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This week we had the privilege of speaking with Michael Stanley, a professional community organizer with Manhattan Together and South Bronx Churches Sponsoring Committee (SBC), and Ray Lopez, the Director of Environmental Health Services of the Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service (LSA), on the topic of pro bono lawyering for social justice in collaboration with community organizers.  Manhattan Together, SBC, and LSA are nonprofit organizations and members of Metro IAF, a network of multi-faith organizations that draw on the power of person-to-person organizing to transform communities and build the local power necessary to create change on local and national levels.

In late June 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced two regulatory changes intended to deprive asylum applicants of the ability to work lawfully in the United States while they await the adjudication of their asylum applications.  By increasing the obstacles asylum seekers overcome to obtain an Employment Authorization Document, commonly known as a “work permit,” the new rules endanger the health and safety of asylum seekers and their families.

The first rule change, effective August 21, 2020, eliminates the requirement that USCIS must process employment authorization applications within 30 days of receiving the application.  This rule change allows USCIS to adjudicate work permit applications for an indeterminate period of time, which will inevitably result in delays.  The government claims this move will deter immigrants from filing “frivolous, fraudulent, or otherwise non-meritorious [asylum] claims.”  But the rule change is more likely to force asylum seekers further into poverty and informal economies, thereby making it more difficult for them to meet their basic needs.

I recently joined the board of Her Justice, a nonprofit legal services organization in New York City and longtime partner of Proskauer that provides assistance to women and their families living in poverty who have high-stakes legal needs.

I was introduced to the organization by a friend and former colleague, and over the past few years have come to understand their mission and approach.  Seeing the many women in our city experiencing pain and fear due to unaffordable housing, parenting children with insufficient income or job prospects, abandonment, and abuse, I felt compelled to become more involved.

The staff lawyers at Her Justice train and supervise thousands of volunteer lawyers who are mobilized to help women in need throughout New York City. In 2018 alone, Her Justice organized more than 76,000 volunteer hours helping nearly 10,000 women and children. 

The human trafficking industry preys on vulnerable young women throughout the world who seek to escape poverty, violence, and oppression. These women are often lured by sex traffickers through false promises of a better life, only to find themselves trapped in a cycle of abuse. The trafficking industry earns profits of approximately $150 billion a year, nearly $100 billion of which comes from commercial sexual exploitation. Sex trafficking victims do not profit, but they are often, in many jurisdictions, the ones being prosecuted.

Last week, Proskauer, along with the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, hosted Valiant (Val) Richey, the Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Office of the Special Representative assists the 57 OSCE countries—including the United States—in their efforts to combat human trafficking.

Our London office has teamed up with The Soup Kitchen for several years, helping to offer a welcoming and safe place for over 100 people a day, six days per week. With the goal of going beyond supplying food, clothing and a sense of belonging, The Soup Kitchen strives to address issues of homelessness and support people with the resources they need to find their way back to a structured and fulfilling life.

Jacob Durkin at the Prudential RideLondon.

When The Soup Kitchen contacted Proskauer looking for a volunteer to step up and take a coveted spot in this year’s Prudential Ride100, corporate associate Jacob Durkin came forward. “This was either brave or foolish, depending on your perspective,” recalled Jacob. “The event was awesome and definitely something I would love to do again – although I probably would have provided a different answer when I was struggling through the last few miles!” The Ride100 is the biggest mass cycling event in the world on 100 miles of closed roads around London, finishing outside Buckingham Palace.

This post contains sensitive subject matter.

We sat down with Michael Narain, the founder of Out My Closet, to talk about the vital role this nonprofit organization plays in the lives of at-risk LGBTQ+ youth and how Proskauer’s pro bono collaboration has helped to advance the organization’s mission.

In your own words, what does Out My Closet do and why is this work important and impactful?

LGBTQ+ youth experience disproportionate levels of homelessness and mental health issues, and are more likely to suffer from substance abuse and sexual exploitation. Out My Closet is a nonprofit organization that attempts to combat those trends by offering resources such as clothing, counseling, and connectivity to LGBTQ+ youth. We provide direct social services that feature face-to-face connection such as clothing pop-up shops, as well as support through social media platforms that connect LGBTQ+ youth to each other and to our volunteers. Out My Closet is staffed entirely by volunteers, many of whom are in their 20s and 30s, LGBTQ+, of color, immigrants, and the first in their families to be college-educated. There’s a real power in seeing someone not much older than you who made it through – and in being helped by someone who can understand and relate to your personal experiences.

In recent years, increased transparency into the nutritional value of our food has enabled consumers to make more informed decisions on their own eating habits, knowing that their choices directly correlate with their overall health. Leaders behind this movement are hopeful that initiatives such as the new laws on food labeling that require calorie counts, fats, and sodium levels to be included on menus will encourage healthier selections. However, the effectiveness of these or other health education initiatives has often been criticized as unsustainable or ineffective, especially within high poverty communities and among youth.

In 2005, frustrated by the lack of health information in these high-need areas, Dr. Olajide Williams, then a doctor at Harlem Hospital Center, proposed an innovative technique to promote health education in these at-risk communities. His big idea – to communicate important health information through a catchy rap song. Three years later in 2008 he founded Hip Hop Public Health, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering positive health behavior change through the power of hip-hop music. Their methods are unique, and the premise is simple – by providing youth with information on health and nutrition through a catchy medium, they empower them to make healthier choices, and help reduce preventable poor health conditions and childhood obesity. The organization has recruited the talents of many artists including Doug E. Fresh, Chuck D and DMC. A full library of health-related hip-hop tracks now lives on the organization’s website for easy access by students all across the globe.

For low-income families with disabled children, receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits is critically important to the safety and security of their households.  Navigating the difficult claims process without legal counsel, however, too often leads to the wrong result.  This was exactly the case for one immigrant mother who—after a painful and complicated divorce—was unable to afford medical treatments for her 14-year-old son suffering from ADHD. After an unsuccessful first attempt to apply for SSI benefits, she sought help from Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), which paired her with a team of Proskauer lawyers who secured the benefits that she and her son desperately needed and deserved.

The Proskauer team, led by corporate associate Ben Sacks, was tasked with meeting the stringent criteria for SSI benefits. In order to qualify, an applicant must establish both medical documentation for the disability and evidence of limitations. In the case of applicants with ADHD, judges typically look to academic records when considering limitations.  This created a challenge for our client who had good grades—particularly in math—but was struggling in other ways at school. Ben and the Proskauer team understood that they had to make clear that academic records were the wrong measure of how ADHD impacted this boy’s life.  The argument was thus re-centered around the other struggles he had in school, such as ploys for attention, lack of focus in class despite his good grades, and issues outside of the classroom.