Sanctuary Announces the New Co-Chair of the PBC

Sanctuary for Families’ PBC is excited to announce that, as of January 1 st , Louisa Irving, managing associate at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, is serving as Co-Chair.

Sanctuary for Families’ PBC is excited to announce that, as of January 1st, Louisa Irving, managing associate at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, is serving as Co-Chair along with Mia White, Associate General Counsel at McKinsey & Company, Co-Chair since 2016, who has generously offered to stay on for a third one-year term.

About the PBC

The PBC was formed in 2003 as the Associate’s Committee, later changed to the Pro Bono Council and currently known as the PBC, with the goal of bringing together young professionals committed to supporting and promoting the work of Sanctuary through active community engagement, pro bono projects and client-centered events.  The recent decision to refer to the group as simply the “PBC”  is a reflection of its expanding and dynamic base of volunteers including and beyond the legal profession. The PBC currently has approximately 25 active members and a network of approximately 150 professionals. Each fall, the PBC hosts the Above and Beyond benefit, an event that supports the Legal Center by honoring the pro bono lawyers and other volunteers who have worked on behalf of Sanctuary’s clients during the past year. Last year’s Above & Beyond event raised over $183,000 in support of the Legal Center.

Introducing Louisa

Louisa succeeds Ben Schatz of the Center for Appellate Litigation, who served as Co-Chair of the PBC with Mia from 2016 to December 2017 with great dedication and creativity. Together, Ben and Mia brought the PBC to another level as a cohesive group of ambassadors for Sanctuary, creating a PBC online presence, and encouraging its members to share success stories and leverage their professional networks to enhance new initiatives. Ben deserves a big round of applause for his services over the past two years.

Louisa brings with her many years of public service, as well as seasoned litigation skills and a close relationship with Sanctuary. After graduating from Middlebury College with a BA in East Asian Studies and Dance, serving as a Teaching Fellow in Hangzhou, China and teaching Mandarin in this country, Louisa worked for two years at Sanctuary, demonstrating great dedication and persistence in her work with Sanctuary’s clients. She helped them resolve challenging housing and public benefits issues, obtain scholarship assistance and access to other economic empowerment services. In addition, she was responsible for coordinating Sanctuary’s Courtroom Advocate’s Project.

While at UC Berkeley School of Law, Louisa continued her work on behalf of domestic violence victims and their children, interning at the Family Violence Law Center in Oakland and the Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco. As a managing associate in the litigation group at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe since 2014, Louisa returned to volunteer at Sanctuary, becoming a member of the PBC in 2016 and taking on the planning for several important events.

As of the first of the year, she and Mia have been consulting regularly on PBC’s priorities for the coming year. They are excited to focus on expanding the PBC’s thought leadership, increasing membership opportunities across all young (and young-at-heart) professionals, and breaking the PBC’s $200K fundraising goal in support of Sanctuary this year!

Please join us in welcoming Louisa as PBC Co-Chair!

Get Involved

The PBC welcomes all professionals committed to helping victims of gender-based violence who are interested in supporting and promoting the work of Sanctuary. The PBC hosts full membership meetings every other month at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe at 7:00 PM.

Anyone interested in getting involved with Sanctuary and its pro bono work should attend a meeting to see this dynamic group of professionals in action – and to get involved themselves!

Please contact PBC co-chairs Louisa Irving (irving.louisa@gmail.com) and Mia White (mia.marie.white@gmail.com) to learn more about joining the PBC.

Nicole Fidler is the Pro Bono Supervising Attorney at Sanctuary for Families. Learn more about our Pro Bono Program.

Cohen & Gresser Attorneys Reinstate Critical Public Benefits for Trafficking Survivor

At this year’s Above & Beyond Pro Bono Achievement Awards and Benefit, Sanctuary for Families is honoring a team of pro bono attorneys at Cohen & Gresser LLP for their bono work fighting to make sure “Camilla,” a victim of trafficking, received the public benefits she was entitled to.

At this year’s Above & Beyond Pro Bono Achievement Awards and Benefit, Sanctuary for Families is honoring a team of pro bono attorneys at Cohen & Gresser LLP for their bono work fighting to make sure “Camilla,” a victim of trafficking, received the public benefits she was entitled to.  

Cut off from public benefits

Camilla, a victim of human trafficking from Mexico and a monolingual Spanish speaker, originally came to Sanctuary for immigration assistance.  But last summer when Camilla checked her public benefits card she realized that, for some reason, she had not received her cash assistance or her food stamps and could not buy groceries for her family.  Camilla, like many of Sanctuary’s lowest income clients, relies heavily on her monthly public benefits to meet basic living needs, like food and clothing.  But these critical benefits are often cut off, or drastically reduced, for no legitimate reason and/or with no appropriate notice.  This sudden lack of resources is devastating for our clients, and it was devastating for Camilla.

Camilla went to her local welfare center to find out what happened and discovered that her benefits case was closed, without any notice, because she had allegedly failed to recertify her case (public benefits recipients must periodically recertify their eligibility to receive benefits).  Camilla contacted Sanctuary for assistance and Sanctuary reached out to Cohen & Gresser, who had recently hosted a Sanctuary for Families Public Benefits training at their firm.

Cohen & Gresser attorneys step in

Scott D. Thomson
Scott D. Thomson

Cohen & Gresser attorneys Scott D. Thomson, who speaks Spanish, and Matthew V. Povolny volunteered immediately to represent Camilla at her fair hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) to determine if her benefits should be reinstated.  Neither had ever done a public benefits fair hearing before, but they both got up to speed on the law and the procedures incredibly quickly.  Their first fair hearing was a success:  Camilla’s much-needed benefits were restored, she was awarded retroactive benefits from the time they were cut off, and she received another opportunity to recertify for her cash assistance and SNAP (i.e., food stamps) benefits.

Matthew V. Povolny
Matthew V. Povolny

Although Scott and Matthew had successfully wrapped up Camilla’s fair hearing, they maintained close contact with her to ensure that the Human Resources Administration (“HRA”) complied with the fair hearing decision.  Thanks to their diligence, they soon discovered that Camilla was not receiving adequate benefits for her household. In fact, HRA was only providing benefits for her minor son, who is a US citizen.  But, even though she is not a US citizen, HRA should also have been providing benefits to Camilla, who qualified to receive benefits due to her status as a certified victim of trafficking under the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Scott and Matthew jumped right in and filed a fair hearing request for Camilla to argue that her cash assistance and food stamps amounts were inadequate. Not only did they win the fair hearing, they educated the ALJ and the HRA representative about a non-US citizen’s eligibility for benefits if they are a certified victim of human trafficking.  Says Scott:

“I was impressed by the Administrative Law Judges.  They really wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on, and they pushed the agency representative to do the right thing. The agency representatives came around once we helped them understand the issues.”

Joy and stability

As a result of their committed advocacy, Camilla received over $2,200 in retroactive benefits and will see an increase in benefits going forward.  The success brought immense joy and stability to Camilla, who, prior to this experience, was reaching her breaking point with the complicated welfare system and wanted to give up fighting and just hope for the best.  Matthew and Scott both agreed that seeing the very personal effect that their successful representation had on Camilla was one of the most rewarding parts of working on a public benefits pro bono case.  Said Scott:

“We knew how much she needed that money to use for food and her son’s expenses.  It was really great to have a direct tangible effect on someone’s daily life.”

They both plan on continuing to do pro bono work at the firm, which has a strong commitment to pro bono.  Matthew explained:

“There is a tremendous feeling of what a great opportunity pro bono gives you to help people in the city that you pass by in the streets every day.  It’s always a great feeling to give back.”

Join us at our Above & Beyond celebration on October 19, 2016 at the Highline Ballroom as we honor Cohen & Gresser’s outstanding pro bono work. Learn more about the event here.  If you can’t join us, but would like to support Sanctuary for Family’s work, please consider making an Above & Beyond donation here.

Nicole Fidler is the Pro Bono Supervising Attorney at Sanctuary for Families.

Sanctuary Announces New Pro Bono Council Co-Chairs

The Pro Bono Council (PBC) brings together young professionals who are committed to supporting the work of Sanctuary, and the Legal Center in particular.

Sanctuary for Families’ Pro Bono Council is excited to announce its two new co-chairs— Ben Schatz of the Center for Appellate Litigation and Mia White of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Freshfields).

The Pro Bono Council (PBC) was formed in 2003 with the goal of bringing together young professionals who are committed to supporting and promoting the work of Sanctuary, and the Legal Center in particular. The PBC currently has approximately 35 active members, a network of approximately 150 professionals, and five subcommittees focusing on LGBT initiatives, membership, special projects, the annual Above & Beyond benefit, and technology.

Ben and Mia officially took over at the beginning of 2016 and have been meeting with Sanctuary leadership and brainstorming projects for the upcoming year. On February 10, 2016, they hosted their first meeting as PBC co-chairs.

Ben and Mia are dedicated public interest advocates and Sanctuary supporters. Ben started doing pro bono work with Sanctuary for Families while an associate at Cahill Gordon & Rendel LLP. He was inspired to partner with Sanctuary after Stacey Zyzyck, a former Cahill Gordon colleague, gave an amazing presentation about the pro bono work she was doing with Sanctuary. Ben took on several pro bono cases, became Cahill Gordon’s pro bono liaison for Sanctuary, and received a 2015 Sanctuary for Families’ Above & Beyond Pro Bono Achievement award.

For Ben, the best part about being a member of the PBC is the opportunity it provides to contribute to the incredible work of Sanctuary’s committed advocates, and to the success of its deserving clients.

Mia first learned about Sanctuary during a Courtroom Advocates Project (CAP) presentation as a student at Columbia Law School, and was introduced to the PBC by a fellow Columbia Law graduate, Shira Kaufman, who has since joined Sanctuary as a Staff Attorney. Prior to beginning her successful legal career, Mia worked at a non-profit organization called Ozone House as a Community Education Director.

Mia is passionate about the PBC because it brings together Sanctuary’s dynamic and energized supporters and channels their excitement for social justice into meaningful engagement with Sanctuary and their communities.

As co-chairs, Ben and Mia want to focus on empowering every member of the PBC with the knowledge and resources to serve as ambassadors for Sanctuary. In particular, they are creating an online presence for the PBC, inviting pro bono attorneys and volunteers to share success stories at PBC meetings, and leveraging members’ professional networks to enhance new initiatives through the special projects subcommittee.

Get Involved

The PBC welcomes all professionals committed to helping victims of gender-based violence who are interested in supporting and promoting the work of Sanctuary. The PBC hosts full membership meetings every other month at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP at 7:00 PM.

Anyone interested in getting involved with Sanctuary and its pro bono work should attend a meeting to see this dynamic group of professionals in action – and to get involved themselves!

Please contact PBC co-chairs Ben Schatz (ben.a.schatz@gmail.com) and Mia White (mia.marie.white@gmail.com) to learn more about joining the PBC.

Nicole Fidler is the Pro Bono Supervising Attorney at Sanctuary for Families. Learn more about our Pro Bono Program.