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This month we would like to highlight Lauren Spiezia, a LiveHelp Volunteer for LawHelpNY. LawHelpNY.org is a website designed to help low-income New Yorkers solve their legal problems. Our volunteers staff LiveHelp, an online, real-time chat service that directs users towards relevant self-help materials, legal services organizations, and court information. Spiezia shares with us a little bit about her journey and what drove her to become a LiveHelp volunteer.

Today we would like to highlight Manny Bamrah, a LiveHelp Volunteer for LawHelpNY, and his experience working with the live chat support program. Volunteers staff LiveHelp, an online, real-time chat service that directs users toward relevant self-help materials, legal services organizations, and court information. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career journey.

Thank you to LawHelpNY LiveHelp Operator, Trevor Stankiewicz. Trevor is a third-year law student at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and has been volunteering as a LiveHelp Operator since Fall 2021. He has already served over 300 hours – above and beyond the minimum 50-hour commitment we ask of volunteer LiveHelp Operators! In an interview with New York Justice Initiatives Community Support Associate, Dennis Brink, Trevor shared his thoughts about what drew him to volunteer as a LiveHelpOperator and why he has continued throughout law school.

As students head back to school this fall, we know that education will look very different this year. Many schools are prioritizing the curriculum to determine which subjects are crucial in this pandemic era, and which can be postponed or eliminated. For many law students, classes are online. Given the collective trauma that our society has faced this year, one subject is proving vital for law school education: cultural competency. What is cultural competency and why is it necessary?

Because of the pandemic, people are turning online more than ever to look for information and resources to resolve their legal problems. The newly created COVID-19 resource page has quickly become one of the top accessed pages on LawHelpNY. Chats on LiveHelp have increased by 50% following the state of emergency declared in mid-March.

In June of 2019, the New York State Legislature passed a series of rent laws that offer new protections for New York City renters. While these new rent laws offer much needed support for renters across the city, tenant harassment and bad conditions continue to affect thousands of New Yorkers every year.

The NYC Pro Bono Center proudly features Joan Archer, as our October volunteer spotlight, and thanks LiveHelp coordinator, Michelle Born, for sharing this story.“Joan saves the day!”This was a frequent phrase in my emails to Joan Archer over the course of the last year. As LiveHelp Coordinator at LawHelpNY, I work with dozens of law student and law graduate volunteers at any given point in time.

Legal information is complex, and in our quest to simplify it for our visitors the first, crucial task is helping people find what they’re looking for. To that end, a lot of thought has gone into LawHelpNY’s navigation structure over its history. We are rolling out our latest attempt to make our materials more intuitive to explore by addressing a particular blind spot: while LawHelpNY’s site navigation provides a lot of guidance to folks who arrive at the homepage and begin looking for material from the top down, many people don’t arrive via the homepage.

It’s hard to believe time has gone by so quickly, but earlier this month I attended my fourth LawHelp Interactive (LHI) annual technical summit. This 2-day summit has served as a time to meet in-person with the full LHI team which spans from Coast to Coast, as well as with various LHI field partners, funders, technology partners and stakeholders.

What are the legal services statewide websites? The Legal Services Corporation has funded statewide legal information websites in 54 states and territories. These websites provide accurate, easy-to-understand information in the legal areas most affecting low-income and vulnerable people. These websites also provide information on free legal aid offices (also called legal services) in each state. What is the Legal Services Corporation?