On March 26, 2022, the Pro Bono and Community Service (PBCS) Committee held its Pro Bono Clinic in Flushing, Queens at the offices of the Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE). We couldn’t have run our clinics without the dedicated help from AABANY, the PBCS Committee, AAFE, and volunteers. We are extremely grateful for our volunteers who traveled all the way from Manhattan and Brooklyn during the torrential rain and MTA’s weekend schedule to meet with clients who needed legal assistance.
Thank you to all the following volunteers:
| Ashley Shan | Ashley Han^ |
| Beatrice Leong | Meng Zhang |
| *Karen Lin (on-call)* | Phillip Pang*^ |
| Eugene Kim | Xinyi Shen*^ |
| Johnny Thach | Andrew Chang*^ |
| May Wong | Vivian Lee*^ |
| Ruihan (Yvette) Wang | Jennifer Park (not admitted) |
| Shengyang Wu | Zulma Vazquez (AAFE)^ |
| Evelyn Gong* | Chen Yo (AAFE)^ |
| Judy (Ming Chu) Lee* | Yini Fang (AAFE)^ |
| Thomas Riley | Maria del Carmen Cruz (AAFE)^ |
| Tong Wu | Gabriel Hisugan (AAFE)^ |
| Wen-Hsien (Wendy) Cheng | |
| ^ = non-attorney volunteers | |
| * = remote |
On March 26, we met with 14 clients – 3 spoke English and 11 spoke a second language (ie: Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, or Korean). While a majority of the cases related to housing, we had a few cases involving torts, trusts and estates, family law, and immigration law.
One noteworthy case highlighted the point that not all matters need to be resolved through the courts. One of our volunteers was able to direct an individual who had a problem with a store purchase to seek recourse through filing complaints with NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, Better Business Bureau, or maybe even the media:
- https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/about-us/contact-us
- https://www.nbcnewyork.com/consumer-form/
- https://abc7ny.com/7-on-your-side-nina-pineda-contact-us/126197/
This was a great “think-out-of-the-box” approach and allowed the individual to consider other cost-effective options. Great job to everyone!
We hope to see more volunteers at our next clinic on May 14, 2022. Please sign up by May 11 at: https://airtable.com/shrsLuv7MQN8Gtc0B
Thank you,
PBCS Team