Volunteers of Legal Service Overview of Achievements, 2015-2016 VOLS mission is to leverage the good will, talents and resources of New York City s leading law firms to provide pro bono legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers. To achieve this mission, from April 2015 to March 2016, we: Closed 2033 matters Provided services benefitting 2,806 low-income New Yorkers Won $268,143 for clients and their families Engaged 950 volunteers Secured 18,260 hours of pro bono legal assistance Service Area: New York City Metropolitan Area We provided this legal assistance through the following projects: Project Population Served (All Low-Income New Yorkers) Children s Project (Children and their families referred by schools and hospitals) Incarcerated Mothers Law Project (Incarcerated mothers) Elderly Project Seniors (60+) Immigration Project (Teenagers and their families referred by high schools) Unemployment Project (Unemployment claimants) Microenterprise Project (Entrepreneurs and small business owners) VOLS Board Created And Approved a Development Plan: We completed a strategic planning process in December 2013 in which we committed to increasing our staff from 8 employees to 11 employees in order to provide better expert support and guidance to volunteers in all our pro bono projects. In December 2015, after a year of work with Cause Effective, a consulting firm, our Board of Directors adopted VOLS Development Plan. The Development Plan outlines how we intend to increase our revenues from $1.2 million to $1.5 million in FY 17 and FY 18 to support a larger, expert staff. VOLS Moved to 40 Worth Street, a Better Office for Clients and Staff: We were forced to move in 2015 when our previous landlord decided to sell our building. After nearly a year of searching, we found Suite 820 at 40 Worth Street. The space wasn t ready for us when we finally had to leave our old address, but luckily the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman offered to host us for free for most of the summer of 2015. Our new office has significantly enhanced our capacity to provide legal assistance. It is easily accessible by public transportation, located near many of our allied legal nonprofits (e.g. LSNY is in the same building), built with the latest technology in mind, and it can accommodate up to 16 workstations. See http:// www.volsprobono.org/vols-new-office-featured-city-biz-list. Simpson Thacher Won the ABA s National Public Service Award: Simpson Thacher won the ABA s National Public Service Award, in part for the pro bono legal assistance the firm provided to clients of NYC Business Solutions Upper Manhattan through VOLS Microenterprise Project. See http://www.volsprobono.org/ help-us-congratulating-simpson-thacher-bartlett-llp-winningamerican-bar-associations%c2%a0national This Provider At a Glance Population Served: General Low Income Population Area Served: New York City Metropolitan Area Total Funding: $1,268,393 Total IOLA Grant: $130,000 Staffing - Full Time Equivalents Total Staff: 10.50 Lawyers: 6.50 Paralegals: 2.00 Staff: 2.00 Types of Services Provided Direct Civil Legal Representation Brief Services Extended Services Hotlines and Phone-Based Services Technology and Innovations Community Legal Education Pro Se Assistance Collaborations With Service Providers Major Cases or Advocacy Projects Volunteers of Legal Service - 1
Outcomes 2,806 Individuals Benefited from 2,033 Closed Direct Civil Legal Cases Dollar Benefits Achieved for Clients* - Total Unemployment Compensation: Benefits: Extended Representation Outcomes $223,390 865 People benefited from extended representation $222,490 $900 Brief Representation Benefits 1,072 People benefited from legal advice and counsel 313 People benefited from non-litigation advocacy services 556 People benefited by referral to other sources of help *Total includes back awards and total monthly benefits, estimated over 6 months (unemployment compensation) or 12 months (other benefits). Examples... Outcomes for Clients W orking together with the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation high school, VOLS Immigration Project and pro bono lawyers from Fried Frank enabled Pierina Ortiz to adjust her immigration status so that she could go on to college. In addition to being the first person in her family to attend college, Ms. Ortiz is a weightlifter and in training for the Olympics. I n October 2015, a volunteer lawyer from law firm of Herrick Feinstein who had been trained by VOLS Elderly Project traveled to the hospital bedside of Charles F., a gravely ill 90-year-old man. Mr. F. s life-partner had sought assistance for him at one of the Project s Hudson Guild legal clinics. Mr. F. s health rapidly deteriorated following the initial referral, but the volunteer lawyer was able to draw up and help Mr. F. execute a full set of life-planning documents before Mr. F. lost the capacity to do so. Breakdown of Cases by Legal Problem Area People Total 2,806 Housing 499 Income Maintenance 338 Immigration 406 Family 389 1,174 Volunteers of Legal Service - 2 Cases 2,033 339 272 179 151 1,092 Housing 17% 54% Income Maintenance 13% Immigration 9% Family 7%
Services Hotlines and Telephone Based Legal Services We operate a hotline, (347) 521-5720, for unemployment claimants. We list the hotline on LawHelp and update this information periodically. In addition, the Department of Labor has included our hotline number on the notice it sends to claimants denying their applications for benefits. Callers leave a voicemail message. Our Unemployment Project Director returns all of the calls within a few days, and thoroughly screens and assesses every potential matter. She then prepares appropriate cases for her trained pro bono volunteers. When she can t take a case for any reason, e.g. it s meritless or outside the scope of the project, she provides clients with the best advice and referrals that she can. Technology and Innovations We continued to use the website that we launched in 2014, www.volsprobono.org. Important resources, such as our publications, An Advocate's Guide to SCRIE and A Guide to Burial Assistance and Funeral Planning for New Yorkers in Need are available for download. In addition, we continued to use an email list of 600 social workers to disseminate important legal information concerning lowincome seniors, and we continued to build our email newsletter list of several thousand subscribers. Also, our Project Directors began using their blogs to alert our clients and community organization contacts to important changes in the law. See, e.g., http://www.volsprobono.org/ projects/elderly-project. In addition, we moved all of our case- and volunteer-management to LegalServer, a state-of -the-art, secure, cloud-based system. Legal Services Than Direct Legal Representation Community legal education is an essential part of VOLS' model of forging relationships between networks of community organizations, public interest law experts, and pro bono lawyers. In 2015-16, we conducted trainings and workshops that reached a total of 2,451 people. We conducted sessions at hospitals, schools, jails, prisons, senior centers, and community economic development agencies, on topics including immigration, housing, family law, elder law, and business law. Collaborations With Service Providers We are a founding member of the New York Legal Services Coalition, through which we collaborate with 47 other legal services organizations to bring legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers. Children s Projects The following health providers and matched law firms participate in our Hospital-based Children's Project: The Children s Hospital at Montefiore (Cravath, Swaine & Moore); Harlem A.I.R.(Sullivan & Cromwell); Metropolitan Hospital Center (Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler); Morgan Stanley Children s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian (Cravath); New York-Presbyterian Hospital (Weill-Cornell Campus) (White & Case); and New York University Langone Medical Center (Proskauer Rose). The following schools and matched law firms participate in our School-based Children's Project: Bronx Lab School (WilmerHale); Essex Street Academy (Hughes Hubbard); Dream Charter School (Skadden Arps); KIPP Academy (Debevoise & Plimpton); Public School 11 (Kramer Levin); Public School 146 (Fried Frank); and the four high schools of the Bushwick Campus - Bushwick School for Social Justice, Academy of Urban Planning, Academy of Environmental Leadership, and Brooklyn School for Math and Research (Simpson Thacher). Elderly Project Our Elderly Project works with over 90 agencies serving seniors, and conducts monthly walk-in legal clinics at the following agencies in Manhattan: Encore Community Services Senior Center Midtown, Riverstone Senior Life Services Washington Heights, Hudson Guild Senior Services Chelsea, Goddard- Riverside Senior Center Upper West Side, Abyssinian Development Corp s Abby Towers Harlem, Dyckman Senior Center Dyckman Heights, Hamilton-Madison House City Hall Senior Center City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge, Good Companions Senior Center Lower East Side, Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center Upper East Side, Covello Senior Program East Harlem, University Settlement Senior Center Bowery, University Settlement, Village View East Village, Burden Center for the Aging Yorktown. Unemployment Insurance Advocacy Project Our Unemployment Insurance Advocacy Project works closely with the New York State Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board and the project director serves as a member of the Unemployment Insurance Coalition in New York City. Dream Not Deferred Project Partner Schools: Academy for Environmental Leadership. Academy of Government and Law Academy of Urban Planning, Bushwick School for Number of People Benefited by Legal Services Than Direct Legal Representation Total: 37,959 People Community Legal Education and Pro Se Assistance: 4,951 People Web Usage: 32,833 People Legal Hotline Services: 175 People Volunteers of Legal Service - 3
Services, continued Social Justice, Cypress Hills High School, Essex Street Academy, Flushing High School, Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics, Manhattan International High School, UA School for Applied Math and Science, UA School for Criminal Justice, UA School for Green Careers, UA School of Music and Art, UA School for Wildlife Conservation, Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders Schools: Academy of Innovative Technology, Bronx Community College (Teonia), Community School for Social Justice, High School for Arts and Business, High School of Computers and Technology, High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology, Mott Hall Bronx High School, Norman Thomas High School, PAI High School at Monroe, Sheepshead Bay High School, Washington Irving High School Law Firms: Chadbourne & Parke LLP, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, Dariyani & Bland PC Debevoise & Plimpton, Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Davis, Polk & Wardwell, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen, & Loewy, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, Winston & Strawn, Morrison & Foerster, Cyrus Mehta & Associates, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, Skadden, Arps, WilmerHale, Cravath Swaine & Moore, Schiff Hardin, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP Corporations: Viacom Collaborators: Columbia Law School, City University of New York School of Law, Create Young Adult Center, The Door, Equal Justice Works, Fordham Law School & Feerick Center, ICARE, Legal Aid, Legal Information for Families Today, Legal Services New York, Mayor s Office of Immigrant Affairs EASiY Program, New Economy Project (NEDAP) Partner (loans for DACA applicants), New York City Bar Legal Services & Pro Bono Committee, New York State Youth Leadership Council, New York Immigrant Assistance Consortium, New York Legal Assistance Group, New York Immigration Coalition, NYC Outward Bound Schools, PACE, Planned Parenthood New York, Roger Williams University School of Law, Sanctuary for Families, Urban Justice Center Domestic Violence Project & Urban Justice Center - Peter Cicchino Youth Project. Backup or Support Services VOLS' approach is to strengthen law firm pro bono programs on the one hand, and to add legal assistance to the services offered by schools, hospitals, prisons, and community organizations on the other. In addition, for pro bono lawyers recruited by VOLS, often not experienced in the areas of poverty law, VOLS provides training and mentoring. VOLS offers training in substantive areas, such as housing, family law, public benefits and immigration, and has established a mentoring system whereby a pro bono lawyer can consult with an expert about specific issues in the case the pro bono lawyer has undertaken. On housing and public benefit issues, pro bono lawyers undertaking a case can, through an arrangement VOLS has with South Brooklyn Legal Services, call upon lawyers at South Brooklyn Legal Services for mentoring assistance. VOLS also coordinates training on substantive legal issues for senior center staff, school staff, hospital social workers and doctors, students, parents and advocates. Major Cases or Advocacy Projects Marcano v. Sandcastle Housing Complex In Marcano v. Sandcastle Housing Complex, VOLS worked with Housing Works and the HIV Law Project to secure pro bono representation from Morrison & Foerster to represent three men who were denied housing because they receive HASA, a housing subsidy for people with HIV in New York City. Plaintiffs alleged that the owner used income source discrimination as a proxy for discrimination based on race and HIV status. Defendants fought back aggressively despite overwhelming evidence of discrimination, including a recording of a Sandcastle employee telling housing applicants that he had to refuse them because Sandcastle Sources of Funding Total $1,268,393 IOLA Grant $130,000 Private Bar $374,000 Foundations $277,400 Fundraising Events $215,703 $271,290 Volunteers of Legal Service - 4 Foundations 22% Private Bar 30% Fundraising Events 17% 21% IOLA Grant 10%
Services, continued had reached its quota of HASA recipients. Plaintiffs finally won a very favorable settlement in 2016. The case could affect thousands of HIV+ recipients of HASA seeking housing in New York City. Pro Bono Volunteer Involvement VOLS' mission is to leverage the good will, resources and talents of New York City s leading law firms to provide pro bono legal assistance to the city's neediest residents. We recruit, train and mentor pro bono lawyers who provide brief advice, full representation and community legal education in all of our projects. In 201516, 710 attorneys volunteered for 17,000 hours through VOLS' projects, 112 others volunteered 560 hours, and 78 law students volunteered 600 hours. In all, 950 volunteers provided 18,260 hours of pro bono legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers, a feat of which our small staff is justly proud. Pro Bono Statistics During 2015-2016, the following volunteers provided services in our program: Attorneys: 760 Volunteers 17,100 Hours Law Students: 78 Volunteers 600 Hours Volunteers: 112 Volunteers 560 Hours Total Cases Completed by Attorneys: 720 Cases Dollar Value of Attorney Services*: $4.28 million *estimated at $250 per hour Volunteers of Legal Service - 5