On Saturday, June 25, 2022, AABANY’s Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee in collaboration with Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) organized a Pro Bono Clinic in Flushing, Queens. Thank you to all our volunteers for participating!
| AABANY | AAFE |
| Beatrice Leong | Gabriel Hisugan (AAFE) |
| Bei Yang | Keshari Tuisyan (AAFE intern)^ |
| Evelyn Gong* | Lilian Cheung (AAFE intern)^ |
| Kyoung Jung | Maria del Carmen Cruz (AAFE)^ |
| May Wong | Yichun Liu (AAFE intern) |
| Shengyang Wu | Zulma Vazquez (AAFE) (Spanish)^ |
| Xue Huang | |
| Yaoyu Liu | |
| John Hwang | |
| Lyubing Teng^ | |
| Meg Annamaneni^ | |
| Meng Zhang | |
| Nicole Morikawa^ | |
| Sharmie Azurel^ | |
| Yvette Adiguzel^ | |
| ^ = non-attorney volunteer |
At the clinic, we met a total of 13 clients: 8 Spanish-speaking, 2 Mandarin-speaking, and 3 English speaking folks who had questions related to immigration (6 cases); housing (4 cases – 1 case with criminal context involved); unemployment insurance benefits (1 case); matrimonial (1 case); and wills/trusts/estates (1 case).
Our volunteers were able to learn from each other and employ useful resources online to help clients look for information. This includes researching how to apply for IDNYC, a municipal identification card for all New Yorkers regardless of their immigration status, compiling information tool kits for a client’s ongoing immigration case, or referring them to other legal service providers. Volunteering attorneys and law students worked closely with AAFE’s interpreters to assist our Spanish-speaking clients.
Volunteer Yvette Adiguzel stated, “Some clients had issues relating to a case that had already been initiated in court. When advising a client involved with a case, a useful resource to obtain New York case-related information online is eCourts NY. Anyone can use the e-courts information service for free and can search with information such as the party name, case number, type of court. eCourts NY can also be used to look up future date appearances regarding criminal and family cases, and can provide information relating to the active and disposed cases in civil courts and the Supreme Court. A tracking service called eTrack is an option available free of charge on the eCourts NY website so that you can monitor and set reminders relating to cases in civil local, supreme and family courts as well as criminal cases.” Many of the clients were grateful to the attorneys and volunteers, like Yvette, who were able to provide their expertise and provide informed legal advice.
Thank you again to all our volunteers!
If you would like to volunteer, our next clinic dates:
7/23/2022, 12:30pm – 3:30pm. Deadline to register 7/20/2022, 12pm.
We hope to see you at our next clinic on July 23! Please sign up!
To learn more about the Pro Bono Committee and what they do visit probono.aabany.org