"A debt of gratitude": video from Neighbors Link & Pace Community Law Practice staff + alumni

The following has been transcribed from a collective video contribution by staff and alumni of Neighbors Link Community Law Practice (NLCLP) & Pace Community Law Practice (PCLP), available to watch at the bottom of this webpage.

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Sarah H: I was an Immigration Justice Clinic student attorney for many years and then one of the inaugural fellows at the Pace Community Law Practice. Since my time working with Professor Merton, I have been an Equal Justice Works fellow at the New York Legal Assistance Group working on Sandy-related issues for survivors of Superstorm Sandy. Then, I worked at Brooklyn Defenders in the civil unit, working on collateral consequences for individuals who are involved in the criminal legal system.

Now, I am acting executive director at a DC-based nonprofit called Tzedek DC, where we help individual DC residents with consumer-related issues, as well as do systemic advocacy work and community outreach - in part because Professor Merton always noted how important it was to get the word out to folks to let individuals know that our services are available, but also, that if there's a change in the law, and nobody knows about it, there's not really a change in the law. Tzedek DC serves about a thousand clients a year, and that is directly related to my time at the clinic.

We also are always taking on law students as volunteers, and as interns over the summer and during the school year, so that we are also training the next generation of public interest attorneys as well.

I would say the closest thing that immediately ties me back to law school and working with Professor Merton is that I answer all of my emails and give responses in email in purple ink. And that is something I will always do as a note to Professor Merton.

Shari H: I was also one of four inaugural fellows of the Pace Community Law Practice. I'm now the permanent law clerk to the Honorable Philip M. Halpern, District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

I think we can all agree that we owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Merton and the brilliant minds that came together to make PCLP an experience in large part because it was my first opportunity as a practicing attorney to engage in pro bono work, and it's also how I met Judge Halpern.

After PCLP, I was able to take on pro bono representation of indigent clients, including in a guardianship proceeding in connection with a successful SIJS application. And now, as Judge Halpern's law clerk, though I don't provide direct legal services, I do make a direct impact on the justice system in this region (we're actually in D.C. right now - but in the Hudson Valley region) every day, including working with Southern District of New York staff attorneys in a unit that's dedicated to pro se representation and aiding and connecting pro se litigants to pro bono counsel. Many thanks to Professor Merton, her vision and her mission to expand access to justice.

Sarah: Thank you, Professor Merton. Congrats on your retirement. I don't think anyone believed it was going to happen.

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Karin A P: Vanessa, it's so great to have the opportunity to be able to just talk to you about the amazing impact you have had on our lives as we do the work we're doing, expanding access to justice in many different ways. I'm going to hand it over to Jen to talk about the very beginnings.

Jennifer F: Hi, Vanessa. So I have to get a little personal here. I just have these memories of coming to Pace and it not being the most public interest focused welcoming environment, but you were my compatriot and my kind of sister in arms all the way through for the seven years that I was there. And I remember very early on, you started talking about how there are incubator programs, they have them at CUNY, we need to do that here. I started talking about it with Michelle Simon and, I don't know, I think people thought it was my brilliant idea, but it definitely was not my brilliant idea, I just knew a good idea when I heard it.

And so we talked a lot over time and I remember, God, that night that we did an all-nighter. And I had not pulled an all-nighter. I know you do them often. You work all night and all of your students can attest to that. But I do not do that. But we did, to draft our first grant application.

I think it was state funding - judiciary civil legal services funding, or maybe IOLA funding. And we were at Pace all night and my husband was like, what happened to you? You never came home. But anyway, we got the funding and it really is amazing that I had you as a co-conspirator throughout - we created a board, we hired staff, we interviewed this crazy lady (gestures at Karin) and then we interviewed all of these crazy people (gestures at rest of group).

We got Pace to give us a building, a house, we bought furniture, and we convened a board. I mean, really it was quite an adventure and quite an accomplishment, considering that Pace never does anything creative or interesting. High five to you and me and all of us that we did do something interesting! And just so grateful to have you in my life always there with me, as much as we may have complained and bitched and moaned about all the things we didn't like about Pace and what they weren't doing right, they did this one thing right by greenlighting your brilliant idea and enabling us to launch the careers of all of these amazing formerly young people.

Karin: So, Vanessa, I just wanted to talk a little bit about everything that the Pace Community Law Practice accomplished. You know, the alums of that program have gone on to do amazing things, everything from starting their own immigration practices in this region, which was a big need - it's one of the reasons the PCLP and the fellowship program was created, was to meet that need, and they're meeting it. And there are other alums who are working in providing immigration legal services and not-for-profits, and in other types of legal services, in private practice. So everybody is just going on and doing amazing work. I really see that as part of the legacy of the PCLP - the great work of the people who were part of it.

Also, I feel like it's just so important to remember how innovative and important the role that your clinic and the PCLP played in so many really burning immigration legal issues and challenges of the time of its founding. First, you know, the PCLP opened as DACA was implemented, so we were able to help those young people who otherwise wouldn't have had access to that help. Then the surge of immigrant youth happened the next year; we were able to help those people, and then we did the initiative to train folks to do SIJS to help those kids. And then there was the work that we did together to represent folks doing state time facing deportation and the Institutional Removal Programs. I think it bears remarking that now, a decade later, there are state-funded programs and not-for-profits that have sprouted up to do that work. And this program that you and Jen created, and gave life to and supported through adversity, was at the forefront of all these really important and pressing issues. It really is an honor to work in the space that your vision created. Liz, if you can talk a little bit about PCLP - I mean NLCLP…

Elizabeth M: I'm going to talk about it all! So, first I want to just say that I think that it's exceptional that, you know, you were never my professor, I never went to Pace, but you still acted as a mentor to all of us, despite this factor. You encouraged the creation of the Neighbors Link Community Law Practice. Without you, I'm not sure that it would have ever gotten picked up by Neighbors Link. It was kind of through your communication with Carola that she even thought that this idea was a good idea. And because of that, at Neighbors Link, we were able to create an entire legal practice where we've served almost 6,000 cases since 2017. We've grown from two attorneys to having a staff of almost 24 people in six or seven years. This work couldn't have been possible without you. It was through your encouragement, your support, and your ever guidance that we were able to create this institution; and just, speaking personally, even mentorship that you didn't know you were providing, you provided. Because when I started at the PCLP, I had never even taken an immigration law class. I went to Craig and I went to Pouyan to ask about my immigration law questions and to find out how I should be documenting case notes and all of these things, and it was through the work that you had done with them at the clinic that I got that knowledge. So, you know, both professionally, through our work at Neighbors Link, and also personally, just as my trajectory as an immigration attorney, I'm grateful for you and for all that you've done for us. Maybe Craig wants to talk about his experience? I'm sure he has a lot to say.

Craig R: I sure do. I'm gonna be really selfish. So here I have the opportunity, Professor Merton, to tell you what you've meant to me. Now, I know that you know that you've had a tremendous impact upon everybody you've worked with and for, but I'm really thankful, selfishly, that I get the opportunity to tell you.

I think that you are among the most influential people that I've had the good fortune to come across, and I've been fortunate in my life. You’re my professor, but it was more than that; you believed in me, right? You believed in me. And although you don't know this, you could be intimidating in the clinic. I was there for a year. You could be intimidating. You certainly speak your mind. And everybody knows that you're present. So, I was a little timid, and I was an older law student, and it was just weird. I think the thing that you gave me - it became very clear to me very quickly just how brilliant you are, and it became very clear that you believed in me. So you gave me the tools and the ability to find the answers for the things and to help people. And I've continued to do that. You taught me that it doesn't matter if you don't know the answer, you have the ability to find the answer, right? Because you believed in me, it helped me to believe in myself, to believe that I could be an attorney, to believe that I could do all of the things that I was taught. It taught me a lot of nuanced things; it taught me to always think about not only cultural competency, that's basic stuff, but where I positioned myself while I was in court, my intonation while I was in court. It taught me all these things that it would have taken me years to pick up. I had such a tremendous head start on being an attorney because of what you provided to me and you showed me just how much you cared about the work that you did.

I remember there was a time where I was tasked with preparing an application for a trial, and my teammates abandoned me for the winter break, they went skiing, they were fed up. So here I was on New Year's Eve: I was married with a two-year-old at home, finishing pagination for a thousand page filing. And you stayed there with me the entire time. You never went home. I can assure you that if the roles were reversed, I would have abandoned you by seven o'clock. You stayed there the entire time with me. The fireworks went off in White Plains. And you often did that; you often spent more time than was necessary to make sure that people knew what was happening, that people were getting everything - not only the clients, but the students were getting everything out of the setting. And I'm sure if Steven and Rebecca and Darrow are watching this or listening to this - for my time in the clinic, Professor Merton, when you were my professor, I was a parent already. And I can assure you that she loves you. Tremendously. She would talk about you and worry about you and tell me things about you, and you know, we had a connection.

So, I've said all these wonderful things... I will tell you something that I can say without reservation. Professor Merton, you are the single worst driver that I've ever encountered. It could be because you were overtired, but it happened on so many occasions. I don't think that I've ever let anybody drive a car that I'm in since the time we went to the AILA Day of Action, probably 2012. You know, you're perfect in every other respect. Just that. Nobody can be flawless. Then you'd be a superhero. So I'm glad that that is there, and your legacy.

Finally, I'll leave you with this (when Elizabeth asked me if I had anything to say, she knew I did); the fact is, that regardless of anything or everything, you have made such a legacy and such a tremendous impact on the individuals that you came in contact with as a professor, and I think that you're brilliant - you certainly could have done anything, but what you did by being a professor and a legal service provider and the such is really something of self sacrifice - maybe you don't look at it like that, but it certainly was perhaps from a financial standpoint, but you really put yourself forward for everybody who came in contact with you.

You'll always be with me, when I take a case, and try my hardest, and when I win, and when I lose. I won my first habeas, I couldn't wait to call you. I won my first case as an immigration attorney, I couldn't wait to call you. My first published case on Westlaw or whatever, couldn't wait to call you. So I love you and I'm thankful for everything. I'm thankful for the opportunity to express this to you.

Andrew Z: Professor Merton, unlike some of the people who you've been hearing from, I never got to work very closely with you. I never took your clinic. I never had a lot of one-on-one time with you. It's obvious the impact you made on the people who you worked close with. What you may not realize is the breadth of the impact you've had on the people who became attorneys under the umbrella of what I'm going to call your aura. You did not have to work closely with you over a long period of time to be impacted by your presence. There are some people who - just being on the periphery of their world - makes an impact. And you - I feel I am living proof for one of those people. Your dedication, your ferocity, in representing, and while teaching students, and making sure that those students understood damn well, even before they were practicing attorneys, we're doing this for our clients. Ours has to be a client-centered approach. It has to be holistic, and it has to put them first. I had the good fortune of working with a lot of professors - in clinics, in externships, and they all clearly went out of their way to help me learn, and they went out of their way to help me do a good job representing clients. Few of them were as tenacious as I could see you were, even from afar, in teaching your students that the clients are the reason we do this. You're in law school now, you are learning a trade, you are growing as a person, you are expanding your horizon, you are intellectually stimulating yourself; it funnels back, you're doing this for the person sitting in that room over there, waiting to meet with you.

That motivated me. It impacted me. I did not stay in immigration law; I became a public defender. I've been a public defender for 10 years now. And every time someone asks me, why do you do it? What's your motivation for it? The words that come out of my mouth first are the holistic approach and the lives that I impact or try to impact.

You taught me that, without even doing it directly, without even knowing much about me, you taught me that. I guess I'll just close with this. When I first became a public defender and hardly knew what the hell I was doing, my personal mantra was whether it's the DA, whether it's ACS, whoever the state figure is trying to take away some vested interest that my client has, I may not have their skill, I may not have their experience - they cannot outwork me. They will not outwork me. And your influence put that mantra into my head. And I didn't even have to be up close and personal with you to get it. So, for that, I just want to say thank you.

Jennifer: Wow… this is really… I want to talk about Vanessa all day. Can I just tell one other little Vanessa story? So, first of all, Craig, you totally stole my line because I was going to talk about a harrowing driving experience I had with Vanessa. She was like, Let's go, Jennifer, we're going to the Katzmann group. I'm like, I don't even know immigration law. She's like, No, we're going to the Katzmann group. So she would just do that, just bring people along with her. And then I had to drive home with her - with you, Vanessa. I'm sure I imagine more than one person might tell this story in all of the materials that you're receiving, but I've been talking about you recently and this I feel like bears repeating. So, you told me maybe even on more than one occasion, that you had been given job offers by Pace, and I want to say Columbia Law School, it might've been NYU, but I want to say Columbia Law School. And you told me that you sat in the student lounge or the cafeteria. (Craig is nodding; other people have heard this story maybe.) And you were like, Boy, are these kids smart; boy, are they intellectual; boy, can they talk… but they're gonna be fine. These kids are already straight A's, whatever, all the different things they had to do to get into this obnoxious place.

And then when you were at Pace, you said, you know, I think I can really make an impact here. These are maybe not the straight A kids or maybe not the double 800 or whatever, perfect score in the SATs… maybe someone struggled and whatever throughout their life and for whatever reason - people come to Pace for lots of different reasons and have different backgrounds. But you thought, this is a place where I can make a difference.

I'm going to get choked up saying this, but, even just from this little small group here, you have made such a profound difference in people's lives. The lives of your students, the lives of your clients, the lives of your colleagues; we live by your example.

I cannot work as hard as you did. It's just not possible. Andrew, you're younger than me. I cannot work that hard anymore, but I can try. I can hold you up as an example. But thank you for giving us that gift of the impact that you made on our lives and the lives of so many people around us.

Andrew: Well, I said that they're not going to outwork me; I didn't say that I was working as hard as Vanessa.

Elizabeth: That would be impossible.

Jennifer: You can try. Not possible. And actually, Vanessa, I'm going to say one other thing, which is I just told someone this. There are two people that fall into the category in my life that you fall into, and you’d probably know who the other one is. It is Dorchen Leidholdt. And you and Dorchen are a class by yourselves, of the dedication, the passion, the commitment, almost religiously so. So, that is good company to be in.

Karin: The one thing that I wanted to add too was just it bears repeating just how much in this professional world that I'm in, and Liz is in, at Neighbors Link, it's really the result of your vision. I mean, I think four of our attorneys are Pace Law grads; three or four came from your clinic. One is a former PCLP fellow, Lilly, who does crimmigration law; the other three weren’t fellows, but they came from your clinic. And exactly the passion and commitment that both Craig and Andrew described is what they bring too, and I know where they got it from, so I'm so grateful to you.

Jennifer: We love you. We hope you are feeling our love pouring out of the screen to you. I want to see what everybody else is saying, but I feel quite sure there's a lot of redundancy because we all know and love the person you are and what you brought into the world and everybody feels it. Thank you.

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Jonathan C: Professor Merton, I just want to thank you not just for everything that you did for me as a student, going above and beyond what's expected or required of a professor, but also what you did with working towards getting PCLP to exist. If not for that effort, I wouldn't be where I am today at Neighbors Link. And so with that, I just wanted to thank you so much for everything that you've done and continue to do.

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Pouyan D: Vanessa, you taught me more than just the law. You gave me the confidence and courage to start my own law practice. You were the first person to truly believe in me, and I will never forget the hundreds of hours you spent mentoring me. Long after I graduated from law school, you continued to selflessly mentor and teach me. I recall numerous hour-long conversations nearly a decade after I graduated from law school where you helped me navigate the complex ethical, legal, and even personal issues, and you never expected a thing in return. You just gave selflessly. The impact you've had on my life changed the course of my future and allowed me to help so many others.

Whenever I'm in a dilemma, I often wonder what would Professor Merton tell me to do, and I act accordingly. And I know that I'm not the only person you've affected in this way. I can only imagine the 100 or 1,000 of other students on whom you've had a deep and lasting impact, allowing them to serve others throughout their lives. And those students went on to help thousands of clients, which means that you've had a positive impact directly or indirectly on millions of people.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To leave this world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded.” By that measure, you're the most successful person I've ever met. You will always hold a place in my heart. I've never met anybody like you. You matter to me, and you changed my life.