Tag: manhattan

While the season changes and the leaves turn colors, one thing remains constant: our volunteers and their incredibly generous support for our Pro Bono Clinics. 

AABANY thanks our co-organizers, Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), Pro Bono & Community Service Committee (PBCS), and all the dedicated volunteers who contributed to the success of our Pro Bono Clinic in Brooklyn on November 8th, 2025. 

We give a special acknowledgement to Vishal Chander, another highly committed volunteer, Co-Chair of the Issues Committee, and a member of the AABANY Board of Directors.

As he was preparing to swear-in as a new Board Director for NAPABA in Denver, CO, Vishal generously stepped up to remotely cover immigration cases for us. We deeply appreciate his dedication and willingness to support our work even while traveling and taking on a new leadership role. Congratulations to Vishal on his new position at NAPABA. We are grateful for his integrity and commitment to the AABANY Pro Bono Clinic.

During this month’s Clinic, our volunteers provided invaluable assistance to 16 clients, addressing a range of legal matters including housing, immigration, family and matrimonial, estate and property, invasion of privacy, and employment. Our volunteer attorneys and interpreters thoughtfully addressed client concerns, offered clarity through their answers, and facilitated connections to appropriate legal resources via AABANY’s Legal Referral and Information Service (LRIS).

We are committed to offering services in both Mandarin and Cantonese to ensure continued support for individuals facing linguistic or cultural barriers when seeking guidance on substantive and procedural legal matters.

As an interpreter at this Clinic, I had the opportunity to sit in on several deeply moving cases that revealed the human stakes behind legal procedures. One immigration case involved a young woman whose father had abandoned the family years ago. She hoped to apply for a green card based on abandonment and emotional hardship. After discussion, her case appeared to fall under Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), which provides a pathway to lawful permanent residency for minors who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned by one or both parents, and who cannot safely return to their home country. In that room, I watched not just attorneys offering legal guidance, but human beings holding space for grief, confusion, and hope. It reminded me how the law, while technical in form, carries deeply human consequences for those whose lives depend on it. The attorneys ran back and forth, trying to get them resources and help, making clear what their choices were and how they could get help. 

Another case involved a Spanish-speaking mother and her children who had fallen three years behind on rent after the mother made the difficult but necessary decision to evict a roommate who had sexually assaulted her daughter. Without the financial support, and with her son refusing to contribute while still living in the home, she was unable to recover and pay rent. The attorneys carefully explained possible remedies, guiding her through how to appear in Housing Court, how to request a court-appointed attorney, and how to apply for a One Shot Deal, an emergency rental assistance program for tenants facing eviction due to financial hardship. They also discussed longer-term legal planning and referred her to additional community-based support services. What struck me most was the compassion with which they approached her situation, emphasizing not only what could be done legally, but how she could emotionally and practically navigate the process.

The pro bono work done through AABANY’s Pro Bono Clinics is not just about dealing with legal challenges –  it is about the restoration of dignity, clarity amid fear, and giving structure to lives interrupted by crisis. Access to justice is not merely a legal right, but a human one.

We are grateful for all the volunteers at the November 8th Brooklyn Pro Bono Clinic for their time, professionalism, and contribution:

Volunteer attorneys:

• Vishal Chander
• Victoria Cheng
• Megan Gao
• Kwok Kei Ng
• Arthur Lin
• Jie Shi
• Shuyao Wang
• May Wong
• Tiffany Wong
• Gary Yeung
• Alexander Yuan

Interpreters/Shadowers:

• Kaila Chen
• Nikita Kohli
• Yiyang Shen
• Wendy Zeng
• Jessie Zhou

We invite you to continue supporting our community by joining us at our upcoming pro bono clinics:

December 3rd [Queens link here], from 6:30 – 8:30pm, One Flushing Community Center, 133-29 41st Ave, 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355 [Immigration Law training provided. Find out more below.]

December 17th [Manhattan link here] from 6:30-8:30pm, AAFE Community Center, 111 Norfolk Street, NY, NY 10002

January 10th [Brooklyn link here], from 12:30 – 3:30pm, CPC Brooklyn Community Services, 4101 8th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11232

Upcoming Community Education Training Speaker and Topic Announcement

With the collaboration of the Immigration and Issues Committees, Vishal Chander, one of PBCS’s incredible volunteers and Issues Committee Co-Chair, will provide a thirty-minute Basic Immigration Training Part 2 on December 3rd at Queens Pro Bono Clinic from 6 – 6:30pm.  Part 1 was conducted at the Manhattan Pro Bono Clinic on November 19, and if you missed it, the video will be made available soon.

This training series will prepare lawyers and law students the fundamentals of advising pro bono clients who are or have family in removal (deportation) proceedings.

Note: Attorneys seeking CLE credits must attend both sessions to earn 1 CLE credit hour. No partial credit is available.

We look forward to your participation in our future clinics! To learn more about how you can get involved with AABANY’s Pro Bono Clinics, visit probono.aabany.org.