Program areas at DC Bar Pro Bono Center
Legal Assistance for Low-Income Individuals: The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center recruits, trains, and supports volunteer lawyers who provide legal information, advice, and/or representation in housing, family law, public benefits, personal injury defense, bankruptcy, employment, immigration, and consumer law matters. In FY23, the Center provided ongoing full representation to 218 new clients on civil legal matters and same-day representation to 156 litigants in the Landlord Tenant Branch of D.C. Superior Court through its eviction defense program. The Center also provided legal advice and referrals at community-based clinics where 191 individuals received legal assistance on a range of civil legal issues and an additional 265 individuals received assistance on immigration matters. Through the Landlord Tenant Legal Assistance Network, the Center assisted an additional 2,328 individuals with housing matters; and through the Family Law Assistance Network, the Center assisted 243 individuals in Superior Court domestic relations proceedings. Finally, the Center maintains Superior Court-based resource centers to serve pro se litigants in landlord-tenant matters. In FY23, these centers served 1,057 people.
Online and Other Projects: In FY23, the Pro Bono Center provided digital services that included LawHelp.org/DC, a website that provides legal and referral information to the general public; the Legal Information Help Line, which provides recorded legal information 24 hours a day in multiple languages; and Probono.net/dc, a free online resource for pro bono lawyers and legal services attorneys with more than 9,300 registered users. In FY23, there were over 1.37 million page views on LawHelp.org/DC and the Help Line answered 17,407 calls.
Nonprofit and Small Business (NPSB) Legal Assistance Programs: The NPSB Programs provide brief legal advice, legal training, and match nonprofit organizations and small business owners with pro bono counsel to meet their transactional and business law needs. In FY23, NPSB matched 48 nonprofits with ongoing pro bono counsel and provided 393 nonprofits with one-on-one brief advice via legal clinics and weekly "Office Hours" consultations. NPSB additionally served 584 small business owners throughout the year via its small business brief advice legal clinics. Finally, NPSB provided legal training to 5,587 nonprofit and small business representatives, and to the volunteer attorneys that assist them on relevant business law topics.