NYC Pro Bono Recruiting Effort Continues

In The Bronx, New York, the New York Law Journal reports:

• NYC Legal Outreach will hold its second meeting [Monday, June 8] to recruit attorneys to provide pro bono representation for the growing number of unrepresented consumers with financial and immigration problems. The campaign is a joint effort by the judicial and executive branches to expand pro bono legal assistance. In a May 12 letter to bar groups, law schools and the 100 largest law firms, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said NYC Legal Outreach will target four key areas: foreclosure, eviction, immigration and consumer credit. In particular, the project seeks lawyers who will "direct their energies outside of Manhattan to residents of neighborhoods where the problems are the most pressing, and the needs the greatest," said Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo.

• At a press conference in April, Judge Fern A. Fisher, deputy chief administrative judge for courts in New York City, said there were some 600,000 filings last year in consumer credit and housing cases. Up to 90 percent to 95 percent of litigants in housing cases are unrepresented, and as many as 99 percent of litigants in consumer credit cases appear pro se. [Monday night's] meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Bronx Supreme Court, 851 Grand Concourse, Courtroom 711. Additional meetings will be held on June 17 on Staten Island, June 22 in Manhattan and June 25 in Queens. For more information, e-mail probonosvp@law.nyc.gov or call 212-442-9031.

Source: Attorney Volunteer Effort Meets in Bronx.