Volunteers of Legal Service
Service Areas: City-wide
Volunteers of Legal Service (“VOLS”) was founded in 1984 by New York City Bar Association leaders to fill a void left by damaging federal cuts to legal services. VOLS provides free, civil legal services to low-income seniors and older veterans, unemployed workers, immigrant youth, children and their families, formerly homeless young adults, and under-resourced micro-entrepreneurs. Our programs, which rely on trusted partnerships with pro bono attorneys and community-based organizations (CBOs), reach underserved communities in New York City, inclusive of racial, gender and LGBTQ identity, ability, uniformed service and citizenship status. Because of our close relationships with CBOs, we are able to quickly identify emerging legal needs for the populations that we serve.
Our projects include:
Children’s Project – we team up law firms with schools and medical facilities in low income communities to hold legal clinics.
Immigration Project – provides representation to immigrant youth so they can go to school and work in this country legally.
Incarcerated Mothers Law Project – provides family law counsel to women who are incarcerated.
Microenterprise Project – provides a broad range of legal services to small business owners and microentrepreneurs.
Senior Law Project - provides end of life and incapacity planning for low income seniors.
Unemployed Workers Project - provides assistance with unemployment insurance benefits.
