Victor Celis is an Associate in the Global Litigation Group at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. As a law student, he was heavily involved with helping low-income community members, a dedication that continues today into his career as an attorney. Victor is a member of the VOLS Pro Bono Advocates Council, a VOLS initiative that plays an integral role in raising awareness and support for VOLS’ pro bono programs. We sat down with Victor to speak about his start in pro bono work, how it fits into his experience as a lawyer, and the importance of service during difficult times.
What made you interested in volunteering and doing pro bono work?
What really first piqued my interest in volunteering, primarily with immigration clients, is that I come from a family of immigrants. My grandfather and father immigrated to the US from Mexico, and my grandmother immigrated to the US from Scotland. I think having that background and seeing the impact of immigration processes on families instilled in me a desire to help others. While at Rutgers Law School, I got involved with the legal clinics and other volunteer opportunities to help clients who needed a variety of pro bono services. That was my first exposure to pro bono work and had a strong impact on my pro bono practice today. At Rutgers, there is a strong push for students to understand the impact of legal services and our responsibility as attorneys to assist those in need.
How has your experience as an attorney been enriched by volunteering?
It’s been great. When you’re doing pro bono work, you’re able to take on leadership roles within the representation of the client, and you can really run with it. In a lot of my immigration cases, my partner supervisors trust me to lead the process, work directly with the clients, and really work to meet the client’s needs and achieve the client’s goals.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, why do you think this type of work is particularly important today?
The need for pro bono legal services is even higher today in light of the pandemic. It is so important for attorneys to help fill the justice gap to provide free legal services given this increased need for services. We see more and more people who require, in my experience with immigration work, a lot of support navigating the ever-changing immigration system to achieve some sense of security and certainty in the US. A lot of times where there are [economic] downtrends, resulting in a lack of sufficient funding to support legal services organizations that are doing direct client work. It’s [imperative that] pro bono attorneys step up and help fill that gap.
If you had a colleague who was on the fence about volunteering, how would you engage them to pursue volunteering with VOLS?
In my experience, sharing client stories is the best way to push someone over the fence [into volunteering]. Being able to share how the pro bono work that you’re doing is impacting clients and helping them to find stable footing makes a huge difference. That always works!
We recently had an event at the firm, where we invited three of our immigration clients to speak and tell their stories, which was just incredibly inspirational. After hearing how our pro bono work has impacted them, we are seeing more attorneys interested in doing more immigration work. It’s really exciting to see.
I [also] think that once you’ve done one [case], you’re hooked by the pro bono bug. For me, once I completed my first U-Visa application, I wanted to do another one and I just continued to do more. There are so many different ways to get involved and different levels of involvement that it is easy to take on just one pro bono case. And once someone has their foot in the door, they’re almost always hooked and interested in doing more. They see how it’s pretty straightforward, how impactful it is, and then they keep going.