Why Volunteer?

The power of volunteers

Experienced staff attorneys at Her Justice provide intensive training and mentoring to volunteer lawyers from more than 80 law firms and corporations in New York City so they can address the most basic safety concerns of families in crisis.

In addition, forensic accounting experts and investigators from several firms assist volunteer legal teams with compiling and analyzing the documentation necessary to obtain fair divisions of marital assets and child support orders for our clients.

Pro bono representation

Hands-on litigation and courtroom experience

Lawyers interested in developing courtroom skills can represent individual Her Justice clients in litigated matters.

  • You may choose to take a divorce involving financial or child-related issues in Supreme Court or an order of protection, custody/visitation or child or spousal support matter in Family Court

Prefer not to litigate?

Lawyers who do not seek adversarial court experiences can assist Her Justice clients with uncontested divorces and immigration petitions for domestic violence survivors seeking legal residency in the United States

Special need for bilingual attorneys

Lawyers fluent in languages other than English and familiar with one of the many immigrant communities in New York City can provide culturally sensitive representation to women who cannot communicate their legal needs to the courts in English.

Spanish-fluency is particularly valuable, as nearly 50% of our clients speak Spanish as their primary language.

What you gain

Personal satisfaction

  • The satisfaction of assisting your client in obtaining a life-altering legal outcome benefiting her and her loved ones
  • The opportunity to help an individual human being instead of the impersonal institutions that you usually represent
  • You will become a better lawyer while familiarizing yourself with a new area of law and practice
  • The opportunity to network with our large community of legal and corporate professionals

Enhance your professional skills

Her Justice cases give lawyers professional experiences they seek at an early stage in their legal careers, which may include:

  • Client interviewing and document drafting
  • Discovery and motion practice
  • Adversarial hearings requiring witness preparation and delivery of oral arguments
  • Direct and cross examinations of witnesses and, in rare cases, full trials

Satisfy CLE requirements

Working with Her Justice clients allows you to meet your professional obligation to provide pro bono assistance to those who cannot afford counsel.

  • Attendance at our trainings counts toward your mandatory CLE requirements
  • Her Justice provides pro bono CLE credits for providing our clients with direct legal representation

Learn more about our free CLE training programs

Your commitment

Lawyer of record

When you take a case, you or your firm will become the lawyer of record for your Her Justice client. Because our legal staff is small and our roster of on-going cases is large and constantly expanding, Her Justice does not offer a co-counsel relationship, nor the possibility of second-seating our volunteer attorneys in court.

Time commitment

Using the past experiences of our pro bono attorneys as a guide, Her Justice can estimate how long (number of total hours as well as the period of months or years) each case is likely to require.

  • We will discuss with you the situations facing individual women whose cases are on our waiting list, so that you are in a position to judge the anticipated demands of their cases
  • However, given the range of factors outside of your and our control, we cannot guarantee that what begins as a simple or single-issue case might not develop complexities that need much more time to resolve

Pair up with a colleague

Her Justice encourages volunteer attorneys at corporate firms to pair up, knowing that the demands of your non-pro bono work may be unpredictable. It is essential that your client is represented by knowledgeable counsel at each scheduled court date.

Retainer

You and your client will discuss and enter into a written retainer agreement that defines clearly the extent of your professional commitment to her.

How pro bono lawyers work with Her Justice to empower women.