Pro Bono Initiatives

Pro bono initiatives developed by Nixon Peabody include:

  • Helping Wounded Veterans: We are helping wounded soldiers who have been unable to get proper medical care and disability benefits from the armed services and Department of Veterans Affairs. We have handled 22 cases, some of which are still pending.
  • Asylum: In several offices, we are helping refugees who have been persecuted in their home countries because of their race, gender, political opinion or membership in a social group to win asylum in the U.S. We won asylum matters recently on behalf of individuals from Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Tibet, Sudan, The Gambia, Republic of Congo, Chad, Cameroon, and Nepal.
  • International Pro Bono: We are doing international pro bono work in (a) Darfur, training Sudanese advocates on how to better represent the victims of the atrocities in Sudan before the ICC, and (b) Kosovo, training Kosovar officials on how they can use confiscation laws more effectively to pursue human trafficking cases.
  • Habeas Project: On January 1, 2002, California Penal Code § 1473.5 became law, making California the first state in the nation to permit battered women convicted of killing their batterers to file a writ of habeas corpus with evidence demonstrating how the battering and its effects led to the killing. In SF, we are helping to secure the freedom of a victim of domestic violence under this law.
  • Election Protection: Eighty-six NP lawyers and paralegals across the firm participated in non-partisan Election Protection efforts in connection with the recent presidential election. In many states, we answered questions of voters to help ensure that every vote counted. We spent 1,144 hours on election protection work.
  • Holocaust Survivor Clinic: In NYC and Boston, we have been regularly staffing clinics to help Holocaust survivors (who worked in German-controlled ghettos during World War II) to make required submissions so they can receive a one-time 2,000 Euro payment from a fund newly established by Germany under its German Ghetto Work Payment (GGWP) program.
  • Micro-Entrepreneur Programs: We are providing low income individuals in underserved and economically distressed communities in the Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Rochester, DC, and Buffalo areas with vital business legal services as they start or grow their own businesses.
  • The Massachusetts Legal Clinic for the Homeless (MLCH): In Boston, we provide on-site legal services to the residents of several homeless shelters. We help homeless individuals to deal with the administrative consequences of their prior cases. Most of these individuals are in a program at the shelter that assists them with their transition back into the workforce.
  • Delancey Street Foundation Project: Delancey Street helps to reform and train ex-convicts, ex-drug addicts, and the homeless. In SF, we have been helping with a review of contracts, real estate issues, and guidance regarding green initiatives the Foundation is seeking to implement.
  • Green Initiative: In SF and LA, we are working on environmental sustainability issues for Friends of the Urban Forest and Community Conservancy International.
  • Women’s Initiative: In SF and SV, we are providing advice on employment, corporate, and franchise issues for an organization devoted to assisting disadvantaged women develop and grow their own businesses.
  • Rochester Office Housing Initiative: We are helping nonprofit organizations that work on housing issues with their internal governance; going to housing court on behalf of low-income tenants one morning a month, helping a battered women’s shelter to move to a larger facility; and helping Habitat for Humanity with lot acquisitions.
  • Domestic Violence Program: In DC, we have teamed up with WEAVE (Women Empowered Against Violence) to help victims of domestic violence obtain, modify, and enforce restraining orders against their abusers. We also help staff walk-in clinics at WEAVE and provide advice to victims on a variety of issues.
  • Clinics: Our Private Clients lawyers are involved in wills clinics in Rochester and Boston, and several lawyers in Rochester and San Francisco are involved in housing clinics.
  • Pro bono retired partners’ program: We support retired partners in providing pro bono services after they have retired from the firm.
Boston • Chicago • Los Angeles • London • New York • Paris
Rochester • San Francisco • Shanghai • Silicon Valley • Washington • Albany
Buffalo • Long Island • Manchester • Palm Beach Gardens • Providence

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