Earlier this year, Louisiana’s pro bono organizations and the Access to Justice Commission launched the “20 in 2022 Pro Bono Campaign,” an initiative encouraging attorneys to complete 20 hours of pro bono services in 2022. With nearly 67% of Louisianians falling below 400% of the federal poverty line, pro bono and low-cost legal services are essential to ensuring access to justice in our community. In particular, civil rights pro bono work serves a critical role in challenging systemic inequities and creating far-reaching and lasting effects beyond the particular case at hand.
Volunteering with a pro bono organization that addresses civil rights issues is a great way to expand the reach of these groups’ critical legal advocacy, while also gaining experiences to sharpen and develop your legal skills. Included here are pro bono organizations in New Orleans handling civil rights matters and information on how you can get involved.
ACLU of Louisiana
The Americans Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana works to protect and advance Constitutional rights under federal and Louisiana law. The organization addresses issues regarding racial justice, immigration rights, mass incarceration, voting rights, religious liberty, and capital punishment. It also works to expand rights for people of color, women, members of the LGBTQIA community, prisoners, and people with disabilities.
Through its Justice Lab: Putting Racist Policing on Trial™ initiative, the ACLU of Louisiana actively challenges racially discriminatory policing practices and seeks to combat police violence against people of color. You can learn more about volunteering as a pro bono attorney for the project here.
Given their high caseload, the ACLU of Louisiana’s online intake form for potential clients is currently suspended.
The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center
The MacArthur Justice Center is a nonprofit law firm dedicated to fighting inequity in the criminal justice system and seeks to protect civil rights and dismantle white supremacy through litigation. The Center is at the forefront of addressing police and prosecutorial misconduct, advocating for the rights of the incarcerated, and promoting and protecting constitutional rights, including voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and the rights of protestors.
If you have a potential client to refer, you can direct them to MacArthur’s intake form, available here, or to (504) 620-2259.
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) provides free, civil legal aid to low-income people across 22 parishes in Southeast Louisiana. SLLS works to protect domestic violence victims from abuse, stand for the rights of abused and neglected children, preserve housing for hard-working families, end homelessness for people with disabilities and veterans, protect elderly consumers, remove barriers to medical care, improve access to employment and education for vulnerable people, and much more.
Currently, SLLS is seeking attorneys to assist with its security deposit project, which helps renters recoup their security deposits after their lease ends. The project grants attorneys important, practical experiences in case development, including drafting a demand letter, negotiating settlement, and, when needed, representing the client in court. SLLS will also provide mentorship to those attorneys who are new to the profession or the practice area. Additional pro bono opportunities with SLLS include serving as a curator in Family Law cases and drafting amicus briefs for the organization’s systemic impact litigation.
Attorneys interested in providing pro bono services with SLLS can contact Elena Perez, the current Managing Attorney of the SLLS Pro Bono Program, at eperez@slls.org. If you have a potential client referral, you can direct them to SLLS’s online intake form, available here, or their intake line at 1-844-244-7871.
Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center
The Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center (LaFHAC) is a nonprofit civil rights organization that focuses on ending housing discrimination. LaFHAC provides free legal services for victims of housing discrimination and litigates against property owners, landlords, and governmental entities to ensure equitable access to housing opportunities. Currently, LaFHAC is at the forefront of addressing the barriers to housing that people who have arrests or convictions in their background are subjected to. The organization is also actively working on zoning and land use issues to ensure that local governments across Louisiana are complying with the Fair Housing Act’s mandate to create open and inclusive communities.
If you are interested in providing pro bono services and assisting LaFHAC with its active litigation docket, please contact Executive Director Cashauna Hill (chill@lafairhousing.org) and Legal Director Sarah Carthen Watson (scarthenwatson@lafairhousing.org) about potential co-counselling opportunities. If you have a potential client to refer, you can direct them to LaFHAC’s intake lines at (504) 596-2100 or (877) 445-2100.
The Workplace Justice Project
The Workplace Justice Project (WJP) of the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law seeks to improve the economic security of low-wage workers and families through education, litigation, and advocacy. The WJP represents low-income workers in wage claims and discrimination cases under federal and state laws and is currently addressing widespread unemployment insurance misclassification issues.
There are several ways to get involved with the WJP as a pro-bono attorney, including co-counseling impact litigation, hosting educational presentations, and serving as a legal resource to the Project. If you are interested in proving pro bono services, you can contact WJP Director Luz Molina (molina@loyno.edu).
Additionally, you can contact Ms. Molina or Andrea Agee (amagee@loyno.edu) with referrals for potential clients you are in direct contact with. You can also refer potential clients to the WJP’s Worker Line at (504)-861-5571.
Tulane University Law School’s Civil Rights and Federal Practice Clinic
The Civil Rights and Federal Practice Clinic represents clients throughout the state in district court, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court on federal claims under Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, Title VII, and Section 1983 constitutional claims and is on the frontlines of combatting unlawful police brutality.
If you are interested in volunteering with the clinic by co-counselling cases or speaking to student practitioners regarding federal practice, you can contact Clinic Director M. Lucia Blacksher Ranier (lblacksh@tulane.edu).
Further, the clinic accepts potential client referrals via email to Ms. Ranier or Clinical Assistant Professor Samuel Brandao (sbrandao@tulane.edu) or by phone at (504) 865-5153.
Tulane University Law School’s First Amendment Clinic
The First Amendment Clinic represents clients in federal litigation in matters involving public protest and dissent, student speech, public employee speech, artistic expression, and intimidations of members of the media.
If you are interested in volunteering with the clinic by co-counselling cases or speaking to student practitioners regarding federal practice, you can contact Clinic Director Katie Schwartzmann (kschwartzmann@tulane.edu).
The Promise of Justice Initiative
The Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI) seeks to create positive change for people in the criminal justice legal system. It has a vision of a future where all communities—including those in prison—a safer and more secure, and works to realize that mission with civil rights litigation, strategic criminal litigation, policy and organizing work.
Through its End Plantation Prisons project, PJI works to end challenge forced labor in prisons across Louisiana, ensure that no one in prisons are forced to work in unsafe conditions, and that people receive value for the work performed by incarcerated workers. PJI also leads the Jim Crow Jury Project: Unanimous Jury Project, which is dedicated to addressing the injustices and injuries caused by non-unanimous jury convictions in Louisiana.
If you are interested in volunteering as a pro bono attorney with PJI, you can submit the intake form available here. You can also refer potential clients or their family members to PJI’s online intake form at this website.
OTHER RESOURCES on PRO BONO OPPORUNITIES
https://www.lsba.org/ProBono/
probono.net
About the Author...
Mercedes Townsend, Esq.
Casey Denson Law
Written on behalf of the Civil Rights Committee
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