The VOLS Unemployed Workers Project’s Tori Roseman was recently featured on Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane Law School’s alumni news page. Since joining VOLS last summer, Tori has helped the Unemployed Workers Project shift their focus towards representing clients at their unemployment hearings. Her contribution has allowed us to expand our work and serve hundreds of New Yorkers.
The full text from the news article can be found below or on their website.
In September of 2017, the first month of her 1L year, Tori Roseman ’20 went to her first hearing with an Administrative Law Judge at the Department of Labor through the Unemployment Action Center (UAC). “My client seemed wary of me,” she says. “I reminded him I was a law student, not an attorney, but that I was there to advocate for him in any way I could. Two weeks after the hearing, he called me and let me know he started receiving unemployment insurance benefits.”
Tori had a variety of roles within the UAC throughout law school. She served as an advocate, attending 15 hearings on behalf of claimants, worked with leadership from other schools to train advocates and to work on the tools the UAC uses to represent clients, including a manual and Acknowledgement and Consent forms, and she served on the UAC Regional Board and as the President of the Hofstra chapter for the last two years.
“I enjoyed training the next round of advocates through the Hofstra UAC Summer Internship program,” she says. “I think that our students are more passionate right now than ever for social justice causes, in particular, helping the Black Lives Matter movement. I hope we as an unemployment legal service can be allies in supporting black employment and advocate for measures such as equal hiring opportunities in the workplace, equal management and promotional opportunities, the standardization of small business loan procedures and standardized penalties for workplace violations.”
The UAC’s Response to the Coronavirus
“When the pandemic hit New York, many of us felt a sense of responsibility,” Tori says. “We quickly set up a hotline to field questions about the unemployment process and by April it was up and running. We’ve helped well over 100 claimants use the Department of Labor website, set up accounts, and get in contact with the agency.”
At times, the students’ role was just to provide assurance that if callers waited a few more weeks, their benefits would be deposited into their bank accounts. “Many people were relieved to speak to a person, rather than the Department of Labor’s answering machine,” she says. “I’m extremely proud to have been part of a movement helping those who need it most right now as unemployment persists.”
Life After Law School
As one of Hofstra Law’s pro bono scholars, Tori was able to take the bar exam early. She sat for – and passed – the February bar exam before the pandemic hit. She began a full-time internship with Legal Services of New York City to complete the semester but was able to continue working for the UAC throughout the semester and the summer as she conducted her search for post-graduate employment.
“I was only looking at legal aid or legal services organizations,” she says. “I have a political science, journalism and creative writing degree, and I wasn’t sure how much impact I could make with that. The reason I went to law school was to serve and help a larger population that needed it the most. Working at the UAC solidified and reinforced my desire to work with people at the ground level who truly can’t access the legal system and who would be seriously affected by fees, and the inability to get insurance.”
Tori ultimately heard about a job with VOLS (Volunteers of Legal Service) through the pro bono scholars network. “The job description was what I was already doing for three years with the UAC,” she says. She applied and was hired fairly quickly. “I had experience in exactly what the position required. The work is similar to what I was doing at the UAC, but now it is a little more involved and I’m actually getting paid,” she says. “I provide clients with brief advice, represent clients in hearings, and am doing more training — but now I am training attorneys instead of training other students.”
“I don’t think I could have carved out a better job for myself,” Tori says. “We are swamped with work, especially now that the UAC is temporarily shut down until school starts again. We’re getting calls at VOLS that would have gone to the UAC. And the pandemic has highlighted the flaws and outdated nature of NY Department of Labor’s technology, internet, and phone systems. We’re seeing in real time how detrimental it is to claimants and to the state to be so technologically behind. But I love my job, and I’m happy at the end of the day.”
Tori hopes to stay with VOLS for a long time, but her long-term goal is to open a center with legal and social services (such as housing and medical services) together — a one-stop shop for people who don’t have time, money or energy to get each of these services separately.
UAC Experience as an Avenue to Employment
“I don’t think I would have gotten this job without the UAC. I’m convinced the UAC was why I was ultimately hired, because it was how I got my experience with unemployment insurance. It is one of the most valuable things I did in school,” she says. “It should be mandatory that law students do something in law school that requires them to interact with clients.”
“When you think of law school activities, most people think of law review and mock trial, but the UAC is completely different,” Tori says. “You get trained, but it is sink or swim. I’m grateful that I took that leap of faith, and I encourage law students to jump in and just try it.”