Thanks to everyone who attended the first annual City Counseling Program Conference at CUNY Law School on Friday, November 16. The legal updates were rich and valuable, and a new community of legislative staff is underway! For those who could not join us, we will make sure you can be a part of this collaborative effort to share resources and experiences.
What happened:
The City Counseling Program Conference gave us all an excellent opportunity to meet and to discuss some of the pressing issues facing all New Yorkers. Almost 40 staff members representing 17 elected official offices and 4 community-based organizations attended our first conference.
The participants got to hear from three of our CUNY Law alumni attorneys: Julia Hernandez ’12 on family law:
Elizabeth Cordoba ’11 on immigration:
and Phil Azachi ’12 addressing housing issues.
The conference was organized by Raquel Batista ’03, who is working with the City Counseling program to expand our effectiveness and impact in New York.
All speakers gave compelling and informative presentations in the areas of family, immigration and housing law, respectively. Materials are available below: read on!
There was a wonderful exchange with the audience, in which staff members from different elected officials’ offices shared stories of what they had heard from their constituents and how they handled those situations. It was a deep learning experience for all of us and we look forward to planning another one in the Fall of 2019.
Follow Up
As you all see in your offices, many New Yorkers have a need for quick, reliable legal advice and counseling as they are working through a myriad of legal issues in their day-to-day lives. Many in attendance expressed the need for creating spaces like this for us to share experiences, knowledge and best practices.
In response, we have set-up CUNYLaw.City.Counseling, a Group a GoogleGroup (email list), for any interested staff at offices of elected officials or nonprofit organizations to continue to dialogue, share questions, information and experiences. Materials from our conference and more will be posted to the group. To join the group, please email your request to John-Paul Kocot, Program Specialist, at john-paul.kocot@law.cuny.edu.
Partner with CUNY Law
We are hoping the group will help you to better serve the constituents who arrive at your offices. To lend additional support in underserved areas, the City Counseling Program matches experienced CUNY Law Alumni attorneys to provide quality, free legal information and counseling to offices of elected officials and non-profit organizations throughout the city. For more information on the City Counseling Program, check out:
https://publicsquare.law.cuny.edu/alumni-community/low-bono-access-to-justice
If you are a staff member at the office of an elected official or non-profit organization and your office would like to meet to discuss partnering with the CUNY Law School City Counseling program, feel free to contact Raquel Batista, City Counseling Program Coordinator at raquel.batista@law.cuny.edu. Again, thank you to all who currently participate in the program.
If you are an admitted CUNY Law alum with more than four years direct services experience, expertise to share, and are interested in joining our corps of contract attorneys delivering legal assistance for this program, please email Lisa Reiner, CLRN Associate Director at Lisa.Reiner@law.cuny.edu.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2019! We look forward to continuing to build this community!
Best,
Alizabeth Newman, Int. Executive Director Alumni Engagement & Inititiatives
Lisa Reiner, Associate Director, Community Legal Resource Network
John-Paul Kocot, Program Specialist, Community Legal Resource Network
Raquel Batista, Program Coordinator, CLRN City Counseling Program