LASNNY moves to its new Center for Civil Legal Services Opening January 9th, 2018
The Albany office will be closed on January 4, 5 and 8, 2018 to prepare for and complete the move.
On January 5, 2018, the Albany office of the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York will be moving to its new Center for Civil Legal Services located at :
95 Central Avenue
Albany, NY 12206
All Phone numbers will remain the same.
We will maintain some office space on Colvin Avenue, but all mail should be directed to 95 Central Avenue. All intake will be done at that the new location as well.
The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York (LASNNY) seeks proposals to assist the organization with strategic planning.
LASNNY seeks a consultant who can help facilitate a staff and Board owned strategic planning effort to (1) review our mission, vision and core values; (2) utilize available data to arrive at clearly articulated goals in the core areas identified as a focus for this strategic planning effort, that is racial justice, succession planning and preparation and fostering impact; (3) identify strategies and action steps to achieve these goals; and (4) identify the organizational structure and capacity changes that we need to adopt or develop in order to best position the organization for the future.
Congratulations to the Pro Bono Awardees and the ACBA grant awardees
Awards presented at the Joint Holiday Party Celebration with the Albany County Bar Association, Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York and The Legal Project on Thursday, November 30th.
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Myleah Misenhimer and I am the new Private Attorney Involvement Director with the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York. I am thrilled to be joining the LASNNY team, but sad to say Michele Sleight, who has headed PAI for the past few years, has decided to return to school and pursue a career in nursing. She has been an integral part in maintaining PAI, and has worked tirelessly to adopt new programs to better serve our clients’ changing needs. The Private Attorney Involvement program is somewhat amorphous by nature, and I only hope to be as adept as she in answering the current communal call and shaping the program accordingly.
It is my goal this year to bolster those programs already in place, as well as create new programs to address new, or in some cases, newly realized legal needs. Our pro se divorce clinics continue to fill to capacity, and although we have some wonderful volunteer attorneys helping out with this program, assistance with divorce is just one of those needs that I don’t foresee going away. That being said, we could always use additional volunteers for our clinics. The clinics, which take place in 6 different locations and cover 12 counties, are designed to help pro se litigants seeking an uncontested divorce in filling out and filing their paperwork. Our volunteers have assisted countless clients in leaving behind unhappy, and sometimes ugly situations so that they can move forward with their lives.
Our bankruptcy referral program also remains in high demand. For those suffering under the weight of asphyxiating debt, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy can be life changing. Finding volunteer attorneys willing to help in this area is not only desired, it is vital. So often these individuals are reaching out for a second chance to “start fresh” and “do things right.” It is my goal to find those attorneys out there willing to reach back. There is also a growing need for assistance in the following areas: the drafting of wills, powers of attorney, health care proxies, and, less frequently, trusts; veteran’s affairs; and name changes, particularly for transgender individuals.
The Attorney for the Day program at Albany City Court, where we pair individuals appearing for landlord/tenant actions with private attorneys, is in full swing. On the first and third Fridays of the month, volunteer attorneys are available to assist tenants who would otherwise be left to fend for themselves. The representation is limited in time and scope, but can and often does have a lasting impact. Additionally, together with the Albany County Bar Association, we are trying to reinvigorate the Albany County Family Court Help Center, where pro se litigants can seek assistance right at the Family Court from volunteer attorneys stationed there.
Our Closing the Gap program, which is a technology platform that connects rural pro se litigants in housing and consumer cases with urban pro bono volunteers, completed its pilot period in March. The Closing the Gap website allows pro bono attorneys to conduct virtual interviews with clients located in rural areas via web video chat and document sharing features. Closing the Gap utilizes Law Help Interactive, so that the answers given during the virtual interview are generated into a pleading that the pro se litigant can then print and file. If you are from the Capital District and are interested in volunteering for this program, please contact Melody Harkness at [email protected].
Lastly, October is fast approaching. In celebration of pro bono month, you may receive a letter from me inviting you to explore our various pro bono opportunities. In the meantime, if you are interested in volunteering for any of our programs, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. I look forward to meeting those of you I have not yet had the pleasure to meet, and wish you all the very best.
U.S Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced $600,000 in federal funding for The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York. The funding was allocated through the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) Grant Program. Specifically, the Albany-based legal aid organization will use these funds to provide legal representation to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking in 13 primarily rural counties in northeastern New York. The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York will provide services in Columbia, Greene, Fulton, Schoharie, Montgomery, Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton, Essex and St. Lawrence Counties.
“This critical federal funding will help the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York develop and facilitate a wide range of programs to better assist domestic violence survivors,” said Senator Gillibrand. “Domestic violence is a serious problem and we need to work towards creating a safe environment for all survivors and their families. By increasing access to legal services we can help provide New Yorkers with the support they need.”
“The Legal Aid Society is eager to continue its successful partnership with ten local domestic violence service providers and our gifted and passionate domestic violence advocates to address the need for a broad range of high quality civil legal services for survivors of domestic violence in rural Northeastern NY. We are grateful for the unwavering support of Senator Gillibrand and the Department of Justice,” said Lillian M. Moy, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society.
The Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program is designed to strengthen civil and criminal legal assistance programs for adult and youth victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking who are seeking relief in legal matters arising as a consequence of that abuse or violence.
Join us in welcoming new Foreclosure Prevention Project attorney Bryan Gottlieb. He graduated from Albany Law School, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Albany Law Review. Bryan previously worked in Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, and McCloy’s litigation department. While at Milbank, Bryan also completed a pro bono fellowship with the Children’s Law Center of Brooklyn, New York.
Commission’s findings on the continuing access-to-justice gap, along with an analysis of the substantial economic benefits to both low-income New Yorkers and New York State from investing in civil legal services.
Presented in November 2016. Read it here.
President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget eliminates funding for the Legal Services Corp. In his first budget proposal released Thursday, Trump is cutting discretionary spending to pay for an increase in defense spending and the wall on the Mexican border, the Washington Post reports.
The LSC is among 19 agencies in line for total elimination of funding. Others agencies to be cut include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts, according to the Post and USA Today.
The American Bar Association is “outraged” that the Trump administration is calling to eliminate funding for the LSC and is calling upon members of Congress to restore it, ABA President Linda Klein said in a statement Thursday. Klein noted that LSC offices are in every congressional district and help 1.9 million people annually.
“Some of the worthy services the LSC provides include securing housing for veterans, protecting seniors from scams, delivering legal services to rural areas, protecting victims of domestic abuse and helping disaster survivors,” Klein wrote. “More than 30 cost-benefit studies all show that legal aid delivers far more in benefits than it costs,” Klein wrote. “If veterans become homeless, or disaster victims cannot rebuild, their costs to society are significantly more.”
Also supporting the LSC are the heads of more than 150 U.S. law firms, who told Trump in a letter that eliminating funding would hamper their ability to provide pro bono representation because they partner with legal aid groups receiving LSC funding.
“Eliminating the Legal Services Corp. will not only imperil the ability of civil legal aid organizations to serve Americans in need, it will also vastly diminish the private bar’s capacity to help these individuals,” the letter stated. “The pro bono activity facilitated by LSC funding is exactly the kind of public-private partnership the government should encourage, not eliminate.”
The LSC requested $502 million for fiscal year 2017 and received $385 million in appropriations for fiscal year 2016.
LSC President Jim Sandman remained optimistic about the outlook for the LSC in an interview with Bloomberg Big Law Business. He said he expected Congress to ignore Trump’s proposal and to grant the full $502 million funding request.
“We represent a fundamental American value—equal justice,” Sandman told Bloomberg. “That’s a value as old as the republic itself. Congress understands that.”
Updated at 10:10 a.m. to include statement from Klein. Updated at 1:55 p.m. to include Sandman’s comments to Bloomberg.
