VOLS January 2023 Newsletter

January News: How VOLS Launched into 2023

As we wrap up the first month of the year, VOLS is proud to have partnered with so many community and firm partners to help seniors, asylum-seekers, unemployed workers, small business owners and other vulnerable New Yorkers. We hope you’ll take a moment to read through our newsletter about the different communities touched by our work this month. We’re particularly proud of the progress of our Incarcerated Mothers Law Project, which has grown significantly since our June relaunch and will be returning to in-person meetings with clients at Taconic Correctional Facility for the first time since the pandemic began.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported the VOLS Annual Appeal Campaign. We are extremely grateful for your support, which enables us to continue serving so many New Yorkers in need. As always, please reach out with any questions about our work.

Best,

Abja Midha
Executive Director, Volunteers of Legal Service

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VOLS Updates/Events:

Save the Date:

VOLS New York, Together 2023 Gala: Celebrating Pro Bono Stories on Tuesday, April 25, 2023

VOLS Presentation: Best Practices for Pro Bono Case Management & Data Tracking

Today, VOLS Legal Director Pete Kempner joined Jessica Stewart of Pro Bono Net, and Dara Sheinfeld of Davis Polk & Wardwell, to present on best practices in pro bono case management and data tracking. This event was hosted by the Pro Bono & Legal Services Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

Pro Bono Spotlight: Daiana Kostova

Updates from the VOLS Legal Team

January has been full of presentations, clinics, and CLEs for the VOLS Senior Law Project (SLP). The SLP team delivered the presentation “Creating Population Based Initiatives to Better Serve Clients ” at LiveOn NY’s 33rd Annual Conference on Aging alongside MJHS’s Hospice and Palliative Care team. We enjoyed presenting and connecting with others working in services for older adults. Also of note, the VOLS SLP was joined once again in December by volunteers to help the residents of Associated Blind HDFC’s Selis Manor in Manhattan sign their life planning documents and plan for the future. It has been amazing working with this team of dedicated volunteers from MetLife and Proskauer Rose LLP. 

VOLS SLP staff, Selis Manor staff, and pro bono volunteers at one of two signing clinics, facilitated by VOLS, MetLife and Proskauer Rose LLP, at Selis Manor.

In December, the VOLS Immigration Project (IP) hosted a clinic for members of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice community where we screened participants for immigration relief and provided important legal information and referrals for services. We also partnered with NALEO Educational Fund by supporting a Citizenship Event on December 11, where pro bono attorneys assisted applicants in applying for citizenship. In January, VOLS IP partnered with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP on a limited scope asylum declarations clinic. Through this partnership, pro bono associates will assist recently arrived immigrant families with drafting declaration in support of their asylum claims.  

The VOLS Microenterprise Project (MEP) and pro bono partner Kirkland & Ellis conducted a clinic on December 8, serving 18 entrepreneurs who reside in New York City public housing and are working towards starting new businesses. Thirty-five Kirkland pro bono volunteers provided education and counsel on how to formalize these new businesses. Looking ahead, VOLS MEP will be giving a presentation for monolingual Spanish-speaking families who are interested in starting their own businesses, regarding the benefits and legal basics of worker cooperative ownerships for immigrant entrepreneurs. Thank you to our partners at the Center for Family Life and the Multicultural High School for facilitating this event! Next month we will be hosted by community partner Jobs Plus in Brownsville, Brooklyn, for their Legal Basics Workshops for New Entrepreneurs, where we will help participants learn about the gig economy and legal considerations for freelancers and start-up businesses. In the final week of February, in partnership with State Senator Robert Jackson’s office, VOLS will be conducting a clinic for commercial tenants about the different legal issues they may face and tips for resolving disputes with their landlord.  

The VOLS Unemployed Workers Project (UWP) continues to work with claimants from all five boroughs on alleged federal and state overpayments, as well as on denials of initial unemployment insurance (UI) applications. In December, the UWP worked with several partnering law firms who provided pro bono legal assistance to our clients: We held an intake clinic with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where pro bono associates met with UI claimants and assisted them on their cases. We also partnered with legal associates at Thomson Reuters who are drafting community-facing materials on a variety of UI issues, including eligibility, the interaction of UI and SSI/SSD benefits, severance pay, self-employment and more. The UWP is also proud of our continued work in the Fund Excluded Workers campaign, a campaign led by immigrants rights organizations, which continues to fight to close loopholes that shut out vulnerable workers from receiving unemployment insurance from New York State throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This campaign continues to fight to address the long-standing gaps in our safety net for our state’s most vulnerable workers, especially BIPOC and immigrant workers in a variety of low-wage industries. 

As previously shared, the VOLS Incarcerated Mothers Law Project (IMLP) relaunched in June 2022 in a virtual capacity. We restarted with a handful of legal volunteers and since June, the IMLP has grown significantly—we’ve recently welcomed new associates from AIG, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison! And we’ve started working with women and parents at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women and Rikers Island, in addition to Taconic Correctional Facility, resulting in a sizeable increase in the volume of referrals. In December, we held several events. We hosted a roundtable with our partners at Hour Children and Osborne Association where we heard from social workers assisting incarcerated mothers on a daily basis. And in an effort to build our network of family law practitioners around the state, we hosted an informational event and welcomed several new family law attorneys to our roster. Finally, we presented a CLE, Enforcing Orders for Incarcerated Mothers, to associates at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. In the new year, the IMLP continues to grow. We are excited to share that we will be returning to in-person meetings with incarcerated mothers and parents at Taconic Correctional Facility. We expect to set up in-person visits on a regular basis, which is a return to the historic model of the IMLP.  

Client Story: Unemployed Workers Project

In July, Mr. B was unfairly fired after becoming sick with a virus for five days. He applied for unemployment benefits shortly after the termination, but his former employer never responded to the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL)’s multiple requests for information about his departure from the job. The NYSDOL informed him after he had been calling daily that his former employer’s refusal to cooperate with the requests was delaying the process. Meanwhile, Mr. B had no income and subsequently fell behind on his rent payments, being threatened by his landlord with eviction if he did not pay his overdue rent by the end of September. Fortunately, the VOLS Unemployed Workers Project was able to support him when he reached out in early September. The UWP escalated his case to the NYSDOL and, in collaboration with the NYSDOL Unemployment Insurance Claimant Advocate Office, was able to expedite the process. Mr. B was found to be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits and received approximately $4,000 in backpay dating back to July! He is no longer in jeopardy of being evicted and has also found a new job.  

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