October News: Celebrating National Pro Bono Month
October is pro bono celebration month. As an organization powered by pro bono, VOLS knows exactly how much there is to celebrate: our volunteer attorneys help us to serve exponentially more clients and bring significant resources to our work. We have had a whirlwind few weeks participating in pro bono open houses, clinics, trainings, and other opportunities. We’ve also had the pleasure of announcing our VOLS 2022 Dean’s List, ten individuals who made a remarkable contribution to pro bono – and their clients – at VOLS this year. Next week we will be profiling each awardee and their firm or company on our social media and hope you join in congratulating their efforts.
While there is much to celebrate in legal services, we are also mindful of the ongoing hardships our clients face. Please read on to learn more about how our Immigration Project is helping to address the needs of immigrant families who have been bused into the city since August and the ongoing difficulties that our Unemployed Workers Project clients have had in accessing their benefits and waivers.
VOLS will continue to be there when and where our communities need us most. Thank you for your ongoing support, and please reach out with any questions.
Best,
Abja Midha Executive Director Volunteers of Legal Service
VOLS Updates/Events:
VOLS at the AIG Pro Bono Open House on 10/6 Thank you to Erica Blau, Pro Bono Director & Associate General Counsel at AIG, for providing us with the opportunity to discuss our work! Click the image below to learn more.
VOLS Presentation: Language Access in Pro Bono Practice VOLS conducted a virtual presentation Language Access in Pro Bono Practice to attorneys and community advocates in our network this week. Executive Director Abja Midha, Project Director Stephanie Taylor, and Staff Attorney Crystal Giron provided an overview of relevant laws requiring the provision of meaningful language access to Limited English Proficient individuals, recent developments with ABA guidance on language access, consequences of failure to provide meaningful, an introduction of concepts around language equity and justice, and tips for working with interpreters and translators in order to enhance pro bono practice. Please reach out if you are interested in a recording of this important conversation.
Celebrating Pro Bono Month & the VOLS 2022 Dean’s List!
Updates from the VOLS Legal Team
VOLS Microenterprise Project Director Andrea Tan testified at the October 13 New York City Council Committees on Veterans and Small Business hearing in support of a bill that would enable veteran-owned businesses to identify as such when registering to do business with the city, and supporting of the creation of a Veteran Leadership Advisory Program that would educate veteran-owned businesses about city procurement opportunities. A full written copy of the testimony is available here.
VOLS helped our community partner Progress Playbook to organize and host VOLS’ workshop on entity formation, contracts and intellectual property for the participants of Progress Playbook’s Blueprint Project, presented by the pro bono attorneys from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. The team also attended the NYC Safe Pitch Competition, which incubates NYCHA entrepreneurs in disinvested neighborhoods to form start-ups that will promote safety in their neighborhoods. VOLS will be connecting with interested partners from the most recent cohort who completed their business development course to connect them with pro bono legal assistance.
Finally, as members of the United for Small Business NYC Coalition, the VOLS team participated in the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development’s 2022 Annual Conference, Fight Forward in the Bronx: Building Merchant Power, to engage in panel discussions about Patterns of Small Business Displacement and the Power of Merchant Organizing. We were honored to be part of the ongoing conversation on how commercial tenants from low-income and historically marginalized communities can come together to fight displacement, raising rents, landlord speculation and gentrification.
VOLS Senior Law Project joined Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Bloomberg LP on September 29, for an in-person clinic to provide low-income older adults the chance to speak with an attorney and review and execute their planning documents. Thank you to Inna Sanamyan and Kim Domilici Rutan from Bloomberg LP, and Annie Mohan from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft for working with VOLS to host this important clinic! In other pro bono engagement news, on October 12, the team conducted a training for Duval & Stachenfeld LLP attorneys on end-of-life planning. If your firm is interested in receiving a pro bono training from the SLP, please reach out to Project Director Peter Kempner.
The SLP also conducted clinics and presentations to clients this October with community partners, including at Village View NORC, Westbeth Older Adult Center, Our Lady of Pompeii Older Adult Center, Riverstone Older Adult Center, Sunnyside Community Services, Diana Jones Older Adult Center, Independence Plaza Older Adult Center, and Encore Community Services. Thank you to our community partners, who help us reach older adult clients where they live and gather across all five boroughs of New York City!
VOLS Immigration Project has been holding workshops for CBOs and training for pro bono volunteers in response to the city’s emerging migration crisis. On October 6, we attended the Mixteca Asylum Workshop to train members of community-based organizations on the elements of asylum, so they can provide information to the community and new arrivals. On October 12, Project Director Dorian Rojas co-presented a CLE, Unprecedented Times: Immigration Remedies for Our New Neighbors in order to train private bar attorneys and engage them to take on cases for individuals and families of new arrivals on the buses. On October 13, the team conducted a DACA workshop for John Jay students to provide information on the latest updates on DACA. We recognize that in light of the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision, DACA remains in peril and Dreamers need advocates and legal information to protect their status and due process rights.
Finally, VOLS will conduct a Naturalization Clinic with volunteer attorneys at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison on October 21 where we will assist potential clients who have legal concerns relating to naturalization. Thank you to our volunteer attorneys who help us safeguard the legal rights of immigrant youth and young adults.
The VOLS Unemployed Workers Project presented earlier this month for Garden of Hope, an organization in Flushing, Queens, that works with Chinese immigrant survivors of domestic violence and trafficking. The team has heard from claimants that many federal pandemic unemployment assistance overpayment applications are still being held up by the Department of Labor. We are continuing to work on advocating for legislation to mandate processing these applications.
Pro Bono Success Story: Immigration Project
VOLS’ pro bono volunteers continue to go above and beyond for our clients/families. Zachary Jarrett, Amanda Miner, and Favio Cesar Yepes, of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, worked with a group of siblings since January of 2020 and have helped them obtain legal permanent residency via Special immigrant Juvenile Status. The young adults became legal permanent residents in September of 2022, ending the case and the attorneys’ volunteer commitment. However, this dedicated trio continued to work with the family, advocating for them to obtain their social security cards, and now working with additional family members to help them obtain Individual Taxpayer Identification Number numbers in order to properly file taxes. VOLS is grateful to this team and happy to see our clients continue to benefit from their compassion and dedication!
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.
- Make a donation to support VOLS’ free civil legal services: Click here to donate.
- Forward this page and ask your friends to sign up for the VOLS e-newsletter at www.volsprobono.org/join.