Externships Help to Meet Increased Need at Legal Services NYC

Legal Services NYC has forged new partnerships with the law
firms of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Milbank Tweed Hadley &
McCloy LLP, as well as with Williams College, to help meet the dramatic increased need for
civil legal services for the poor across New York City.

The offices of Legal Services NYC have been scrambling to
meet the increased legal needs of low-income New Yorkers – estimated at over
30% – since the precipitous fall of the City’s economy began last September,
while at the same time dealing with decreases in funding on the City and State
levels, and an anticipated steep decline next year in funding from The Interest
on Lawyers Account Fund of the State of New York (which is tied to interest
rates of major banks).

Help has come, however, in the form of new
externships.  Externships provide major benefits to both clients and firms
– Legal Services NYC programs are able to help more people, and associates get
hands-on litigation and transactional experience. In January, Rafael Vasquez,
an associate with Simpson since 2006, began a four-month externship with the
Community and Economic Development (CED) Unit of Brooklyn Legal Services
Corporation A, where he will collaborate with the other CED Unit attorneys
on their clients’ larger community development projects (which largely relate
to affordable housing, healthcare and education).  Mr. Vasquez is already
hard at work negotiating and preparing legal documents relating to the
financing and zoning requirements for a new health care facility, preparing the
real estate documents for upcoming small home resale closings to low-income,
first time homeowner families, among other matters.  CED Unit Director Jessica
Rose said, “We are all extremely excited about this new relationship between
Simpson and Brooklyn
A.  Mr. Vasquez as our first Simpson extern has set the bar high as he
brings enthusiasm, intelligence, hard work and kindness to his work for our
clients.”  Mr. Vasquez shares in the CED Unit’s enthusiasm, stating that
“this is a great opportunity to extend my corporate transactional experience to
the representation of community-based organizations and to see the direct and
tangible results of our legal work on the local level.”  

Last fall, Milbank sent two associates to do three-month
externships with Legal Services NYC offices – Matt Latterner worked with the NYC
Bankruptcy Assistance Project helping pro-se claimants prepare bankruptcy
petitions, and Jennifer Beaudry worked in the Employment Unit of South
Brooklyn Legal Services, where she worked on appeals for clients who were
initially denied unemployment insurance benefits.  Said Ms. Beaudry of her
experience with South Brooklyn, “I have had a very positive experience at South Brooklyn and am
glad to have met so many passionate and talented lawyers.  It has been a
great way to begin my career.”

The Bankruptcy Assistance Project has also secured an extern
from Williams College – Charlotte Silverman, a junior, will commence a
“Williams in New York” semester as a part-time extern with the Project on
January 27^th.  She’ll assist in helping to screen clients,
conduct research, and manage client case files.

Long-term externships with Legal Services NYC programs
include:  Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP and Kramer, Levin, Naftalis &
Frankel LLP, which contribute to South Brooklyn Legal Services by
filling attorney positions in its Housing Law Unit; and Weil, Gotshal & Manges
LLP, which sends associates to Legal Services NYC Brooklyn Branch to do
Family Law.

Legal Services NYC —the largest organization exclusively devoted to
providing free civil legal services in the United States, with
neighborhood offices in every borough of New York City—provides
free help on cases involving housing, family, domestic violence, public
benefits, income tax, employment, education, consumer rights and economic
development.  Legal Services NYC programs include Legal Services
NYC-Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Legal Services, Brooklyn Family Defense
Project, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, Legal Services NYC-Brooklyn
Branch, South Brooklyn Legal Services, Manhattan Legal Services, Queens Legal
Services, Staten Island Legal Services, and the Legal Services NYC Legal
Support Unit. Funding for the Legal Services NYC programs comes from the Legal
Services Corporation, grants from the city, the state and federal agencies,
private foundations, United Way
of New York City, the New
York State Interest on Lawyers Account Fund and private donations.

###