AABANY’s Pro Bono Committee organized and held its
The Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic has allowed AABANY’s Pro Bono Committee to service a new community in need of pro bono legal services and indicates our efforts to grow and expand these services to more New Yorkers in need. Clients local to Brooklyn were able to attend, but clients traveling from Queens and other surrounding areas also made the trip, with some clients stating that they traveled an hour or more just to receive the help they have been looking for.
The evening started off with a community presentation by AABANY’s Membership Director and GSPI Committee Co-Chair, Beatrice Leong, Esq. which focused on family law, specifically matrimonial & divorce law. The presentation alone provided the answers that one client needed. This client was able to leave the presentation knowing what their next steps were without needing any further legal assistance. The remaining 26 clients were all able to sit down with an attorney, and an interpreter when needed, for a consultation session to receive the legal help and resources they were seeking. Common legal issues at this clinic included family, immigration, and elder law matters.
In just a few years, our Manhattan clinic has assisted hundreds of low-income clients and the new Brooklyn clinic provides us the opportunity to grow those numbers and ensure that many more will be able to receive free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. In order to continue to provide and expand our pro bono services to other New York communities in need, we continue to ask every member to actively support AABANY’s Pro Bono Clinics.
If you know family members, friends, colleagues or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Pro Bono Clinics, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at [email protected]. Financial contributions can also be made directly by texting APAPROBONO to 443-21 to make a donation through Give Lively.
Thank you to our volunteers:
Lawyers:
Beatrice Leong
May Kay Wong
Michelle Yeung
Jen Rasay
Gina Kim
Chai Park
Francis Chin
Michelle DeSousa-Fiore
Kwok Kei Ng
Zhixian Liu
Pauline Yeung-Ha
Judy (Ming Chu) Lee
Karen Kithan Yau
Asako Aiba
Interpreters:
Ruth Poon
Wai Yee Chan
Shuping Deng
Xiaoxiao Pan
Guanlan Shen
Bo Hu
Meng Zhang
Steve Mei
Alex Hwang
Intake Coordinators/Interpreters:
Breanna Andree-Couturier
Henry Man
Jay Tang
Gary Chen
Xinyi Shen
Yuying Zhu
Benefits Counselor:
John Colon, NY Connects
Special thanks to Co-Chairs, Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy (Ming Chu) Lee, Karen Kithan Yau, and Asako Aiba, and Vice Chairs, Kwok Kei Ng and Zhixian (Jessie) Liu, for coordinating this clinic. Additionally, thank you to the various community leaders and organizations whose help made this clinic possible.
AABANY’s Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic is conducted in collaboration with: NYS Assemblyman, Peter J. Abbate Jr., NYS Senator, Andrew Gounardes, and NYC Councilman, Justin Brannan. Special thanks to our community sponsors: A+ Academy, Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), Chinese American Social Services Center (CASS), Homecrest Community Services, Academy of Medical & Public Health Services (AMPHS), Brooklyn Community Improvement Association (BCIA), Parent Child Relationship Association, and the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn (UCA).
The Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic will be a bi-monthly clinic occurring on the fourth Thursday of every other month, except for November which would be Thanksgiving Day. The next clinic will be held on Thursday, November 21, 2019 from 6:30 pm to 8:30pm. If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected].
