Pro Bono Spotlight: Rochester’s DACA clinic at Telesca Center a success

Listen to this article

Saturdays usually are pretty quiet at the Four Corners. But on Oct. 20, the Telesca Center for Justice was a veritable beehive of activity.

Twenty-eight attorneys gave up their Saturday to assist youth at Rochester’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals clinic, the first in the state to be held outside of New York City. Young people and their families came from as far away as Jamestown to attend the clinic held in the Monroe County Bar Association’s continuing legal education center.

The clinic and the continuing legal education seminar that preceded it on Oct. 18 were co-sponsored by Volunteer Legal Services Project of Monroe County, the Legal Aid Society of Rochester, the Monroe County Bar Association, the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys and the Rochester Black Bar Association.

The New York State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section provided generous financial support for the CLE seminar and clinic.

Walter Ruehle, director of Immigration Program, the Legal Aid Society of Rochester, was instrumental to the success of both the CLE seminar and clinic. “The DACA workshop assisted young people who potentially can make substantial contributions to our community, but who formerly were barred from doing so, because of their lack of immigration status,” Ruehle said.

The DACA program was recently implemented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. To be eligible, young people must have entered the U.S. before turning 16, have no immigration status, not present a risk to national security or public safety, and meet selected criteria. Those eligible can apply for permission to stay in the U.S. and for work permits for a period of two years, subject to renewal.

The opportunity to assist youth was especially appealing to many attorneys. “The young people who took advantage of the clinic were brought to the U.S. as children and have become Americans in every way — except for that piece of paper in their pocket. Thanks to the clinic, these people were able to complete their applications to secure work permits and the assurance of at least two years of immunity from deportation proceedings. They were grateful for the assistance, and the volunteer attorneys were grateful for the opportunity to help,” said volunteer attorney Frank Hagelberg.

The following volunteer attorneys participated in the DACA Clinic:

Felipe Alexandre, Leticia Astacio, Janice Atwood, Erin Beatty, Richard Cusker, Thomas D’Antonio, Peter Dellinger, Richard Geiger, Frank Hagelberg, Bryan Hetherington, Jennifer Hillburger, Phillip Hurwitz, Louis Jim, Amy Klausner, Lucrecia Knapp, Susan Laluk, Meredith Lamb, Barbara Orenstein, Carla Palumbo, Santosh Pawar, Vasanthi Pillai, Natalie Pincus, Natalia Reinstein, Carlos Rodriguez, Janice Sherwood, Raha Torabi, Connie Walker and Katie Woodruff.

The attorneys worked together in teams of two. They were assisted by volunteer interpreters Glenia Alexandre, Luisa DelValle and Jennifer Moreno. Additional support was provided by Bob Hauser, a frequent office volunteer at VLSP, and Aviva Schaffer, a Legal Aid intern and student at the University of Rochester.

Some clients required additional legal assistance after the clinic. Harter Secrest & Emery attorneys Frank Novak, Margaret Catillaz, Kathleen Cummins and David Wilks stepped up and accepted seven DACA case referrals.

According to New York Secretary of State Cesar A. Perales, Rochester’s well-attended and well-staffed DACA Clinic will serve as a model for other upstate cities. “I commend our partners in Monroe County for coming together to provide free legal assistance to young people in our state who are eligible for deferred action,” Perales stated recently. “By energizing attorneys to provide pro bono representation, the state is dramatically expanding access to counsel for thousands of young people interested in deferred action but unable to afford an attorney. Our partners in Monroe County provide us with a model of the type of cooperation necessary to provide upstate youth with these invaluable services.”

The New York State Department of State estimates that the number of New York youth eligible for DACA ranges from 40,000 to 80,000, but statistics released last month by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services show that less than 6,700 New Yorkers have applied for DACA. Locally, nineteen applicants were served at the Rochester clinic.

Like the DACA applicants themselves, the attorneys volunteering for the clinic were a diverse group. Some were new to volunteering with VLSP, others volunteer on a regular basis. Attorneys from virtually every practice setting were represented — solo practitioners, small, medium and large firm attorneys, government attorneys and more. For most volunteers, it was their first experience with immigration law, but there were some attorneys with experience on hand as well.

Several volunteers had experienced the immigration system firsthand, having left the country where they were born to forge a new life in the United States.

“Rochester’s legal community is well-known across the nation for stepping up to provide pro bono assistance to those in need,” said Sheila Gaddis, Esq., executive director, VLSP. “Our volunteer attorneys embraced the opportunity to assist undocumented young people who entered the country as children and now seek to establish themselves by obtaining employment or furthering their education. Rochester is unique because we are the only city in the country fortunate enough to have all of our civil legal services providers and the county bar association co-located in the same building. Our collaboration on this timely and important initiative to assist the young ‘Dreamers’ demonstrates how the Telesca Center for Justice contributes to the vitality of the Greater Rochester community,” Gaddis said recently.

VLSP thanks the DACA clinic volunteers, the New York State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, the Monroe County Bar Association, the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys, the Rochester Black Bar Association, and the Legal Aid Society of Rochester.

In addition, VLSP thanks the members of the legal community who stepped up last month to help low-income people cope with a wide range of issues including foreclosure settlement conferences, bankruptcy, wills, name changes, habitat for humanity closings, unemployment insurance benefits denials, grandparent/non-parent child custody, child support and divorce.

October 2012 honor roll

Solo practitioners: Leticia Astacio; Janice Atwood; Rick Cusker; Richard Doe; Rick Geiger; Charles Genese; Phillip Hurwitz; Amy Klausner; Lucrecia Knapp; Meredith Lamb; Amado Marin; Barbara Orenstein; Santosh Pawar; Vasanthi Pillai; Natalie Pincus; William Pryor; Carlos Rodriguez; Lisa Sadinsky; Martha Sorce; Paul Watkins; Helen Zamboni.

Attorneys and paralegal at firms: Edward Hourihan, Louis Jim, Edward Radin (Bond, Schoeneck & King); Frank Hagelberg (Boylan Code); Natalia Reinstein (Chamberlain D’Amanda); paralegal Elsa Trotto (Faraci Lange); Timothy Ingersoll (Fero & Ingersoll); Steven Levitsky (Handelman, Witkowicz & Levitsky); John Mancuso, Laura Smalley (Harris Beach); Erin Beatty, Brian Bennett, Diana Holl, Langston McFadden, Margaret Catillaz, Kathleen Cummins, Frank Novak, David Wilks (Harter Secrest & Emery); Rebecca Hatch (The Hatch Law Firm); Susan Laluk (Hiscock &Barclay); Lucien Morin (McConville, Considine, Cooman & Morin); Dana K. Campbell, Dwight Collin, Jared Lusk, John McQueen (Nixon Peabody); Michael Arnold (Place & Arnold); David Pettig (Pettig Torres); George Schell (Schell & Schell); Raha Torabi (Tracy Jong Law Firm); Robert Brennan, Mallorie Rulison (Trevett, Cristo, Salzar & Andolina); Thomas D’Antonio (Ward Greenberg); Robert Hooks, R. Thompson Gilman (Woods, Oviatt, Gilman); Elizabeth Randisi (Weinstein Randisi Law Firm).

Government attorneys and staff: Felipe Alexandre, Brian Marianetti, Sherri Wood, staff member Emily Knight (Monroe County); Connie Walker (Monroe County Court).

Legal services attorneys and intern: Peter Dellinger, Bryan Hetherington (Empire Justice Center); Jennifer Hillburger, Carla Palumbo, intern Aviva Schaffer (Legal Aid Society of Rochester).

Mediator: Robert Hauser (Center for Dispute Settlement).

Interpreters: Glenia Alexandre (Brent & Powell); Luisa DelValle; Jennifer Moreno.

J.D.s: Kristin Corsi; Christa Hibbard; Kelly Ochs.

Paralegal students: Christine Bobowski, Vanessa Campbell, Rachel Dowling, Meg Ethier (Monroe Community College); Stephan Bledsoe (Bryant & Stratton).

Intern: Matthew Smith (Ashford University).

Linda Kostin is the Pro Bono coordinator at Volunteer Legal Services Project of Monroe County Inc. Contact her at [email protected] or (585) 295-5703. Like the VLSP Facebook page at www.facebook.com/vlsproc; follow VLSP on Twitter: #VLSP_Rochester