Some of the Pro Bono Projects We Participated In
We can organize these projects, and many more, for your law firm or legal department.
In NYC:
Micro-Entrepreneurship Program:
Help low-income micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses in a wide variety of non-litigation matters, including advising on corporate, tax, finance, intellectual property, real estate, employment, and other legal matters. This is a great project for business, employment, real estate, and IP lawyers.
Youth Courts:
Youth courts train teenagers to serve as jurors, judges and advocates, handling real-life cases involving their peers. The lawyers observe youth court hearings and give the teenagers feedback. The goal of youth court is to use positive peer pressure to ensure that young people who have committed minor offenses learn accountability and repair the harm caused by their actions.
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND):
Help unaccompanied undocumented children navigate the immigration process. This mostly involves help children seeking “special immigrant juvenile” status when they are victims of abuse, abandonment, or neglect. You can also assist in advocacy for systemic changes in policies and practices affecting these children.
Asylum Project:
Help individuals fleeing persecution in their home countries. You can take on a case before the Asylum Office (which is an interview only) or have a hearing before an Immigration Judge.
U Visa Project:
Help low-income women immigrants obtain U Visas, offered to victims of certain crimes, like domestic violence, who cooperate in the investigation or prosecution of their attacker. A U Visa allows an immigrant (and family) to work and live lawfully in the United States, and creates a pathway to lawful permanent resident status. No litigation involved; you help the client complete an application with supporting affidavits.
Special Education:
Help low-income families deal with a variety of educational issues, including negotiating Individual Education Plans for their children.
Bankruptcy Court Program:
Through the New York City Bankruptcy Assistance Project, you can advise indigent pro se debtors on bankruptcy issues, assess for filing, and prepare Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions in the bankruptcy courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund:
Help transgender individuals to secure name changes. For many transgender people, a legal name change is the first step toward conforming their legal identities to the way they identify and live their lives. Each project is relatively discrete and predictable, and involves no litigation.
Cancer Advocacy Project:
Through this project, run by the NYC Bar Association Justice Center, you can help cancer patients and their families with life planning. You will help to draft simple wills, powers of attorney, health care proxies and stand-by guardianships.
International Refugee Assistance Project:
Represent represent refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other war-torn countries seeking humanitarian relief, primarily in the form of officially-recognized refugee status or special immigrant visas.
Adoption Project:
When biological parents are unable or unwilling to care for their children, you can help the grandparents or other relatives or friends to adopt the children by completing various forms and attending an adoption hearing.
Cross office projects:
Election Protection:
Led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, this is the nation’s largest non-partisan voter protection coalition. Through the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline and voter assistance field program, Election Protection helps ensure eligible voters are able to participate in our democracy while collecting data for meaningful reform so that our elections are free, fair, and accessible.
Veterans Project:
Help veterans who have claims for health care and disability rights and benefits against the armed services and VA. You can also help veterans to apply for “Combat Related Special Compensation” (CRSC), which entails completing an application form and submitting evidence proving that the veteran’s disabilities satisfy the statutory definition of “combat related.”
Green Pro Bono:
Provide pro bono legal assistance to organizations that are involved in environmental or sustainability matters.
Survivor Reentry Project:
The Survivor Reentry Project is an ABA initiative funded by a Department of Justice grant that seeks to vacate the non-violent criminal convictions of human trafficking victims that are arise out of that trafficking.
Innocence Project:
Work on in depth investigations to help incarcerated individuals who claim that DNA evidence will exonerate them.