When Pro Bono Institute (PBI) convened the PBI 2025 Annual Conference in February 2025, one session on innovative pro bono models for serving trafficking survivors sparked a collaboration that resulted in a pilot series of clinics this fall. Panelists shared how the National Survivor Law Collective (NSL Collective) had begun offering virtual clinics to help survivors with credit repair under the Debt Bondage Repair Act (DBRA), which went into effect in July 2022, and the related Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Regulation V. The DBRA is an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act that empowers survivors of human trafficking to block harmful credit information resulting from their exploitation.
Following the session, multiple firms and legal departments approached the panelists, eager to get involved in credit repair clinics. The need for services by survivors, and the level of volunteer interest, outpaced the current capacity of the pro bono clinics. Panelist Sarah Byrne, Partner at Moore & Van Allen PLLC, approached PBI with a question: Could PBI scale this work nationally to get more companies and firms involved and serve more survivors?
Within weeks, PBI staff from its Law Firm Pro Bono Project and Corporate Pro Bono project began working alongside Moore & Van Allen†, Rutan & Tucker†, Alliance to Lead Impact in Global Human Trafficking (ALIGHT), Atlas Free, and the National Survivor Law (NSL) Collective to develop and pilot a national series of Virtual Credit Repair Clinics.
The Challenge: Financial Exploitation as a Barrier to Survivors’ Freedom
Many trafficking survivors are left with debts, damaged credit, and fraudulent financial histories caused by traffickers who coerced them into taking out loans, signing leases, or accruing debt in their names. Survivors can face barriers building financial freedom because they cannot access housing, open a bank account, obtain employment, successfully apply for a credit card, or take other actions that require good credit.
The financial abuse intertwined with trafficking is staggering. According to a report by Polaris, “In Harm’s Way: How Systems Fail Human Trafficking Survivors,” survivors are twice as likely to be unbanked and eleven times more likely to rely on expensive payday loans than the general U.S. population. Even after gaining physical safety, survivors remain trapped by the long-term effects of the financial abuse — unable to rebuild their lives because of low credit scores and collector actions.
The Response: Pro Bono in Action
Recognizing that survivors face a “legal desert” when seeking specialized, trauma-informed assistance, the Virtual Credit Repair Clinic model intends to bridge that gap. The model connects trained volunteers, who can be located anywhere, with survivors who need legal assistance, during short, structured meetings.
During the clinic, volunteers meet with the survivor to review the survivor’s credit reports and draft Trafficking Block Requests asking the three major credit reporting agencies (CRAs) (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to remove the adverse entries that were a result of the trafficking. They can also request any other necessary corrections to information such as erroneous names or addresses in the survivor’s credit report. Volunteers finalize and send out the requests, along with the supporting documentation that each CRA requires, after the clinic. By law, the CRAs must block the adverse entries within four business days of receiving the Trafficking Block Request.
Standing Up Virtual Credit Repair Clinics
The pilot series of virtual clinics in fall 2025 built on the NSL Collective’s substantive expertise with PBI’s convening power and robust network of law firms and corporate legal departments that do pro bono. PBI hosted two national trainings to prepare for these clinics.
On July 8, 2025, PBI held a logistics training designed for law firms interested in co-hosting clinics. This session outlined operational steps for coordinating and running such clinics with partner organizations.
On July 17, 2025, PBI held a substantive training on requesting relief under the DBRA. The training featured presenters Peter Hering (Rutan & Tucker, LLP), Marianna Kosharovsky (ALIGHT), Sarah Dohoney Byrne (Moore & Van Allen PLLC), and Hollie Nadel, a survivor and client advocate, who shared first-hand insights on the transformative impact of credit repair. Together, the trainers equipped volunteers to provide limited-scope, trauma-informed legal services under the DBRA, emphasizing sensitivity and client empowerment as well as adherence to the DBRA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Regulation V. The training also discussed how obtaining a Victim Determination Document (VDD) from an organization that is authorized to provide VDDs to survivors is an essential requirement for relief under the DBRA but also a potential bottleneck in the clinic model, as many survivors who attended past clinics did not have a valid VDD.
Throughout August and September, PBI worked to identify law firm co-hosts for the initial clinics, as well as legal departments that could volunteer with those firms at the clinics. PBI also developed an intake procedure to ensure that the survivors who attended the clinics would be eligible for relief, including having a valid VDD from an authorized organization. PBI scheduled three Virtual Credit Repair Clinics to be held just after National Pro Bono Week, on October 30, November 5, and November 14.
In September and October, PBI and its partners, including Atlas Free, conducted intake for the clinics. As the number of eligible clients became clear, PBI recruited the appropriate number of volunteers from the participating law firms and legal departments.
In the meantime, PBI and NSL Collective developed a comprehensive toolkit — including sample documents and key information — to help law firms and companies participate in the Virtual Credit Repair Clinic. The final toolkit will allow law firms and legal departments to replicate the Virtual Credit Repair Clinic model.
In total, the pilot series of three clinics served 30 survivors and engaged more than 100 volunteers from 15 law firms and legal departments.
Why It Works
The Virtual Credit Repair Clinics are an ideal pro bono opportunity because they are:
- Accessible to all lawyers and legal staff. Because DBRA is federal law, attorneys licensed in any U.S. jurisdiction can participate regardless of their bar license. Additionally, because volunteer teams typically consist of three volunteers, legal staff can team up with attorneys to help survivors during the client meeting.
- Bite-sized and virtual. Volunteers complete meaningful work — reviewing the survivors’ credit reports and drafting Trafficking Block Requests — in a single clinic session lasting under three hours. For the law firm co-hosts that finalize and send the requests after the clinic, the typical time commitment is one to five hours per client.
- Collaborative. Firms and legal departments participate in clinics run by PBI and with the help of substantive experts, combining expertise and expanding volunteer reach.
- High impact. As shared at the July 17 training, survivors report significant credit score improvements within weeks, resulting in access to housing, employment, and financial stability.
Building a National Model & Pro Bono Needs
PBI and the NSL Collective look forward to refining and making available the comprehensive toolkit for Virtual Credit Repair Clinics under the DBRA. PBI plans to host future clinics in partnership with law firms and legal departments in the coming year.
However, to sustain and scale this work, a key infrastructure challenge must also be addressed: too few nonprofit organizations are currently authorized to issue VDDs, a document that survivors need to be eligible for DBRA credit repair relief. This gap limits the number of eligible clients, even though thousands of survivors stand to benefit. Law firms and legal departments can play a vital role here as well by providing pro bono legal support to nonprofit service providers seeking to become authorized VDD issuers. Helping these organizations navigate the application, documentation, and compliance process strengthens the entire pipeline of access to credit repair assistance.
Please reach out to PBI staff if you are interested in helping organizations that serve survivors with becoming VDD-authorized, or if you are interested in co-hosting or participating in future Virtual Credit Repair Clinics.