What type of pro bono legal service(s) have you performed?
I have spent my summers and falls during law school working with the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY or VLP for short. I have exclusively worked with the LGBTQ+ Rights Department where I have been lucky enough to help numerous trans and non-binary individuals across the state change their name to reflect their true identity. I also assist our department head, Mallory, with LGBTQ+ discrimination cases.
What benefits did you experience from doing this work?
The benefits I have received from my experience with VLP have been great. Given the attack on trans people in the past year, the work I have done means even more to me now than when I began. As a member of the community I am serving, being able to literally change a person’s life gives me a personal sense of joy. Professionally and educationally, I have also been enriched. My two bosses, Tara and Mallory, have been professional mentors in a way I was not expecting. It is a wonderful feeling to be trusted with work in the way I have been because both of them took the time to invest in me in the beginning and teach me valuable practical skills such as interviewing and intaking a client, how to be persistent but most importantly, how to balance the comfort of the client and professionalism. I have become more confident in the work I produce and my correspondence with clients. Outside of my department, I am also surrounded by amazing attorneys who care and are always willing to help. The environment of VLP’s office is first things that made me want to continue doing the work.
What would you say to other law students considering pro bono work? Why would you recommend it to others?
I would greatly encourage other law students to do at least a semester or a summer of pro bono work. I guarantee you will not regret it. Even if you do not end up falling in love with the subject matter, you will get to positively impact real people’s lives and feel that impact. That feeling is immeasurable. Additionally, I think its pertinent to emphasize the importance of the work, especially at a time like this. These services are needed more than ever, and people are growing more and more desperate. Pro bono work helps to fill the need.