Highlights

Our firm is committed to providing personal pro bono assistance to individuals in need of legal representation across a broad range of constitutional, civil and human interest areas.

Some of our recent pro bono cases include:

Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness
Paul, Weiss achieved a resounding victory for Disability Advocates, Inc., an organization that protects and advances the rights of adults and children with disabilities, in a pro bono suit against New York State agencies and officials. The suit sought to end discrimination against persons with mental illness who reside in adult homes in New York City, maintaining that the State administers its mental health service system in a way that unnecessarily isolates individuals with mental illness instead of providing mental health services in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York sided with Disability Advocates on all fronts. Paul, Weiss's co-counsel in the litigation, in addition to Disability Advocates, Inc., are the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, MFY Legal Services and the Urban Justice Center.

Care for the Needy
In 2008, Paul, Weiss, with the Urban Justice Center and the Economic Justice Project of the CUNY School of Law, brought an action in New York Supreme Court, challenging the sufficiency of New York State's basic welfare grant. Article XVII of the New York State Constitution establishes that "the aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns" and will be provided for by the State. The State, nonetheless, failed for nearly 20 years to raise the basic welfare grant despite the corrosive effect of inflation, then implemented a wholly insufficient increase, to be stretched our over 3 years, after our action was filed. The case is still in its early stages.

Guantanamo Detainees
We have been involved in the case of Kiyemba v. Obama, which the Supreme Court agreed to hear, concerning thirteen ethnic Chinese Muslims (Uighurs) who have been detained at Guantanamo for over seven years even though the United States Government conceded that the Uighurs are not enemy combatants and pose no threat to the United States. The Uighurs have been held, in part, because the United States Government is unable to repatriate them to their native China for fear of persecution. The district court last year held that the Uighurs are being held unlawfully, and must be released into the United States. The D.C. Circuit, however, reversed, holding that courts have no authority to override the political branches' plenary authority in controlling the nation's borders. Since this decision, of the original seventeen Uighurs detained at Guantanamo, four have been resettled in Bermuda, and thirteen remain in custody at Guantanamo. On behalf of the New York City Bar Association, the Brennan Center for Justice, The Constitution Project, the Rutherford Institute and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Paul, Weiss wrote an amicus brief urging the Court to grant certiorari review to decide the important issue of whether courts have the power to order the release of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay into the United States.

Advice for Social Entrepreneurs
Paul, Weiss provides counsel to Ashoka Fellows, entrepreneurs who combine innovative solutions to social problems with a commitment to bold new ideas that transform economic patterns in regions across the world. Paul, Weiss is currently working with the South African Planning, Education, Agriculture, Community and Environment Foundation, which provides communities with tools and information for economic development; Fundacion Espave, which promotes and develops alternative work channels for indigenous communities in Colombia’s Amazon Rainforest; Release Communication Intervention, an Ireland-based organization dedicated to making the delivery of speech and language therapy accessible to caregivers; and Empowering Women of Nepal, which helps foster independence, self-sufficiency and decision-making among women by training and employing women in Nepal.

Support for Housing in Pakistan
Paul, Weiss clients, a social entrepreneur and the Ansaar Management Company (Private) Limited recently entered into a joint venture partnership with the Acumen Fund and the Oasis Fund. Acumen and Oasis are non-profit global venture funds that aim to solve the problems of global poverty through investments that focus on delivering critical goods and services through market-oriented approaches. The joint venture, Ansaar Management Company (Private) Limited, is a Pakistani company organized with the intent of completing a housing project for 15,000 low-income people in Pakistan. Paul, Weiss negotiated the economic and governance arrangements among the joint venture partners and assisted in drafting the shareholders’ agreements, the share subscription agreements and services agreement.

Victims of Human Trafficking Immigration Status Project
In an article in the June 2009 NYC Pro Bono Center newsletter, Paul, Weiss was acknowledged for the remarkable effort by 27 corporate partners, associates and paralegals working with the City Bar Justice Center's Immigrant Women & Children Project (IWC) to assist survivors of human trafficking with their applications for lawful permanent residency. The lawyers have been working together since March on cases to help obtain lawful permanent residency for these immigrants, which has proven to have a profoundly positive impact on their lives. Beginning in October 2009, corporate partners, associates and paralegals commenced collaborating with the IWC to assist victims of violent crimes with their applications for residency as well.

Political Asylum
Over the past year, Paul, Weiss has obtained asylum for multiple clients seeking refuge from persecution. Paul, Weiss worked closely with Human Rights First, the City Bar Justice Center and Immigration Equality to obtain asylum for clients from Europe, Asia and Africa on the basis of religious persecution, sexual orientation and HIV status, political opinions, nationality and membership in a social group and race.

Varick Street Detention Center Project
In conjunction with the City Bar Justice Center, the Pro Bono Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and The Legal Aid Society, we joined a new program to increase access to legal advice and information for detainees at an immigration detention facility in New York City. Since December 2008, each month, four to six Paul, Weiss attorneys, along with lawyers from other firms, staff a regular clinic to screen detainees for possible bond eligibility, asylum, waivers and other possibilities for release. As a result of this effort, some form of relief has been identified for 38 percent of interviewees; Paul, Weiss attorneys then work with the Justice Center and immigration law experts to advocate for the detainees.

Veterans’ Legal Clinics
Paul, Weiss and other law firms, along with the City Bar Justice Center, launched a series of Veterans' Legal Clinics in October 2007 to provide free legal advice to metropolitan-area military veterans. The advice involves disability and other benefit applications, unemployment compensation and tenancy and debt issues.