The Immigration Advocates Network (IAN), a program of Pro Bono Net, is dedicated to expanding access to immigration legal resources and information through collaboration and technology. IAN was created in 2007 by leading immigrants’ rights organizations, to increase access to justice for low-income immigrants and strengthen the capacity of organizations serving them. We create our own tools, build platforms for others, and work with partners to harness the power of technology and collective action to better support immigrants and their advocates.
In the wake of the 2016 elections, immigrant rights advocates across New York City came together to find creative ways to resist the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. They came up with the idea of starting an immigration bond fund that would free immigrants locked up in immigration jails. The fund soon found a home at the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, which embraced the project as an extension of its work to fight detention systems that are built on the criminalization of poor black and brown communities.
In the fall of 2018, the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund launched the New York Immigrant Freedom Fund (NYIFF) and paid its first immigration bond. The Brooklyn Community Bail Fund has since spent over $2.3 million million to free over 300 immigrant New Yorkers, reuniting them with their families and communities. While the average bond we’ve paid is close to $8,000, we have received bond requests up to $60,000. In addition to paying for the cost of freeing individuals from detention, we provide legal referrals from individuals who don’t have attorneys, covers travel expenses to reunite families, and provide other emergency assistance.
The National Lawyers Guild is the nation’s oldest and largest progressive bar association and was the first one in the US to be racially integrated. Our mission is to use law for the people, uniting lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers to function as an effective force in the service of the people by valuing human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests. This is achieved through the work of our members, and the Guild’s numerous organizational committees, caucuses and projects, reflecting a wide spectrum of intersectional issues. Guild members effectively network and hone their legal skills in order to help create change at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
Unity House is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people living in poverty, adults with mental illness, victims of domestic violence, children with developmental delays and their families, people living with HIV/AIDS, and others whose needs can effectively be met by Unity House services and philosophy. Unity House provides direct service and works toward social justice. We help individuals identify their strengths and needs, draw upon their abilities, and access community resources. We educate, collaborate with others and advocate to influence public policy and to create awareness of the people we serve and the issues they face.
DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, positioning us to help clients with their legal needs around the world.
We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality and value to our clients.
We achieve this through practical and innovative legal solutions that help our clients succeed. We deliver consistent services across our platform of practices and sectors in all matters we undertake.
Our clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies. They include more than half of the Fortune 250 and nearly half of the FTSE 350 or their subsidiaries. We also advise governments and public sector bodies.