I-ARC and Cleary Gottlieb: a pro-bono partnership, amplified

A pro bono partnership - when established attorneys volunteer to assist nonprofits - can be a mutually beneficial game-changer, as is the case for our work with the marquee firm Cleary Gottlieb. 

Over a year ago, I-ARC Senior Fellow Professor Lenni Benson asked Cleary to participate in a comprehensive screening clinic to determine who was in need of legal assistance and at what level for Ukrainian and Afghan nationals newly arrived to the U.S. Cleary sent a number of associates and took on some cases from the clinic, and the relationship continued after Lenni shortly thereafter asked Cleary to screen Afghan students who had recently arrived at Bard College. As a result, Cleary took on seven pro bono asylum cases for Bard college students. Lenni and Cleary then worked on two universal expert declarations, in which attorneys seek assistance from experts in the form of written statements that may be used as evidence in asylum cases, to help Afghan nationals here in the U.S. with “fear of return” asylum claims.   

Lenni has vast immigration experience and an unparalleled network (as well as her innovative and creative ideas), and she was the starting point/initiator for many of the projects carried out to date, while Cleary has provided the much needed manpower and enthusiasm to carry them to fruition. Cleary associates got to work alongside immigration expert Lenni, learning from here in real time.

And this is only the start of an interesting, symbiotic, and successful partnership between I-ARC and Cleary Gottlieb. 

Cleary has a longstanding commitment to humanitarian immigration and has a wealth of experience in all types of humanitarian immigration matters, and their work with I-ARC has brought to life - through witnessing the lived experience of immigrants - these ideals. One Cleary associate attorney who worked on an asylum case for a Bard student said that particular pro bono case was “life-changing” for him.  

Partnerships with firms such as Cleary Gottlieb are crucial to our ability to accomplish our mission of increasing access to counsel for immigrants in New York. Their expertise, work ethic, and resources offer invaluable support and complement the work of non-profits serving low-income and indigent clients throughout our State. From their ability to quickly identify and train hundreds of volunteers, such as when we provided legal help at JFK Airport during the Muslim Ban or the Albany County Jail in the summer of 2018, to their research, analytical, and litigation capabilities, they equip the immigration legal services field with a wide variety of resources to help serve all of New York’s immigrant communities.