Diversity and Pro Bono
Our firm’s pro bono work often reflects our commitment to diversity, as well as to a wide range of under-served communities and groups. Examples include:
Women
- Human Rights—In several asylum cases, we have successfully represented women facing political persecution and oppressive practices such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
- Family Services/Domestic Violence—Our attorneys have a long tradition of representing indigent and working poor women in obtaining divorces, spousal support, child support, custody, and orders of protection.
- Reproductive Freedom—We advocated to protect the rights of low-income pregnant women, including those prosecuted for drug use during pregnancy.
LGBT
- Civil Rights—We are particularly proud of our efforts to secure equality for LGBT individuals, and have been involved with LGBT rights litigation over two decades.
- Health & Social Services—We incorporated Gay Men’s Health Crisis in 1981 and still represent it. We also serve as pro bono general counsel to The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.
- Political asylum—Our attorneys have obtained asylum for gay and transgender individuals facing persecution in their countries of origin.
Low Income and Minority Communities:
- We staff an ongoing position at South Brooklyn Legal Services. Three associates per year rotate through this position — each spending several months representing low-income tenants in Housing Court full time. Since 1998, our associates have counseled more than 1,500 clients, many from communities of color.
- Our attorneys teamed with two public interest law firms to launch League of Women Voters of Florida v. Cobb, which struck down a restrictive Florida law that had chilled voter registration in poor and minority communities.
- We worked with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a New York-based organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans through litigation, legal advocacy, and community education, as part of its voter protection project.
- Our attorneys have fought for the due process rights of Guantanamo detainees who were Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority group native to Western China that has been brutally oppressed by the Chinese government.
Arts, Culture, Health, and Education in Diverse Communities:
- Health & Social Services—We support: Listen, Inc., a national youth development network; Northside Center for Child Development, which provides mental health services to more than 1,800 at risk children and their families in the East and Central Harlem communities; and the Korean Family Counseling and Research Center, which provides a variety of social services to members of the Flushing community.
- Education & Technical Assistance—We provide general corporate representation for the Wadleigh Scholars Program, which prepares low income and minority students for admission to boarding schools, and our attorneys actively mentor diverse youth through the Harlem-based Legal Outreach program.
- The Clinton Foundation—In 2007, we launched an exciting new pro bono relationship with the William J. Clinton Foundation, which supports a broad range of health, education, and economic initiatives in diverse communities around the globe.
- Arts and Culture—We support Harlem Needle Arts and Ifetayo Cultural Arts among many other diverse cultural organizations.