EmPOWERing Pro Bono Day 2023

List of Events

Arkansas

Research – Housing Community Resource 

Volunteers researched housing community resources for two hours to provide a comprehensive list of resources for those in need.  

Illinois

DACA Renewal Clinic (Chicago)

Volunteers will work with the National Immigrant Justice Center at a clinic to help Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients complete and file applications to renew their protection.

Louisiana

Legal Resource Table – Customer Care Centers

Over the course of 8.5 hours, volunteers helped almost 30 clients with various legal topics and provided appropriate guidance for each individual.  

Notary Clinic

Volunteers provided notary services to make documents official for clients.  

Self-help Resource Centers

Eight clients were provided with general legal information in a variety of law matters and were able to ask questions and learn new information.  

Free Legal Answers

In partnership with the Louisiana State Bar Association, volunteers were able to assist clients in answering their civil legal questions and guiding them through legal processes. 

Affidavits – Small Successions (Heirs Property) 

Fifteen volunteers helped nine clients with affidavits related to heirs property in the state of Louisiana.  

Divorce Clinic

Volunteers provided information to six clients who were seeking guidance and information for divorce proceedings.  

Minnesota

Nonprofit Tune Up (For MN attorneys and legal staff only)

The event will provide free legal assessments to local nonprofit organizations to help determine if said organization is operating in good overall legal health.

Mississippi

Expungement Clinic

Thirty-two volunteers prepared expungement petitions for low-income Mississippi residents in partnership with the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ). They guided almost 65 clients from their service area. Some of the projects will continue to give back as the volunteers’ dive into drafting wills and expungement petitions, as well as policy research that will help hundreds, if not thousands.  

Missouri

Wills and Advance Directive Clinic (St. Louis)

The clinic provided free legal services for income eligible clients relating to wills and power of attorneys. There was a total of 19 volunteers who came together, including the General Counsel, to serve 12 clients. Ameren worked with one of their preferred panel firms, Lewis Rice and the Legal Services of Eastern Missouri to assist income eligible elderly clients with health care directives and power of attorneys. The clients served were grateful for the help and a delight to work with. 

New Jersey

Access to Justice for People Experiencing Poverty

Volunteers worked to provide critical legal services to members of the community who are struggling with poverty by allowing access to justice. Five volunteers from PSEG’s in-house department participated, as well as four volunteers from Gibbons and two volunteers from McCarter. Together, they served 14 veteran clients by providing them with assistance and guidance on the following legal issues: criminal record expungement; driver’s license restoration; estate planning; child support; eviction defense; debt relief; and divorce proceedings. Feedback from veteran clients was a grand appreciation for clinic volunteers taking the time to assist them with their legal challenges. 

New York

Safe Passage Project – Intake Clinic

Safe Passage Project invites young people to legal screening events in hopes of identifying available immigration forms of relief from deportation and providing children with free legal representation. Almost 40 Con Edison attorneys and staff conducted these screening clinics and aided these children so they did not have to face the deportation process alone. Safe Passage Project remarked that the event went great and the clinic was able to provide a great deal of assistance to their clients and significantly reduce their client backlog.

North Carolina

Wills for Seniors
Twenty-two in-house volunteers assisted with preparation and execution of estate planning and related documents, including wills, durable powers of attorney, and health care powers of attorney. They were able to serve over 20 clients, which whom provided an overwhelmingly positive response. There was an emphasis on the need for this type of support and many messages of thankfulness and gratitude for the service provided. 

Pennsylvania

Transgender Name Change Clinic (Philadelphia)

Volunteers will guide low-income transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary clients with name change applications.

Texas

Wills Clinic Training

HVL & Akin Gump will host a live/virtual training clinic for volunteers interested in helping low-income Houstonians with estate planning needs.  These matters require 10-15 hours over the course of 4-6 weeks.

Guardian Ad Litem Program

CASA of El Paso trains volunteers in the El Paso Texas area willing to serve as guardians ad litem for children in their program. A CASA is a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer who works with abused and neglected children in the court system.

After completing a 30-hour training class provided by CASA of El Paso and being assigned to a case, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) begin visiting the child regularly. Volunteer Advocates work closely with, but independent of, Child Protective Services (CPS) and attorneys.

Research – Early Childhood Center Toolkit 

Wisconsin

Expungement
Volunteer attorneys work with clients to review their backgrounds and help remove barriers to employment, education, driver’s license reinstatement, obtaining housing, and more.

Washington, D.C.

Civil Protection Order Clinic

Exelon attorneys in the Washington, D.C. Office partnered with Jenner & Block LLP and the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project (“DCVLP”) in a Civil Protection Order Clinic where Volunteers assisted survivors of domestic violence in drafting Petitions for Civil Protection Orders (CPOs), Amendments to existing CPOs, and Motions to Reinstate CPOs.  Supervisors from DCVLP provided volunteers with training prior to the clinic, as well as support during the clinic.  Through the efforts of our volunteers, six clients were provided with critical legal services this week.

National

Justice in Action
The Justice in Action Sprint is a day of action in support of legal rights through substantive pro bono projects. At the Sprint, volunteers had the opportunity to work on projects related to human rights, tackling division and access to justice. Volunteers were trained at the start of the day and then divided into small teams to work on specific assignments. Six in-house volunteers from Avangrid worked on important research regarding how marginalized youth can get key identification materials such as driver’s licenses. This work will then be used by additional volunteers to staff an identification hotline.  

Wills, Powers of Attorney, and Advance Medical Directives Training
Dominion Energy, in partnership with McGuireWoods, created a team of almost 20 volunteers to provide a virtual CLE training regarding Wills, Powers of Attorney, and Advance Medical Directives, ahead of an opportunity to participate in an in-person clinic next year. This training enabled volunteers to participate in a Wills Clinic to provide the gift of security to clients in our community. 

* denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® signatory
** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge^® signatory
† denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Project^® member