Leveraging Pro Bono to Mitigate the Pandemic
In March 2020, when the pandemic swept through New York City, the City Bar Justice Center moved swiftly to a remote legal services model to continue serving clients during a time of unprecedented need. It also provided disadvantaged New Yorkers with a legal lifeline through the launch of three COVID-19 pro bono initiatives: the Legal Hotline COVID-19 Expansion, the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project’s Small Business Remote Legal Clinic, and the Planning & Estates Law Project’s remote legal services for frontline healthcare workers. Within a few months, staff had recruited and trained over 1,000 attorneys who provided over 5,600 clients with critical legal assistance during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis through these initiatives. In addition to those generous volunteers, a fierce cohort of law firm and corporate legal departments partnered with the Justice Center to produce online trainings and education on unemployment, small business aid, and remote notarization protocols.
#WiFi4Homeless – A Racial Justice Digital Divide Worsened by the Pandemic
The pandemic only worsened the profound inequities that exist for low-income New Yorkers who have been disproportionately affected by lack of internet access and food, housing, and economic insecurity. Public schools shifted to a hybrid learning model, leaving thousands of homeless shelter families alone to figure out how they would help their children get an education. Critical services and resources typically accessed by homeless-shelter residents moved online during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, thus requiring internet access and significantly raising the stakes for our unhoused neighbors.
In May, the Justice Center’s Legal Clinic for the Homeless released a report documenting the impact of the City’s stark digital divide on families with children in homeless shelters and found that only six percent of surveyed shelter residents were able to access the internet through their homeless shelter, 67% wanted but had no regular access to Wi-Fi, and 75% agreed that internet access would help improve their living circumstances.
The findings of the Justice Center’s report on the digital divide, which has been endorsed by over 30 organizations, fueled a citywide #Wifi4Homeless advocacy campaign in collaboration with the New York City Bar Association, urging the city to equip homeless shelters with reliable Wi-Fi and internet-ready devices. City Bar President Sheila S. Boston wrote to the Mayor in support of this campaign and shared the Justice Center’s report. The Mayor has since pledged to have homeless shelters provide wireless internet access.
The #Wifi4Homeless movement is in effect a racial-justice effort, as people of color in New York are disproportionately represented among those experiencing homelessness, with 86% of single adults and 93% of heads-of-household living in homeless shelters identifying as Black or Latinx.
Opposing Proposed Immigration Regulations with the Aid of Pro Bono Partners
The City Bar Justice Center’s Immigrant Justice Project (IJP), in addition to being a frontline advocate for individual clients, has also opposed a cascade of proposed regulations this year to dismantle and reconfigure the immigration system – changes that would be devastating particularly to vulnerable immigrant populations. After the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security published proposed regulations upending asylum law and procedure, threatening to make it impossible for the vast majority of asylum seekers to receive protection in the U.S., the Justice Center partnered with Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP to submit a comprehensive public comment. The comments wove together extensive legislative history and case law, as well as real-life examples detailing how these modifications would adversely affect those asylum seekers most in need of counsel and legal representation.
IJP also enlisted the aid of Dechert LLP to submit public comments in opposition to a new rule that would authorize invasive biometric data collection, including palm, voice, and iris prints; facial imaging; and DNA from millions of immigrants, as well as their U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident relatives, at the cost of hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. The public comment focused on the rule’s disproportionate and harmful impact on children and vulnerable communities served by the Justice Center, namely asylum seekers and survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and other crimes.
The Future of the City Bar Justice Center
This year, the Justice Center will continue to identify innovative ways to leverage technology to ensure services and resources are accessible to all clients in a remote service environment. Further, the Justice Center will create new opportunities for the legal community to provide racial equity- and social justice-informed pro bono assistance to families in homeless shelters, vulnerable homeowners, consumers filing for bankruptcy, pro se litigants, small businesses facing closure, disabled veterans, immigrants, and others who are expected to face even greater hardships before vaccines can stop this pandemic. Creating more access to justice for disadvantaged New Yorkers in 2021 will require a tremendous pro bono response and law firm financial support for a stepped-up response. We can’t afford to do any less than what this era demands of all members of the legal profession.
Leveraging Pro Bono to Mitigate the Pandemic
In March 2020, when the pandemic swept through New York City, the City Bar Justice Center moved swiftly to a remote legal services model to continue serving clients during a time of unprecedented need. It also provided disadvantaged New Yorkers with a legal lifeline through the launch of three COVID-19 pro bono initiatives: the Legal Hotline COVID-19 Expansion, the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project’s Small Business Remote Legal Clinic, and the Planning & Estates Law Project’s remote legal services for frontline healthcare workers. Within a few months, staff had recruited and trained over 1,000 attorneys who provided over 5,600 clients with critical legal assistance during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis through these initiatives. In addition to those generous volunteers, a fierce cohort of law firm and corporate legal departments partnered with the Justice Center to produce online trainings and education on unemployment, small business aid, and remote notarization protocols.
#WiFi4Homeless – A Racial Justice Digital Divide Worsened by the Pandemic
The pandemic only worsened the profound inequities that exist for low-income New Yorkers who have been disproportionately affected by lack of internet access and food, housing, and economic insecurity. Public schools shifted to a hybrid learning model, leaving thousands of homeless shelter families alone to figure out how they would help their children get an education. Critical services and resources typically accessed by homeless-shelter residents moved online during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, thus requiring internet access and significantly raising the stakes for our unhoused neighbors.
In May, the Justice Center’s Legal Clinic for the Homeless released a report documenting the impact of the City’s stark digital divide on families with children in homeless shelters and found that only six percent of surveyed shelter residents were able to access the internet through their homeless shelter, 67% wanted but had no regular access to Wi-Fi, and 75% agreed that internet access would help improve their living circumstances.
The findings of the Justice Center’s report on the digital divide, which has been endorsed by over 30 organizations, fueled a citywide #Wifi4Homeless advocacy campaign in collaboration with the New York City Bar Association, urging the city to equip homeless shelters with reliable Wi-Fi and internet-ready devices. City Bar President Sheila S. Boston wrote to the Mayor in support of this campaign and shared the Justice Center’s report. The Mayor has since pledged to have homeless shelters provide wireless internet access.
The #Wifi4Homeless movement is in effect a racial-justice effort, as people of color in New York are disproportionately represented among those experiencing homelessness, with 86% of single adults and 93% of heads-of-household living in homeless shelters identifying as Black or Latinx.
Opposing Proposed Immigration Regulations with the Aid of Pro Bono Partners
The City Bar Justice Center’s Immigrant Justice Project (IJP), in addition to being a frontline advocate for individual clients, has also opposed a cascade of proposed regulations this year to dismantle and reconfigure the immigration system – changes that would be devastating particularly to vulnerable immigrant populations. After the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security published proposed regulations upending asylum law and procedure, threatening to make it impossible for the vast majority of asylum seekers to receive protection in the U.S., the Justice Center partnered with Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP to submit a comprehensive public comment. The comments wove together extensive legislative history and case law, as well as real-life examples detailing how these modifications would adversely affect those asylum seekers most in need of counsel and legal representation.
IJP also enlisted the aid of Dechert LLP to submit public comments in opposition to a new rule that would authorize invasive biometric data collection, including palm, voice, and iris prints; facial imaging; and DNA from millions of immigrants, as well as their U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident relatives, at the cost of hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. The public comment focused on the rule’s disproportionate and harmful impact on children and vulnerable communities served by the Justice Center, namely asylum seekers and survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and other crimes.
The Future of the City Bar Justice Center
This year, the Justice Center will continue to identify innovative ways to leverage technology to ensure services and resources are accessible to all clients in a remote service environment. Further, the Justice Center will create new opportunities for the legal community to provide racial equity- and social justice-informed pro bono assistance to families in homeless shelters, vulnerable homeowners, consumers filing for bankruptcy, pro se litigants, small businesses facing closure, disabled veterans, immigrants, and others who are expected to face even greater hardships before vaccines can stop this pandemic. Creating more access to justice for disadvantaged New Yorkers in 2021 will require a tremendous pro bono response and law firm financial support for a stepped-up response. We can’t afford to do any less than what this era demands of all members of the legal profession.