"Expanding access to justice": a memo by Neighbors Link & Pace Community Law Practice staff + alumni

To: Professor Vanessa Merton
From: People who think you’re amazing - Neighbors Link staff, Pace Community Law Practice and Immigration Justice Clinic alumni
Re: Your impact expanding access to justice
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I. Immigration Legal Services at Neighbors Link

2013 - Pace Community Law Project (PCLP) and Neighbors Link jointly awarded Westchester County Bar Foundation (WCBF) Fellow Elizabeth Mastropolo, Esq. to provide immigration legal services to Neighbors Link’s clients under the supervision of PCLP Assistant Director, Karin Anderson Ponzer.

2017 - Pace Community Law Practice formally merges with Neighbors Link - immigration legal matters increase each year:
2017 - 188
2018 - 280
2019 - 622
2020 - 521
2021 - 843
2022 - 1,082
2023 - 1,879

Neighbors Link Community Law Practice continues to build on what you created! The Community Law Practice has handled 5,415 immigration legal matters since we merged with Neighbors Link at the beginning of 2017.

Expanded from a staff of 2 to 24 in six years:
8 Attorneys
13 DOJ Accredited Representatives
1 Data Manager
2 Office Administrators

Have EHSL/Pace Law, PCLP & Immigration Justice Clinic (IJC) alumni on our staff:
Elizabeth Lilly Tonne-Daims
Lourdes Aguilar
Jonathan Campozano
Deyvid Arango-Valencia
Karin & Liz from the PCLP

II. Pace Community Law Practice Fellows Have Gone On to Do Amazing Things

Creating their own immigration practices or expanding firms dedicated to immigration law
2012 - Craig Relles
2013 - Pouyan Darian
2014 - Seth Levy
2014 - Stephanie Ramos

Working in other private practice
2012 - Sara Morton - Owner, Sara Morton Law, Elmira, NY
2014 - Alyson Kuritzky - Associate, Abrams & Fensterman LLP, 2023 914INC Rising Star
2015 - Michael Armstrong - Associate - Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost, LLP, Los Angeles

Working for immigration legal services NFPs
2013 - WCBF Elizabeth Mastropolo - Managing Attorney, Neighbors Link
Community Law Practice
2013 - Elizabeth Lilly Tonne-Daims - Senior Staff Attorney, Neighbors Link Crimmigration
2015 - Kee Han - Supervising Attorney, Catholic Charities Community Services

Working for other civil legal services NFPs
2012 - Sarah Hollender - Associate Director, Tzedek DC - helping people with legal problems arising from debt
2013 - Andrew Zahnd - Staff Attorney, Center for Family Representation

Public Defenders & Court
2012 - Shari Hochberg - Law Clerk, U.S. District Court, Southern District of NY
2014 - Megan Hopper-Rebegea - Federal Public Defender, Nevada

Academic//Business Owner
2013 - Kerriann Stout - Founder/CEO of Vinco (one-to-one support for academic and professional needs) and Adjunct Faculty at Fordham University & Pace University

III. The Pace Community Law Practice, working with the Immigration Justice Clinic, innovated and expanded the provision of immigration legal services to those in need:
2012 - 2016 : assisting immigrant youth to apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status
2013 - 2016 : assisting immigrant youth and families coming from northern Tier countries as part of the “surge” to apply for asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)
2013 - 2016: leading the SIJS initiative, under the direction of Judge Kathy Davidson, to respond to the Family Court legal needs of immigrant youth needing SIJS protection
2013 - 2016: leading the effort to provide legal service to immigrant NYers incarcerated for NYS convictions and facing deportation in the Institutional Removal Program
2013 - 2016: being part of the effort led by the Katzmann group to build the big programs that exist to assist immigrant New Yorkers, which we see today in:
NYIFUP – IJC student attorneys & PCLP fellows were repping these tough cases, too
Safe Passage Project - PCLP was in on the ground floor partnering with them on their first grants
Prisoners Legal Services - now NYS funded to represent immigrants in the Institutional Removal Program

IV. May 18, 2023 - Neighbors Link Festival de Primavera - Professor Vanessa Merton and Jennifer Friedman, Esq. honored with the Gabby Rosenfeld “Be A Hero” Award for their foundational role in the provision of immigration legal services at Neighbors Link.