What We Do

Monthly Pro Bono Clinics

PBCS hosts walk-in legal clinics, free and open to all members of the community, every month in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Flushing. Please visit the front page for the schedule of our clinics.

During the widespread shutdown of in-person services necessitated by the novel COVID-19 pandemic, AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee redirected its volunteer resources towards establishing the Remote Legal Clinic, which offered bilingual assistance by telephone and other virtual modalities. Thanks to AABANY’s dedicated and skilled volunteer attorneys, law students and interpreters, the Remote Clinic assisted over 400 callers on a myriad of legal matters involving housing, immigration, criminal law, fraud, family and matrimonial law, wills, and small business loans.

PBCS will continue working with AAPI community partners and exploring collaboration opportunities with other community partners in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens to provide legal assistance to the community.

LRIS

AABANY’s Legal Referral and Information Service (“LRIS”) connects members of the New York Asian American community with qualified legal counsel, overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers and increasing the accessibility of legal referral services in the Greater New York area for an underserved demographic.

Community members in need of a legal referral can call one of several phone numbers depending on language spoken: 516.788.8820 (English), 516.788.8821 (Mandarin), 516.788.8822 (Cantonese), 516.788.8823 (Japanese), or 516.788.8825 (Korean).

For more information about LRIS, please visit legalreferral.aabany.org.

HEART

In response to heightened anti-Asian violence during the pandemic, AABANY’s Anti-Asian Violence Task Force created the Hate Eradication Active Response Team (“HEART”) initiative to support community members who have suffered a bias incident or hate crime. HEART aims to help community members obtain a resolution consistent with their interests and desires, whether that means seeking justice under the law for a given hate incident or providing a referral to mental health or other services. The HEART initiative is ongoing, and more information can be found here.

Community Partners

PBCS is always open to collaboration opportunities. If you are interested in working with us as a community partner, please contact us at probono@aabany.org.