Committee on Legal Aid

Committee on Legal Aid

The Committee on Legal Aid is charged with the duty of considering methods and proposals for rendering legal aid to the poor and of maintaining a continuing study of the administration of justice as it affects the poor.  It shall make recommendations with regard to remedial measures intended to assist the poor in the protection of their legal rights, to encourage the establishment and efficient maintenance of legal aid organizations, and to cooperate with other associations and agencies, public and private, interested in these objects.

2024 PARTNERSHIP CONFERENCE

Thank you to all who presented, attended, and sponsored this years 2024 Partnership Conference. To see the Pro Bono News 2024 Partnership Conference Edition click here.

We look forward to seeing everyone in 2026!

Pearls of Wisdom: 30 Years of Partnership Past, Present and Future

The Partnership Conference is the premier civil legal services educational and networking conference attended by leaders of civil legal service organizations and private law firms from across New York State.

Individuals and groups from all corners of the state travel to Albany, NY every other year to attend the conference, earn continuing legal education credits, and attend the Denison Ray Civil Awards dinner to honor attorneys’, directors’, and nonprofits’ extraordinary leadership and commitment to access to justice.

We look forward to seeing everyone in 2026!

Thank you to our Sponsors and Exhibitors!

Civil Legal Services Virtual Career Fair

#IAmCivilLegalServices

Held October 25, 2023 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.

We invited participation in this virtual event to learn more about a future career in civil legal services and to see how you can make a difference in people’s lives by helping to reduce the access to justice gap.

The Civil Legal Services Virtual Career Fair is sponsored by The Legal Services Coalition and the New York State Bar Association Committee on Legal Aid.

Here are some of the civil legal service organizations that will have a virtual booth at the fair.

• Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A (Please see Staff Attorney position here.)
• Catholic Migration Services (Please see Staff Attorney position here.)
• Center for Elder Law & Justice
• Disability Rights New York (Please see the open positions here: Legal Intern Spring 2024-Albany , Legal Intern Spring 2024-Brooklyn , Legal Intern Spring 2024-Rochester ,  Legal Intern Summer 2024-Albany ,  Legal Intern Summer 2024-Brooklyn , Legal Intern Summer 2024-Rochester)
• Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project (Please see open positions here.)
• Empire Justice Center (Please see open positions here.)
• Frank H. Hiscock Legal Aid Society
• Harlem United
• Journey’s End Refugee Services
• JustCause
• Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, Inc. (Please see open positions here.)
• Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York (Please see open positions here.)
• Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York (Please see open positions here, Legal Aid Society Jobs)
• Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc. (Please see open positions here.)
• Legal Services NYC
• Legal Services of Central New York Inc. (Please see open positions here, https://www.lscny.org/about/careers/)
• Legal Services of Hudson Valley (Please see open positions here.)
• Mobilization for Justice (Please see Staff Attorney positions here.)
• Nassau Suffolk Law Services (Please see open positions here, Nassau Suffolk Law Services Committee)
• Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (Please see open positions here)
• Neighbors Link
• New York City Anti-Violence Project (Please see open positions here.)
• Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation
• NYS Attorney Emeritus Program
• My Sisters’ Place (Please see open positions here, Associate Attorney)
• Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York
• Rural Law Center of New York, Inc. (Please see open positions here, Full-Time Attorney)
• The Legal Aid Society of Rochester, Inc.
• Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY Inc.

To learn more about the various civil legal service organizations participating in this virtual career fair see the video below.

Legal Assistance of Western New York, INc.

Disability Rights of New York

PJ Herne

Mary Palermo

Katie Blum

David Wall

Remla Parthasarathy

Julia Kudlacz

Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A

Mobilization for Justice

Advancing Justice- The Legal Aid Society

Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project

The New York State Bar Association’s President’s Committee on Access to Justice and Committee on Legal Aid invite all legal services and pro bono providers, as well as other providers of free legal representation to low-income community members (e.g. public defenders, assigned counsel panel members, attorneys for the child, etc.) in the State of New York to participate in virtual public hearings regarding access to Justice in the post-COVID legal landscape.

We are requesting testimony from public interest legal services organizations, law firms, solo- practitioners and other providers of legal services to New York’s low-income communities.

Areas of focus will include developments since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding access to justice in relation to family court, immigration proceedings, housing court/landlord-tenant proceedings, criminal justice, social security proceedings, state benefit proceedings, the efficacy and equitability of remote proceedings, and the factor that race plays throughout these considerations.

We are particularly interested in testimony regarding the interrelationship and impact of high-volume courts’ hybrid virtual/in person court proceedings and operations, and the effect of the digital divide on low-income community members, court users and providers of free legal assistance to these communities.

The Virtual Public hearings were held via Zoom on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, from 1:00pm – 4:00pm and Thursday, November 18, 2021, from 9:00am – 12:00pm.

Please see the video’s below:

Please submit written testimony by November 24, 2021 to Elizabeth Jois at [email protected]

Sally F. Curran, Esq., Co-Chair Committee on Legal Aid
Adriene L. Holder, Esq., Co-Chair Committee on Legal Aid
Tiffany Danielle Liston, Esq., Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice
Edwina Frances Martin, Esq., Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice
Sherry Levin Wallach, Esq., New York State Bar Association President-Elect, and Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice