower our clients to address their challenges with a lawyer by their side. We do this as one city and as one VOLS community: New York, Together.
On Thursday, April 28, we look forward to highlighting the resilience found across the VOLS community and to recognizing pro bono leaders who have made a difference during the pandemic and beyond. Stay tuned for more details about the VOLS gala in the weeks to come; click here for sponsorship information.
And we are pleased to share more about VOLS’ work in this month’s newsletter below.
Best regards,
Abja
Abja Midha
Executive Director
Volunteers of Legal Service
Spread the word! VOLS is seeking great candidates for two open positions, each critical to help us serve our New York City neighbors. The Bilingual Legal Assistant (English, Spanish) will support the VOLS Unemployed Workers, Microenterprise, and Senior Law Projects. And the Director of Development & Communications will help ensure that VOLS’ donors, pro bono partners, volunteers, and community members know how they can make a difference through their support and partnership.
VOLS Legal Director Peter Kempner and Bronx Recovery Corps Fellow Mabel Lanzo were recently featured in the Riverdale Press about VOLS’ participation in Lehman College’s Bronx Recovery Corps. The reporter interviewed Sandra Ortega, a Queens-based hairdresser who needed to prepare end-of-life planning documents for her mother, Ana.
“’I didn’t really realize how involved it could be,’ Sandra Ortega said. ‘I didn’t think about all these little details, and how everything has to be on paper. Documented.’ Now, Ortega is empowered to take care of all her mother’s personal accounts, and both of them can turn their attention to far more important things: Enjoying their time as mother and daughter.”
Updates from the VOLS Legal Team
As New York City recovers from the pandemic and economic crisis, the VOLS team reports with updates from across our legal programs:
- One of the keys to our Senior Law Project’s delivery model is our close collaboration with social workers and case managers working with the aging community. On January 25, we were thrilled to present at the 32nd Annual Conference on Aging convened by LiveOn NY. Along with colleagues from the JASA Palliative Care Support Services program, our staff presented “An Interdisciplinary Approach to Empowering & Equipping the Social Work & Case Manager Role in End-of-Life Care and Advance Care Planning.” Collaboration between lawyers and social work professionals helps us to have difficult conversations with our clients about end of life and incapacity planning. We know that those conversations are not enough, and we ensure that our clients have the tools they need to make their wishes clear and empower themselves and their caregivers. This month we are also collaborating with SAGEVets on February 28, 2022, to present “Life Planning for LGBTQ+ Veterans , a virtual program.” If you are interested in having our team present to your clients or staff on life planning please contact VOLS Legal Director Peter Kempner at pkempner@volsprobono.org.
- In December, we testified about the VOLS Microenterprise Project before a joint oversight hearing on “Supporting Veteran Entrepreneurship” held by the New York City Council’s Committees on Small Business and Veterans. In January, with the support of the Fordham Law Small Business Society, we created an e-filing pro se guide to help small business defendants navigate the New York Courts Electronic Filing system (NYSCEF). With the expiration of the eviction moratorium last month, many small businesses will now be interacting with the court system for the first time. While residential tenants have a right to counsel, commercial tenants do not have such a right and as a result, hundreds if not thousands of small businesses are left to navigate eviction proceedings on their own. In addition, the VOLS Microenterprise Project continues partnering with pro bono volunteer attorneys, educating small business owners through community outreach efforts, and providing critical legal assistance to clients in the areas of commercial leasing, entity formation, intellectual property, contracts, and other small business law matters. Finally, in connection with the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, VOLS Law Fellow Kevin Perry’s work was featured by Equal Justice Works : “When we stand up for equality and justice, we empower others to do the same, and in time you are never alone.”
- The VOLS Immigration Project has continued our work with young people to secure their legal status. With the support of our community and education partners, we recently held consultation clinics for community members at La Jornada (Queens), Mixteca (Brooklyn), Lafayette International High School (Brooklyn), and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Manhattan). With the support of our Pro Bono partner Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, VOLS hosted a virtual Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewal clinic, using the firm’s newly developed online platform leveraging technology to support our legal work. We also celebrated the securement of a green card for a long-time VOLS client, who had been waiting to obtain this status for more than four years, after VOLS helped them secure Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS).
- The VOLS Unemployed Workers Project (UWP) reports back on our service to immigrant New Yorkers and our continued advocacy for Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants facing alleged overpayments. On December 14, VOLS testified at New York City Council Committee on Immigration Hearing in favor of enhancing eligibility for immigrant New Yorkers. VOLS continues to advocate for the renewed funding of New York State’s Excluded Workers Fund (EWF), collaborating with over a dozen immigrant-serving community organizations. On January 31st, we submitted testimony to New York State’s Joint Budget Hearing to support replenishing the Fund with $3 billion. Meanwhile, thousands of New Yorkers continue receiving notifications from the New York Department of Labor (DOL), informing them that they had been overpaid in UI benefits and will need to pay back significant sums. We are pleased to share the story of VOLS client Ms. M, who successfully appealed an overpayment charge caused by the federal government’s handling of her work authorization renewal. More broadly, VOLS is collaborating with the New York City UI Coalition to advocate to the Department of Labor the need for an overpayment waiver process. While we have made some progress in emphasizing the urgent need for this waiver process for claimants facing tens of thousands in alleged overpayments, the fight for an equitable process continues.
Join the VOLS Community
- If you are affiliated with a VOLS partner law firm or company and would like to volunteer, please contact your company’s pro bono counsel.
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