Thank You to the Volunteers at the Manhattan Pro Bono Clinic in April

Thank you to the Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), the Pro Bono & Community Service Committee (PBCS), and all the dedicated volunteers who contributed their time and expertise at the April 15th Pro Bono Clinic in Manhattan. 

At the Clinic, our volunteers met with 12 clients, providing guidance on various legal issues, including housing, immigration, public benefits, and civil litigation. Their collective efforts ensured that each client received personalized support and essential legal assistance.

In addition to providing vital legal guidance to community members, our Pro Bono Clinics serve as a training ground for law students and young attorneys to practice communicating complex legal concepts in layman’s terms. We appreciate our volunteers for taking the time to listen to clients’ stories and giving them a space to be heard. The dedication of our volunteers continues to bridge the justice gap in our community.

Volunteer attorneys:

  • Beatrice Leong 
  • Francis Chin
  • Jieman Tan
  • Helen Ding
  • Meng Ru
  • Anna Chuen
  • Carmen Huang
  • Anthony Wong
  • Xiaodan Song
  • Arthur Lin
  • Cecilia Yang
  • Alexandra Ly

Interpreters/Shadowers:

  • Rachel Kim
  • Eva Lee
  • Elaine Pan
  • Shang Zhai

We invite you to continue supporting our community by joining us at our upcoming Pro Bono Clinics next month:

  • May 9th [Brooklyn link here], from 12:30 – 2:30pm, CPC Brooklyn Community Services, 4101 8th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11232
  • May 20th [Manhattan link here], from 6:30 – 8:30pm, AAFE Community Center, 111 Norfolk Street, NY, NY 10002

Thank you for making a significant difference in our community. We are deeply grateful for everyone’s contributions and look forward to continuing this important work together! We hope to see you at our May clinics!

Written by Eva Lee and Rachel Kim, AABANY Interns

Thank You to Our April Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

PBCS was extremely active in April! We ran the pro bono clinic in Manhattan for the first time this year on April 9, 2022. We couldn’t have run our clinics without the dedicated help from AABANY, the Pro Bono & Community Service (PBCS) Committee, Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York (CCCNY), and volunteers. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to all volunteers for participating!

Thank you to all the following volunteers:

Francis ChinAaron Fong^
Jackson ChinTeresa Wai Yee Yeung^
Karen Kithan YauYvette Adiguzel^
Kelly Tang (CCCNY)^Kwok Kei Ng
Min Jung Esther ChoiMay Wong
^ = non-attorney volunteer

On April 9, we met with 17 clients – 3 spoke English and 14 spoke a second language (i.e., Mandarin or Cantonese). Many clients had mostly housing-related questions, as housing has always been a popular issue given the lack of resources and information available. 

In fact, many legal services have stopped taking cases due to the shortage of staffing and heavy workloads. Unfortunately, due to space issues, we too will be suspending our Manhattan clinics until further notice. 

However, we are continuing the Queens Pro Bono Clinics. In fact, on April 23, we had 14 AABANY volunteers present at our pro bono clinic! These volunteers assisted 13 clients who had questions related to immigration, torts, wills, trusts and estates, and referrals. 

Thank you to all the following volunteers:

Beatrice LeongJackson Chin*
Eugene KimAmanda Yang^*
Haoxu LiKwok Ng
Jennifer ParkJohnny Thach
May WongRuihan (Yvette) Wang
Justina Chen^Meng Zhang
Yewei “Alex” Feng^*Kevin Hsi
^=non-attorney volunteers
*=attended remotely

Please feel free to volunteer with us at Flushing, Queens by signing up at this link [https://airtable.com/shrsLuv7MQN8Gtc0B]. We hope to see you there!

Our next clinic dates are –  

6/25/2022, 12:30pm – 3:30pm [deadline to register 6/22/2022, 12pm]

7/23/2022, 12:30pm – 3:30pm [deadline to register 7/20/2022, 12pm]

To learn more about the Pro Bono Committee and what they do visit probono.aabany.org.