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Welcome to the DC Virtual Pro Bono Fair! The Virtual Pro Bono Fair is an online video directory of legal services providers in the Washington metropolitan area. These videos provide information on each organization's mission, the pro bono opportunities that the organization provides, and how you can get involved. For a complete listing of legal service providers in the area, please browse the directory of pro bono opportunities.

Bread for the City CAIR Coalition Children's Law Center
D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center DC Volunteer Lawyers Project Legal Aid Society of DC
Legal Counsel for the Elderly Neighborhood Legal Services Program Tzedek DC
Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Whitman-Walker Health

Bread for the City

The mission of Bread for the City is to help Washington, DC residents living with low income to develop their power to determine the future of their own communities. We provide food, clothing, medical care, and legal and social services to reduce the burden of poverty. Bread for the City’s Legal Clinic seeks to ensure better access to justice in our nation’s capital and offers front-line civil legal services primarily in the areas of housing, family, immigration, and public benefits law. Website: www.breadforthecity.org.

Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition

The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition strives to ensure equal justice for all immigrant adults and children at risk of detention and deportation in the Capital region area and beyond through direct legal representation, know your rights presentations, impact litigation, advocacy, and the enlistment and training of attorneys to defend immigrants. Our legal services program assists detained immigrants, including asylum seekers, individuals with severe mental illness, and children. We serve men and women detained in local facilities in Virginia and Maryland. Website: www.caircoalition.org.

Children's Law Center

Children's Law Center works to give every child in the District of Columbia a solid foundation of family, health, and education. We are the largest provider of free legal services in the District and the only to focus on children. Our 80-person staff partners with local pro bono attorneys to serve more than 2,000 at-risk children each year. We use this expertise to advocate for changes in the District's laws, policies, and programs. Website: www.childrenslawcenter.org.

D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center

The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center is the largest provider of pro bono legal help in the District of Columbia. Each year we connect 1,500 attorney volunteers who help protect the rights of thousands of low-income tenants, parents seeking to preserve their families, immigrants at risk of deportation, people in need of vital public benefits, and other vulnerable D.C. residents, safety-net nonprofits, and small businesses. Whether you volunteer through one of our Saturday brief advice legal clinics, weekday court-based resource centers, or full-representation programs, the Pro Bono Center will provide resources, training, and expert mentors to ensure that your experience is meaningful, manageable and successful. Website: www.dcbar.org/pro-bono.

DC Volunteer Lawyers Project

The DC Volunteer Lawyers Project is a nonprofit organization that recruits, trains, and supports a network of volunteer lawyers to provide high-quality, pro bono legal services to low-income domestic violence survivors and at-risk children in Washington, DC. Our volunteer attorneys handle protection order and family law cases for survivors, and serve as court-appointed advocates for vulnerable children living with abuse, neglect and other difficult circumstances. Website: www.dcvlp.org.

Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia

Legal Aid was founded in 1932 to "provide legal aid to indigent persons" and "encourage measures by which the law may better protect and serve their needs." We provide legal assistance to hundreds of individuals every year in the areas of: housing, domestic violence and family law, public benefits, consumer law, and immigration. We also work on systemic reform in each of these areas. Put another way, we strive to make justice real, in individual and systemic ways, for persons living in poverty in D.C. Website: www.LegalAidDC.org. Blog: www.MakingJusticeReal.org.

Legal Counsel for the Elderly

Legal Counsel for the Elderly is a nonprofit organization providing free legal and social work services to DC elders most in need. We value our pro bono partners who help us reach even more underserved seniors every year, helping us prevent evictions and foreclosures; obtain Social Security, Medicaid and Veterans benefits due to our clients; advocate for long-term care residents in facilities and at home; prepare wills and powers of attorney – and much more. LCE also works with pro bono attorneys on projects that explore improvements to the law, identify case law to assist with litigation, and develop client informational materials. Website: www.aarp.org/lce

Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP)

For over 50 years, Neighborhood Legal Services Program has provided free civil legal services to low-income residents of the District of Columbia. As a pioneer of the neighborhood-based legal services model, we strive to be an integral part of the communities we serve. Our assistance preserves safe and affordable housing, stabilizes family relationships, protects victims of domestic violence, secures access to public benefits, and reduces barriers to employment for our clients. As we protect fundamental necessities for individuals and families, we also seek opportunities to achieve broader change and pathways out of poverty for many. Website: www.nlsp.org/volunteer/pro-bono.

Tzedek DC

Tzedek DC provides pro bono direct legal services to low-income and working-class DC residents with debt- and consumer-related legal issues, typically in DC Superior Court representing defendants or representing/counseling victims of financial abuse or fraud. We are also involved in policy work, advocating for stronger protections for alleged debtors and working with our partners to pursue affirmative impact litigation, and we conduct know your rights outreach event in coordination with partner community based organizations. We have trained over 80 pro bono volunteers, who work on both our litigation and systemic reform work, and in 2019, one of our pro bono lawyers from WilmerHale received the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award for work co-counseling with Tzedek DC. Website: www.tzedekdc.org/volunteer-or-ask-a-question

Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts

A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts supports artistic expression and creative innovation by serving the legal needs of the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia arts and cultural communities, providing education, advocacy, and volunteer legal services through workshops and seminars, legal clinics, research, and pro bono referrals. Website: www.waladc.org

Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless

Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless envisions a just and inclusive community for all residents of DC, where housing is a human right and every individual and family has equal access to the resources they need to thrive. Our mission is to use the law to make justice a reality for our neighbors who struggle with homelessness and poverty, providing low barrier legal services at community sites and advocating for long-term improvements in programs serving the low-income community. Website: www.legalclinic.org.

Whitman-Walker Health

Whitman-Walker Health is the nation’s oldest medical-legal partnership and a community health center responding to DC’s public health challenges, including HIV, transgender discrimination, income inequality, and racism. Legal services are offered free of charge to pursue immigration relief, access public benefits, protect disability income, maintain affordable health insurance, empower seniors, fight LGBTQ and HIV discrimination, promote access to gender-affirming care, secure name and gender marker updates, preserve medical privacy, and complete and wills and advance healthcare directives. Website: www.whitman-walker.org/legal-services.

We want to thank Kirby Whyte and Kristen Westphal at Creative Video in McLean, Virginia, for donating their time and considerable talent to produce the original version of the DC Virtual Pro Bono Fair seven years ago.