VOLS Newsletter: April 2022

April News: Spring Happenings at VOLS

Meeting the civil legal services needs of New Yorkers through pro bono service is at the core of VOLS’ mission. In furtherance of our mission, I am excited to share the launch of the VOLS Pro Bono Advocates Council. The Council brings together a dynamic group of emerging private bar leaders with a shared commitment to pro bono and VOLS’ mission. Council members will play an integral role in raising awareness and support for VOLS’ programs and clients, providing feedback on VOLS’ pro bono offerings, and elevating the importance of pro bono in the private bar community. To learn more about the Pro Bono Advocates Council, please visit our website. 
We are pleased to share more about VOLS’ work in this month’s newsletter below. 

Best regards,
Abja

Abja Midha
Executive Director
Volunteers of Legal Service

New York, Together 2022 Gala

The VOLS New York, Together Gala is fast approaching. Join us a for a cocktail-style celebration at Tribeca 360 on Thursday, April 28 at 6:30 pm. We will be honoring Kirkland & Ellis LLP for their pro bono leadership; featuring a corporate pro bono partnership panel discussion moderated by Cynthia Bookhart Adams, Jefferies, and featuring Erica Blau, AIG; Kim Domilici Rutan, Bloomberg LP; and Maryana Zubok, Pfizer, Inc. Click here to purchase tickets or make a donation. We hope to see you there!

CLICK HERE FOR OUR GALA INIVTATION

Pro Bono Spotlight: Deniz Gurbuz

 Over the coming months, we will be highlighting VOLS pro bono partners. This month, we highlight the work of Deniz Gurbuz, Pro Bono Advocates Council Chair. Deniz, an associate with Paul Weiss, was instrumental in helping to relaunch the VOLS Unemployed Workers Project hotline for unemployed New Yorkers, which has assisted over 400 callers since its revival. To learn more about Deniz Gurbuz’s career and pro bono practice, please click here.

Welcome to Dorian Rojas, New Immigration Project Director 

We are pleased to introduce Dorian Rojas as VOLS’ new Immigration Project Director. Dorian brings her extensive experience influencing positive change and addressing the complex legal challenges facing immigrant communities. Join us in welcoming Dorian to the VOLS team! Learn more about Dorian here.

Updates

As New York City recovers from the pandemic and economic crisis, the VOLS team reports with updates from across our legal programs: 

  • The public education work of the VOLS Senior Law Project is critically important. Navigating the various advance directives available to New York City seniors can be confusing and overwhelming. Many seniors do not know the difference between a health care proxy and a living will; why a power of attorney is so important; or what an appointment of agent for the disposition of remains is used for. Our guides, fact sheets, workshops, and training are aimed at overcoming confusion and putting seniors on the right path to plan for their future. We are now collaborating with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and designer Clae Lu to create a new visual tool to help us get information about planning for the future to the communities we serve. This collaboration is a part of CUP’s Public Access Design program that uses design to make complex issues accessible to the New Yorkers most affected by them. We are excited to share the new guide coming from this collaboration later this year. Additionally, we recently delivered testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Veterans and Committee on Aging, highlighting our senior and older veterans services.  
  • Over the last two years, the pandemic has put up barriers preventing us from connecting and serving our clients. Our pro bono partners have been instrumental in helping to break down those barriers by collaborating with VOLS to use legal tech to help us assist on various fronts. One of these collaborations will be highlighted at the upcoming New York Statewide Civil Legal Aid Technology Conference hosted by the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice on April 11 and 12, 2022. The panel “Virtual Pro Bono Clinics: How Simpson Thacher and VOLS Collaborate on a Dedicated Pro Bono Platform for DACA Renewals” will highlight the work of the VOLS Immigration Project and our pro bono partner Simpson Thacher. Using their innovative new platform “ACCESS by Simpson Thatcher” we have worked to ensure that our clients are able to renew their DACA status with the remote assistance of volunteer attorneys. Registration for the free virtual conference is still open.  
  • The VOLS Unemployed Workers Project (UWP) reports that thousands of New Yorkers continue receiving notifications from the New York Department of Labor (DOL), informing them that they had been overpaid in Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and will need to pay back significant sums. In collaboration with the UI Coalition, we continue pushing New York State’s Department of Labor to institute their overpayment waiver process, and to make it accessible for all New York State workers. Additionally, another group of claimants—recipients of federal pandemic unemployment assistance—have started to receive notice from the DOL that they must prove 2020 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) eligibility. We are working with these claimants to comply with the DOL’s requests as we carefully review and monitor the DOL’s next steps and the legality of this process. As we continue our involvement with the #FundExcludedWorkers campaign, we have launched a new Know Your Rights training specifically for immigrants’ rights organizations. This training goes over New York State’s UI eligibility with a focus on immigrant workers, highlighting issues unique to immigrant workers and the intersections of immigration law and UI law. Please contact staylor@volsprobono.org to set up a training session for your organization. In March, we submitted testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Immigration highlighting immigrant claimants dealing with unemployed insurance disputes and the support needed to help them. Finally, for National Social Worker Month, we highlighted the importance of collaboration of civil legal services and social work with our social work intern Sam Makagon. Click here to read the full interview.  
  • In February, the VOLS Microenterprise Project testified at a hearing on the impact of the expiration of the eviction moratorium held by the New York City Council’s Committee on General Welfare. VOLS’ testimony highlighted the plight of struggling small businesses owners who have been unable to make rent over the course of the pandemic and for whom the eviction moratorium provided a lifeline, allowing them to renegotiate their lease terms so that they could remain in business. In March, we testified before the New York City Council Committee on Small Business, highlighting our work with small business owners. Additionally, with our partners Progress Playbook and Simpson Thacher, we launched a series of Entity Selection and Formation Clinics to assist NYCHA Section 8 residents in the Construction Business Pathways Program. The Construction and Business Pathways Program, managed by The Fund for Public Housing and NYCHA’s Office of Resident Economic Empowerment and Sustainability (REES) provides 10 weeks of free, in-depth business industry and management training as well as no-cost New York State business registration and construction safety training.

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Click Here to Read the February Newsletter
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