New York Law School’s Safe Passage Immigration Project

The Safe Passage Immigration Project is a unique pro bono model. We are part of the Justice Action Center of New York Law School. The project’s co-directors are Professor Lenni B Benson and Adjunct Professor Lindsay A Curcio. Safe Passage trains and mentors pro bono attorneys to represent children needing immigration assistance.

A recent study found that an estimated 43,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children were removed from the US in 2007 and that 50 to 70 percent of unaccompanied minors who appeared before an immigration judge that year did so without legal representation. [Read a PDF of the report here.] Some of these children are escaping abuse or political turmoil in their home countries. Others have been victims of smugglers or trafficking. In some situations, children have lived most their lives in the US unaware that their parents or guardians failed to secure a legal immigration status for them. While these children are entitled to counsel in immigration proceedings, the federal government does not provide this legal representation as immigration is a civil matter.

US immigration laws provide special relief for some, but not all these children. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status is extraordinary relief leading to permanent residence for eligible children, teens and young adults under the age of 21. The Safe Passage Immigration Project helps social service providers, foster care agencies and non-profit organizations screen juvenile populations and identify immigration issues and relief available to these children. Safe Passage brings together pro bono attorneys, including New York Law School alumni, and current volunteer law students dedicated to providing direct client services for special immigrant juvenile status cases. Safe Passage continues to monitor each case throughout the process.

New York Law School students may volunteer for the Safe Passage Immigration Project to develop training and intake materials for special immigrant juvenile status cases. Our students also provide language translation assistance between volunteer attorneys and clients and assist in research and case preparation. In addition to their volunteer work with Safe Passage they participate in other immigration events such as clinics and initiatives sponsored by the New York City Bar Association, Justice for Our Neighbors and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

In Spring 2008, Safe Passage received the New York State Bar Association’s President’s Pro Bono Award for its innovative program. For more information about Safe Passage and special immigrant juvenile status, please visit the site, which also contains our current newsletter.

Posted by
Lindsay A Curcio
New York Law School

Legal aid funding and the financial crisis

In December 2009, the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission and the D.C. Consortium of Legal Service Providers issued a report that reflected the negative effect the financial crisis has had on the funding of legal aid programs in the DC.
Among other things, the report revealed a 60 percent drop in Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA), which is an important source of funding for legal aid; a 20 percent drop in local government funding support for legal services; and a decrease of more than $1 million in charitable donations and volunteer services. As a result, 21 lawyers working for legal aid organizations along with 30 non lawyers had to be laid off. At the same time these cuts were being made, the demand for legal assistance increased by 20 percent.

The DC experience is mirrored in Connecticut, which has traditionally also been largely dependent on IOLTA accounts to provide funds for its legal service organizations. One Connecticut legal service organization avoided layoffs by its staff of lawyers and non lawyers agreeing to a 20 percent reduction in salaries and a 4 day work week.

The IBA Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee, the IBA Bar Issues Commission, and the IBA Forum for Barristers and Advocates will be co-presenting a session at the IBA Annual Conference in Vancouver, 3-8 October 2010, that will explore the issue of legal aid funding, including the ramifications when governments fail to provide adequate funding for legal aid programs.

We doubt that DC and Connecticut are unique in suffering these problems and would welcome further examples from other jurisdictions in order further to inform our Vancouver discussions.

Posted by
Patricia N Blair
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

Haiti: a Setback for Legal Aid in Port-au-Prince

According to news reports, the extent of the devastation in Port–au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, grows daily. One important project affected by the earthquake is the young and developing legal aid program in Haiti.

At the IBA Annual Conference in Chicago in fall 2006, the then-President of the Port-au-Prince Bar and Vice-President of the Federation of the Bars of Haiti, Gervaise Charles, discussed the legal aid program of the Bar in the context of the many other access to justice issues presented by the Haitian legal infrastructure. This legal aid program, in effect for less than two years, was limited to penal matters, but had achieved favorable results beyond which those that the Port-au-Prince Bar had thought were possible. A summary of Gervaise Charles' presentation at the IBA Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee's session in Chicago may be viewed on our website.

Since then, the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), a consortium of NGOs throughout the world providing technical legal assistance in post conflict situations, has worked tirelessly to develop a legal aid program in Haiti. There are 15 judicial districts in Haiti, including Port-au-Prince, all of which have local bar associations. ILAC has established eleven offices around the country, with 120 local employees. The coordinating office is located in Port-au-Prince. The earthquake on January 12, 2010, destroyed the Port-au-Prince legal aid facility. Fortunately, all of those who work on the legal aid project in Port-au-Prince escaped uninjured. All the other legal aid offices in Haiti remain operational.

The need for legal aid/pro bono programs during the aftermath of natural disasters is well-known in the United States, where the legal infrastructure virtually collapsed in New Orleans, Louisiana, for a short period of time, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hopefully, ILAC's legal aid project can quickly "regroup" as it will clearly be needed in the coming months to deal with the legal problems that will necessarily confront Port-au-Prince's largely indigent population as they seek to recover from the loss of life and possessions.

Posted by
Patricia N Blair
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

You may also wish to read about or donate to the IBA Appeal for the Reconstruction of the Haitian Judiciary.

Student Support for International Pro Bono Work

We at the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center at the University of Miami School of Law are always looking for new ways to collaborate and support innovative pro bono programming. Because of my background with the UNICTR and the UNHCR, I am particularly interested in engaging students in international human rights and am very interested in exploring ways to partner with members of the International Bar Association’s Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee, particularly in the following ways: (1) support of litigation remotely via the Pro Bono Legal Research Project and (2) HOPE Fellowship placement.

First, at the HOPE Office I manage the Pro Bono Legal Research Project (PBLRP). The PBLRP is a way to help support practitioners doing crucial work when they might not have the legal research or drafting support they need. In the past we have had students working on a number of different cases dealing with issues such as constitutional law related to housing rights, reparations for Holocaust victims, and a recent case dealing with criminal procedure that was heard by the Florida Supreme Court. The typical format has been for an attorney with a pro bono or public interest case to contact our office for research support and complete a short form. I then send an e-mail to our PBLRP students with the information to determine which students are able to provide research and have an interest in the specific topic. At that point I either connect the attorney with the interested students or, I provide the student resumes for the attorney to decide the appropriate match. After that, the HOPE office is a point of contact for the students and the attorney regarding ongoing management of the research project but the specific scheduling and content of the work product is between the students and the attorney. We have a number of students who are very keen to be involved in international litigation and would surely be thrilled to contribute to the work of the members of the IBA Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee.

Second, at the University of Miami School of Law we have a unique HOPE Fellowship program available to students during their 1L and 2L summers. HOPE Fellows work with domestic and international public interest agencies and non-governmental organizations to provide much-needed legal advocacy. Over the years, the program has grown from two local agencies to include international placements in countries such as Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Lebanon, England, and China. The HOPE Public Interest Resource Center sponsors the program and helps students to identify agencies that match their passions for service. Students receive a stipend for their work and are required to identify ways in which they can uniquely contribute to the agencies and constituencies they serve. When they return to campus, Fellows then design a project to involve other UM Law students in advocacy related to the their area of concentration. HOPE is eager to establish relationships with organizations needing support and receptive to HOPE Fellows applications. I am happy to provide more information and learn about your organization's specific needs.

I look forward to supporting the work of the members of the IBA Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee. Please contact me at loneill@law.miami.edu for more information and to learn more about the HOPE Office. Additionally, I welcome ideas for further collaboration not addressed above.

Posted by
Lara O’Neill
Project Coordinator
HOPE Public Interest Resource Center
University of Miami School of Law

More pro bono celebration

The First Annual United States National Pro Bono Celebration is scheduled for October 25 through 31, 2009. Sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, the celebration is a coordinated national effort to showcase the great difference that pro bono lawyers make to the nation, its system of justice, its communities and, most of all, to the clients they serve. The week is also dedicated to the quest for more pro bono volunteers to meet the ever-growing legal needs of this country's most vulnerable citizens.

The ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service chose to launch this important initiative now because of the increasing need for pro bono services during these harsh economic times and the unprecedented response of attorneys to meet this demand.

Although national in breadth, this celebration provides an opportunity for local legal associations across the country to collaboratively commemorate the contributions of America's lawyers and, most important, to recruit additional volunteers to meet the growing need.

One of the guiding principles of the Pro Bono Committee's planning is to support existing local pro bono awards, events and programs. The legal needs of the poor are local issues, and although nationwide, this celebration is intended to have a local focus and impact. Goals for the celebration include:
1. Recognizing the pro bono efforts of America's lawyers
2. Recruiting more pro bono volunteers
3. Mobilizing community support for pro bono.

The Celebrate Pro Bono website at www.celebrateprobono.org is designed to maximize participation in the National Pro Bono Celebration. Please visit often for updates, additional information and assistance.


Posted by
Anthony H. Barash
Director Emeritus, ABA Center for Pro Bono

Pro bono celebrations

There are many occasions to take a critical look at access to justice issues and to challenge why we aren't doing better as a society and as a legal profession in meeting current access to justice needs. Striving to achieve equal access to justice and engaging legal professionals in these efforts should be a constant pursuit. It also is necessary to reflect on the accomplishments we have achieved and energize the legal profession's participation in improving access to justice and delivering pro bono legal services.

Raising awareness and celebrating pro bono efforts serves a number of purposes: it highlights the need for increased funding, it connects individuals and organizations in need of legal services to lawyers able to provide them, it augments the image of the legal profession, and it energizes legal professionals. Many jurisdictions offer annual celebrations that inform the public and celebrate the pro bono work lawyers are doing while also trying to engage and activate further participation by lawyers. In Canada, we host bi-annual conferences (www.probonoconference.ca) and also engage in national pro bono week celebrations (www.probonoweekcanada.ca). Our colleagues in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom also have similar celebrations. National pro bono celebrations provide the opportunity to reflect on the values of the legal profession and celebrate ongoing pro bono efforts while challenging the legal profession to do more. Do others have examples of pro bono celebrations and awareness raising events of this nature?

Posted by
Pamela Kovacs
Chair, Canadian Bar Association Pro Bono Committee

Pro bono 'clearing houses'

During this troubled economy, there has been a notable increase in the number of lawyers in the United States volunteering to work pro bono with legal aid organizations -- a trend likely to be mirrored in other countries. Some of these recent volunteers, however, have no experience in dealing with loss of public benefits, evictions, discriminatory practices, and comparable issues that low income, legal aid clients generally confront. Instead, they are transactional lawyers experienced in finance, security laws, tax matters etc.

The problem of matching pro bono lawyers with deserving organizations that are in need of their skills is handled in São Paulo, Brazil, by the Instituto Pro Bono. This facility acts as a 'clearing house' in pro bono matters, assisting NGOs and other non-profit organizations find qualified attorneys for civil, criminal, and labor law issues.

In Washington DC, the Community Economic Development Project matches community based non-profits with law firms that can best address their business and transactional requirements.

The Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee leadership invites comments identifying additional clearing house facilities to which it can refer members for assistance in finding suitable pro bono projects.

Posted by Patricia Blair
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

Day Laborer Wage Clinic redresses abuse of immigrant employment rights

A legal services organization in the United States encountered a serious access to justice issue involving its immigrant population. The legal aid attorneys discovered that there was a street in a major city where immigrants gathered daily to be "picked up" in trucks by employers to do landscaping, construction work and housekeeping chores.

In spite of the fact that United States laws require employers to pay at least a minimum wage regardless of whether a worker is in the country legally, employers often refused to pay these day laborers the wages they had earned. Due to a combination of factors, including ignorance of their legal rights and fear of threatened deportation if they complained, many of these immigrants simply did nothing and allowed their employers to benefit from their work, without having to pay for it.

In response to this gross inequity, the legal service organization opened a Day Laborer Wage Clinic and called upon the local bar association for assistance in staffing it. With the help of volunteers, pro bono lawyers and paralegals, the Clinic is open one night a week where immigrants, primarily non-English speaking, can come without any appointment for assistance in enforcing their employment rights and in obtaining the wages illegally withheld by their employers.

Employers are quickly learning of the existence of the Day Laborer Wage Clinic and that its legal aid and pro bono attorneys, paralegals, and interpreters will not tolerate the abuse of immigrant employment rights.


Posted by Patricia Blair
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

Opening the courthouse doors

Courts can facilitate access by litigants who do not have counsel, paid or pro bono. They might provide simplified procedures, translation services, and, as in the case of the U.S. Tax Court, videos on how a pro se litigant can proceed. The Court expects to start mailing DVDs of the video shortly to unrepresented taxpayers.

What other steps can courts take to accommodate unrepresented litigants? In what situations are these measures most appropriate? What are opposing counsel’s duties and concerns in such a case? Does it matter if opposing counsel represents the government?

Posted by Robin Westbrook
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

VAT on pro bono services

Should pro bono legal services be subject to a value-added tax? Some jurisdictions do impose VAT on the value of pro bono legal services, while some limit VAT to the amount of fees actually charged.

As the U.S. contemplates imposing a value-added tax -- see 'Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look' for background -- the issue should be explicitly considered as related to pro bono, and lawyers presently subject to value-added taxation doubtless have a great deal to share.

What are your views and experiences in this area?

Posted by Robin Westbrook
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

Are pro bono and public interest the answers for new law graduates?

New law graduates have been particularly vulnerable in this recession. As many know, in the last several months, law firms have been pursuing a variety of measures to control costs and adjust for the declining demand for legal services in some areas, including cutting first year salaries, deferring start dates, offering stipends for public interest work, and, most recently, paying associates not to start at all.

Article from the New York Times
Article from Legal Week
Article at ABA Journal
Article at NY Lawyer (free registration required to view)

Where does this leave new law graduates who need appropriate training and mentorship opportunities? Can pro bono and public interest work fulfill the need?

Posted by Patrice Dziire
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

Second season of service?

The Pro Bono Committee of the Connecticut Bar Association has established an Emeritus Project which recruits senior lawyers to provide pro bono assistance to residents who cannot afford to pay for counsel.

There are approximately 30 states in the United States that have similar projects, which are based on the work of a former American Bar Association President, Karen Mathis, who called her original plan the "Second Season of Service."

By enlisting the pro bono services of senior lawyers, the Bar Association is trying to fill some of the vacuum created by legal aid agencies laying off lawyers just as the need for legal aid services increases as a result of the economic problems Connecticut is now confronting.

What are your thoughts about this initiative? We look forward to your comments below.


Posted by the IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee

US Tax Court Judicial Conference, April 2009

The United States Tax Court held its annual Judicial Conference in Galloway, New Jersey, USA, in early April. Among many other things, the conference embodied a very well-crafted and productive effort to highlight access to justice issues before a broad range of lawyers, some of whose daily work might not focus on those issues. The conference showed how a court can emphasize to everyone doing business there the importance of pro bono work. A large proportion of petitioners before the Tax Court appear pro se. Anyone with income can have a tax issue, and while the amount at issue may be small, the litigant’s need for adjudication may be great. Thus, the Tax Court very actively encourages pro bono representation, and the recent conference contributed to this overall effort.

The conference’s hosts were the Court’s Judges, of whom some 35 were in attendance, along with eight of their staff. Other participants included some 45 lawyers from the US Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Office of Chief Counsel, whose members represent the government in the Tax Court, as well as one from the Department of Justice, which represents the government when tax issues arise in other fora. Some 150 lawyers from the private bar attended, ranging from members of global firms to lawyers with solo pro bono practices. The network of IRS-funded Low Income Taxpayer Clinics was well-represented.

The discussion topics addressed substantive and procedural matters touching on the full variety of issues brought to the court, such as the valuation of interests in family trusts, rules for discovery of electronic records, judicial deference to agency regulations, and more. Notably, there were repeated opportunities for discussion of pro bono work. One panel focused on various bar- and clinic-sponsored programs which enable members of the bar to represent low-income taxpayers on an occasional or regular basis. Another discussed procedural provisions governing the collection of tax amounts owed, typically of interest to low-income taxpayers. Several judges hosted a breakfast for representatives of low-income taxpayers for informal discussion. A DVD addressed to pro se litigants, showing how they can pursue their cases in court, was distributed to all attendees.

Thus, members of the Tax Court bar had many occasions to hear about access to justice for underserved segments of the population. The International Bar Association and its Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee have the same goal for our sessions at the IBA Annual Conference this year. We plan to use this blog to share a wide variety of ideas about how we as lawyers can find ways to keep this goal in mind.

Posted by Robin Westbrook
IBA Pro bono and Access to Justice Committee