Pro Bono

2024 Award Recipients:

Litigation associate, Ryan Feeney, is this year’s winner of The Honorable Milton Mollen Pro Bono Award for his significant work on behalf of three pro bono clients seeking asylum and obtaining permanent legal resident status in the United States.

For one of Ryan’s pro bono clients, a transgender refugee from El Salvador, he collaborated with the organization Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which provides free legal representation for asylum seekers, to submit a green card application to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Ryan, as sole counsel, gathered all of the required evidence, prepared and submitted the green card application and assisted his client with his interview. The client was successfully issued a green card in March 2025.

For Ryan's other pro bono clients, a gay man residing in New York City who was seeking asylum from trauma endured in Jamaica and his juvenile daughter, he partnered with the organization Legal Services NYC to prepare the asylum application for the father, which he has been diligently working on since 2021. His client's daughter left Jamaica last summer after her family was unable and unwilling to continue caring for her. Ryan commenced efforts to assist the father in obtaining full custody of his daughter in Kings County Family Court, enabling her to file for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and remain with her father in New York.

Pamela A. Frederick, Elizabeth Plowman and Jessie Root were the recipients of Silver Star Awards for their significant pro bono service.

Lawyers Alliance is a leading provider of business and transactional legal services for nonprofit organizations that are improving the quality of life in New York City neighborhoods. By connecting lawyers, nonprofits, and communities, they help nonprofits to develop affordable housing, stimulate economic development, and operate vital programs for children and young people, the elderly, recent immigrants, and other low-income New Yorkers.

In 2022, Fred Green received the Cornerstone Award for his exceptional assistance to nonprofit organizations, including his corporate work which is enabling multiple community support nonprofits to focus on meeting the needs of low-income New Yorkers. 

Founded in 1976, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest is a nonprofit, civil rights law firm that strives for social justice and serves the legal needs of underserved, underrepresented New Yorkers and their communities. In partnership with member law firms like Herrick, NYLPI helps underrepresented people develop legal strategies to serve their vision for themselves and their communities. Through their partnerships, they work to provide community members with the resources and training to one day serve as their own representatives, advocates and organizers.

VLA delivers legal services and legal information to over 10,000 members of the arts community each year and plays an important role in educating individual artists, arts professionals within arts and cultural institutions, attorneys, students and the general public about legal and business issues that affect artistic and creative endeavors. From its inception, VLA has played an important role as an advocate on behalf of the arts community in different ways, ranging from participation in litigation, making public statements about matters of interest to the arts community, and making recommendations about pending legislation.

The City Bar Justice Center’s Shelter Advocacy Project (SAP) has been providing free legal assistance to the homeless since 1991. This program reaches out to individuals and families through legal clinics held at homeless shelters and drop-in centers and through presentations to community groups and to staff and residents of shelters. Staff and volunteer attorneys offer advice, advocacy and representation on issues such as accessing and challenging denials of public benefits, including public assistance, Medicaid, food stamps, public housing and public housing subsidies.

NYLAG is a non-profit law office providing free legal services to low income New Yorkers. NYLAG helps both the poor and near poor in New York City access legal rights of vital importance, including, but not limited to, obtaining government benefits such as food stamps and home care, securing orders of protections and divorces, and handling immigration matters. NYLAG's clients include seniors, immigrants, victims of domestic violence, at-risk children, people with disabilities, people moving from welfare to work, Holocaust survivors and individuals suffering from chronic and serious illnesses.

Her Justice offers low-income women free legal services in matrimonial, family and immigration law. The organization is on the front lines working to protect women and their children—preventing tragedies and changing lives. Its staff of legal professionals annually trains, mentors and supports volunteer attorneys who handle over 1,500 legal cases in three major areas: matrimonial (by providing free legal services to low-income women who wish to file for a divorce or who have been served with divorce papers by their husbands), immigration (by providing free legal services to low-income, battered immigrant women who seek to become legal residents of the United States), and family law (wherein Her Justice helps hundreds of low-income women go to Family Court in New York City to get orders of protection against their abusive husbands and partners and also helps mothers get court orders giving them legal custody of their children and requiring fathers to pay child support).

West Harlem Community Organization, Inc. is a nonprofit community-based organization that has been educating young children for over 50 years in Harlem and Washington Heights. Through the Head Start Program & Family Child Care Network, we provide safe, nurturing, creative high-quality educational environments for children from birth to five years old while empowering their families to be advocates in the community. Visit us on Facebook.

The City Bar Justice Center’s Veterans Assistance Project (VAP) provides disabled, low-income veterans in New York City with pro bono legal assistance on issues related to their claims for benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

The Door is an unparalleled model for youth development, offering a comprehensive range of integrated services within a single site for nearly 10,000 New York City youth each year. Our mission is to empower young adults to reach their full potential by providing comprehensive youth development services in a diverse and caring environment. At The Door, youth can access health care and education, mental health counseling and crisis assistance, legal assistance, college preparation services, career development, housing supports, arts, sports and recreational activities, and nutritious meals- all for free and under one roof. By providing participants with our suite of integrated services, we seek to provide any motivated young person with the tools, resources, and opportunities needed to successfully transition to adulthood.  

Sanctuary for Families is dedicated to the safety, healing and self-determination of victims of domestic violence and related forms of gender violence. Through comprehensive services for our clients and their children, and through outreach, education and advocacy, we strive to create a world in which freedom from gender violence is a basic human right.