As part of the nonprofit 501(c)(3) affiliate of the New York City Bar Association, the City Bar Fund leverages the strengths of the City Bar through the Justice Center to provide pro bono legal services to low income clients. Maximizing the City Bar's relationship with law firms, corporations, academic institutions, legal services organizations and nonprofits, the Justice Center provides legal services through volunteer attorneys working under the guidance of experts in the fields of Economic Justice, Immigrant Justice, and Access to Justice Innovations.

Below, you will find descriptions of the City Bar Justice Center's projects for volunteer attorneys, as well as links to relevant training materials and videos hosted here in resource library of the NYC Pro Bono Center.

In order to view the videos and training material, you must be a member of the NYC Pro Bono Center. Membership is free, so join today.

The Consumer Bankruptcy Project is one of only two pro bono bankruptcy projects in New York City providing legal assistance to low-income consumers with outstanding debts, assisting debtors filing pro se bankruptcy petitions, and providing pro bono representation to debtors in contested matters.

The Elderlaw Project maintains the dignity and independence of elderly people by training pro bono attorneys who counsel and represent seniors in a variety of legal areas.

The Foreclosure Project includes the Lawyers Foreclosure Intervention Network (LFIN), co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. LFIN recruits, trains, and mentors pro bono attorneys to assist distressed homeowners in an effort to preserve homes and minimize damage to creditworthiness. It also co-hosts the separate Foreclosure Practice Area on probono.net/ny, which pro bono attorneys active with LFIN can also join.

The Immigrant Women and Children Project assists survivors of violence, abuse and human trafficking in legalizing their immigration status. Project staff also train law enforcement, community-based organizations, and NGOs on the legal remedies available to these crime victims.

The Legal Clinic for the Homeless provides advice, advocacy, and representation to families who are residents of homeless shelters on a variety of matters related to public benefits. The Project sponsors legal clinics at homeless shelters, with services provided by a partnering law firm or corporate legal department.

The Refugee Assistance Project represents individuals who have suffered torture and other forms of persecution in their home countries and who are seeking asylum in the U.S. The Project also assists with filing relative petitions and obtaining asylum-related benefits such as employment authorization, refugee travel documents, and green cards.

The Immigrant Outreach Project is led by the Fragomen Fellow at the City Bar Justice Center. This project collaborates with community-based organizations in the five boroughs and Long Island to provide informational presentations on immigrant rights, legal clinics offering free consultations with experienced immigration attorneys, and naturalization clinics.

The Cancer Advocacy Project provides cancer patients, survivors, and their families with legal information and pro bono legal assistance on issues relating to discrimination in the workplace, health law, insurance issues, access to public benefits, advance directives, and wills.

The Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project provides legal assistance to low-income micro entrepreneurs in the initial stages of structuring a company or strengthening an existing business.

The Public Service Network fosters public service in the legal community by matching attorneys with legal and non-legal volunteer opportunities in the not-for-profit sector. Examples of volunteer opportunities include providing legal services to individual clients or nonprofit organizations, assisting with policy and legal research, providing advice with management assistance, and helping with program development issues.

The Varick III pilot project is an outgrowth of the NYC Know Your Rights Project, which ran weekly clinics where detained immigrants were provided counsel by pro bono attorneys. Now, the Varick Project provides full representation to detainees eligible for the cancellation of removal remedy by matching them with pro bono firm attorneys mentored by members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

The Veterans Assistance Project recruits, trains, and mentors volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono assistance to veterans in connection with the filing of disability benefits claims before the New York City Regional Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs.