LAW DAY MESSAGE
from Marcia Levy and Alison King
Everyday during the COVID-19 crisis, we hear stories about the healthcare and front-line workers and we are so grateful, and in our hearts if not in person, we thank them for their service. Today, on Law Day, we write about another group of essential workers who will be called to action in the coming weeks and months of this crisis– civil legal service lawyers and their pro bono partners. As an Executive Director and Board Member, we see and support a legal services staff of a civil legal services nonprofit as they work tirelessly each day to creatively provide legal help to vulnerable clients, and new clients who have joined the ranks of those living at poverty levels. They, with their colleagues in other legal services across the state, are passionate about access to justice. Working remotely now, and in person soon, they play a critical role in this crisis and in the recovery assuring access to justice.
Civil legal service lawyers are experts in housing, immigration, family law, benefits, unemployment insurance, consumer debt, and are passionate about and committed to providing high quality representation to as many low-income New Yorkers as resources allow. They perform vital services for these people and their families and our community.
The COVID-19 crisis has swelled the ranks of those who find themselves living at or close to poverty. With 22 million individuals joining the ranks of the unemployed, the domino effect is not hard to imagine. Individuals can’t pay rent or mortgages. Homelessness will increase.
Consumer debt becomes staggering. Small businesses have had to close, lay off employees, face bills for unfulfilled contracts and renegotiate commercial leases. Each of these barriers can be insurmountable without the assistance of a competent lawyer. Civil legal aid is a vital component of the public response to and recovery from the current public health crisis.
All of the civil legal services organizations are planning for the “surge” in need from the community when the courts fully open. We worry about sending lawyers into settings that will have potential health risks, but they will do it because they know their clients desperately need them.
Civil legal aid helps ensure fairness for all in the justice system, regardless of how much money you have. Even before this current crisis, funding for our services was not enough to assure that all who need a lawyer will get one. In fact, “less than half the [civil legal service] needs of eligible low-income New Yorkers” will be met, according to the Permanent Commission on Access to Justice, November, 2019 Report to the Chief Judge. The COVID-19 crisis threatens to make the justice gap even greater. The crisis laid bare the inequities in the judicial system that will only become worse after this crisis is over.
Law Day – May 1 – is a national day of celebration of the rule of law, and how the legal system can transform and illuminate justice for all. Law Day is particularly meaningful for our organization, Volunteers of Legal Service, as we were “born” on that day in 1984. The New York City Bar Association, responding to funding cuts to legal services, created our nonprofit to match civil legal service needs with pro bono attorneys from 50 founding firms and companies who agreed to provide legal services for free.
Over thirty-five years later, that tradition continues and has blossomed. Civil legal service providers turn fewer people away and multiply their impact with the assistance of lawyers who see it as a commitment of the profession to provide pro bono service. This allows civil legal service lawyers to leverage the work of lawyers from the private bar and address more issues in our communities. Low-income New Yorkers seek out legal service providers, who in turn can screen and then refer clients, provide training on the substantive areas of law, and on-going mentoring as needed. In-house and law firm lawyers provide needed resources and their pro bono programs are dependent on the civil legal aid organizations, like VOLS, to provide the best legal support to the communities most in need. It is a meaningful partnership, one that we will need to see more of during this crisis. Now more than ever, it is essential that funding for civil legal services is preserved and even increased to meet the staggering needs of our community and that members of the private bar join forces with us to help close the justice gap and ensure that the recovery is fair and equitable.
On Law Day, and everyday, to civil legal service lawyers and their pro bono allies and partners, thank you for what is essential service to communities in need.
Marcia Levy, Executive Director of Volunteers of Legal Services (VOLS)
Alison King, Pro Bono Counsel at Arnold & Porter and Secretary-Treasurer of the VOLS Board