US pro bono

HSF Kramer has won asylum for dozens of refugees from around the world, including a Cameroonian journalist threatened for his unbiased and fearless reporting on sensitive political issues; a Tibetan refugee who had been tortured and imprisoned by the Chinese government for his pro-independence political activities and religion (one of more than a dozen successful Tibetan cases); a Malian woman who fled persecution due to her gender and political beliefs and had been the victim of rape as a child; and four LGBT individuals fleeing homophobic violence in Russia (along with over three dozen LGBT/HIV-related cases referred to the firm by Immigration Equality). HSF Kramer's asylum program has received Human Rights First’s Marvin Frankel Award (named after the late partner of HSF Kramer) for outstanding work on behalf of refugees and asylees, Immigration Equality’s Safe Haven Award for efforts on behalf of LGBT asylees, and Sanctuary for Families’ Sanctuary Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Advocacy for work on behalf of victims of domestic violence.

Complementing our long-standing asylum work, HSF Kramer's business immigration group has helped a wide range of non-profit organizations and low-income individuals with other immigration issues. The firm has served as pro bono immigration counsel to the Legal Aid Society, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Grand Street Settlement, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and other groups. Among many individual clients, we helped an indigent young mother from Ecuador suffering from a dangerous and debilitating parasitic infection of the brain that required medical care in the US.

HSF Kramer helped to secure the release of six men wrongfully imprisoned by the US military at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The clients are Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority group native to western China that has been oppressed and persecuted by the Chinese government. The HSF Kramer legal team commenced three separate habeas corpus proceedings and litigated on behalf of the clients at all three levels of the federal court system, at one point winning the first federal court order directing release of Guantánamo prisoners. All of the clients have now been released — some to Albania, one to El Salvador, and others to the Pacific Island nation of Palau.

Since 1998, HSF Kramer has staffed a full-time externship at South Brooklyn Legal Services, helping meet the vast need of low-income tenants for representation in housing court and other forums. More than 30 firm lawyers have rotated through this position, representing hundreds of low-income tenants in court and counseling thousands more through “hotline” and other informal means. The externship not only provides associates with unparalleled hands-on experience in court, working with clients and negotiating with adversaries, but it also delivers legal services to the poor with unusual efficiency for a private law firm pro bono program.

HSF Kramer has represented dozens of low-income social security disability claimants in administrative proceedings before the Social Security Administration (SSA), working with several organizations, including the Center for Disability Advocacy Rights (CeDAR). The firm has also represented many claimants in federal court appeals challenging the denial of benefits. In addition, HSF Kramer worked with CeDAR on two different class actions challenging the SSA’s policy of failing to fully consider the combined impact of all impairments in evaluating children’s SSI claims, and earlier litigated Steiberger v. Apfel, in which the Second Circuit held that due process required the tolling of appeals deadlines for claimants with mental impairments.

HSF Kramer has established a relationship with Public School 188 on the Lower East Side, through which firm attorneys conduct legal clinics and provide direct representation to low-income families on legal issues that may impact their children’s ability to succeed in school. HSF Kramer lawyers have handled housing, immigration and domestic relations issues on behalf of P.S. 188 families. HSF Kramer was matched with P.S. 188 through a program of Volunteers of Legal Service.

Working with Her Justice, HSF Kramer has advocated for low-income women in a wide range of family law cases, including contested and uncontested divorces and matters involving custody, visitation and/or orders of protection. In addition, our attorneys have provided immigration assistance to battered women and their children through Violence Against Women Act self-petitions and battered spouse waivers.

HSF Kramer lawyers working on family law cases have the opportunity to conduct interviews, engage in discovery, research case law, draft motions, and advise and strategize with their clients. In addition, volunteer attorneys may appear in court, handle mediations, negotiate settlements and conduct trials.

In 2014, a HSF Kramer partner received the Partner Award at Her Justice’s 2014 Commitment to Justice Awards, which honors volunteers who provide legal assistance to Her Justice clients. In 2013, two HSF Kramer associates were honored with a Commitment to Justice Award for outstanding legal team for their representation of a Her Justice client throughout her contested divorce proceedings.

HSF Kramer has represented a number of veterans with service-connected disability claims before the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Most of the clients were referred to the firm through New York City’s Veterans Assistance Project.

HSF Kramer litigated Dajour B. v. City of New York, a lawsuit to enforce the obligations of the city and state of New York to reach, screen and treat eligible homeless children with asthma. Working with the Association to Benefit Children, the Legal Aid Society and the Natural Resource Defense Council, the firm negotiated a settlement that dramatically improved the city’s performance in this area. Earlier, the firm litigated a class action on behalf of “boarder babies,” leading to a settlement requiring New York City to more aggressively place in foster care hospitalized children who had previously languished for months or years awaiting placement.

HSF Kramer lawyers have provided legal assistance to the arts community by working directly with various artists and arts organizations referred through Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. For example, HSF Kramer attorneys have helped provide copyright counseling to the organizer of a weekly collaborative podcast featuring unpublished works of composers, instrumentalists and sound artists; counseled a jazz musician regarding her royalty rights for a studio album; and assisted a Brooklyn-based cultural arts center in drafting a privacy policy for its website.

Collaborating with the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center, we have had appellate victories in the 5th and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals related to tax liability and debtors' rights to retain post-bankruptcy property.   

HSF Kramer helped win a federal injunction barring Florida from enforcing a state law that had forced non-partisan groups to stop registering voters. The suit, League of Women Voters of Florida v. Cobb, was the first to establish First Amendment protection for voter registration activities. The firm has also participated in poll-watching and other activities related to voting rights on behalf of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

HSF Kramer submitted an amicus brief as co-counsel with the ACLU that helped convince a state appellate court in Texas to reverse the convictions of two pregnant women for delivering a controlled substance to their fetuses under a statute barring delivery of drugs to children. The brief argued that the novel prosecutions violated the women’s right to privacy and would improperly discourage pregnant women from seeking medical treatment and prenatal care. HSF Kramer has also assisted the New York Civil Liberties Union with research on reproductive freedom issues.

Among many establishment clause matters over the years, HSF Kramer represented the American Federation of Teachers in litigation challenging the constitutionality of school voucher programs, from the Ohio trial court to the Ohio Supreme Court to the Sixth Circuit to the US Supreme Court. HSF Kramer also has filed numerous amicus briefs on church/state issues on behalf of a range of civil rights/civil liberties organizations, including most recently in the Supreme Court urging affirmance of a decision that prayer before a local town meeting was unconstitutional coercion or endorsement of religion, in the Seventh Circuit supporting affirmance of a district court decision striking down the National Day of Prayer statute as crossing the line between permitted acknowledgment of religion and unconstitutional support for and exhortation of a religious practice, and in the Eleventh Circuit challenging the placement of an evolution disclaimer sticker in high school science textbooks in the public schools of Cobb County, GA.

HSF Kramer has represented several prisoners in civil rights lawsuits challenging their treatment or conditions of confinement. Most recently, HSF Kramer obtained a settlement on behalf of a prisoner at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn based on potentially lethal attacks allegedly incited by the conduct of corrections officers. HSF Kramer also submitted an amicus brief in the New York State Court of Appeals on behalf of the Sentencing Project and 17 other organizations challenging unreasonable surcharges imposed on New York State prisoners’ telephone calls to families, loved ones and counsel, which unreasonably interfered with their efforts to maintain positive community ties.

HSF Kramer has represented St. Basil Academy, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese home for children in need, in litigation spanning several years seeking to enforce the right of children in its care to free and appropriate public education.

HSF Kramer has worked with Legal Services NYC on several matters aimed at increasing access to justice for poor New Yorkers. The firm secured a ruling from the federal Legal Services Corp that allowed the Brooklyn Family Defense Project to represent low-income, undocumented parents in child protective proceedings in family court. The firm also has worked with the Brennan Center to litigate Velazquez v. Legal Services Corporation and Dobbins v. Legal Services Corporation, two constitutional challenges to federal funding restrictions that bar Legal Services NYC from using private funds to provide certain forms of basic legal services to low-income New Yorkers.

HSF Kramer attorneys participate in several mentoring programs that draw on both their legal skills and their human touch. In the most active such program, HSF Kramer lawyers have worked for more than a decade with Legal Outreach, a non-profit educational organization that prepares New York public high school students from underserved communities for college and professional careers. In addition to providing one-on-one mentoring, the firm has for the past several years welcomed student interns from Legal Outreach who spend a week as HSF Kramer summer associates, learning about many of the firm’s practice areas, and preparing and delivering oral arguments in a “moot court” proceeding.

HSF Kramer attorneys have served as directors of a wide range of legal, social and cultural organizations, including the Legal Aid Society, The Fund for Modern Courts, Hudson Guild, St. Vincent’s Services, New York Legal Assistance Group, National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center, the Jewish Community Relations Counsel and many others.

HSF Kramer participates in a number of firmwide projects that involve both lawyers and non-lawyers in service to the community, including the American Cancer Society’s Daffodil Days program, blood drives organized by the New York Blood Center, New York Cares’ Hands On New York Day, toy and coat drives for such organizations as the Thorpe Family Residence and the Coalition for the Homeless, and many other programs.

HSF Kramer has submitted high-profile amicus briefs in virtually every major Supreme Court LGBTQ rights case since the 1990s — starting with a brief in Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, on behalf of PFLAG and other organizations, seeking to combat myths and stereotypes about gay people. The firm also submitted a brief in Lawrence v. Texas — the case striking down laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct — rebutting specious public health justifications that had been advanced for such laws. HSF Kramer’s brief was cited by US Supreme Court Justice David Souter during the oral argument in Lawrence. In the marriage equality litigation, HSF Kramer submitted amicus briefs on behalf of a broad coalition of mainstream religious stakeholders in United States v. Windsor (which struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act) and Hollingsworth v. Perry (which left standing a decision striking down Proposition 8 in California), demonstrating the diversity of views on marriage equality within the mainstream religious community and refuting the idea that there is a single “Christian” or “religious” view of marriage. Following the victory in Windsor, HSF Kramer submitted updated versions of the religion brief in trial and appellate courts across the country and, eventually, in Obergefell v. Hodges, which vindicated the freedom to marry nationally. In recent years, the firm has submitted similar briefs in the Masterpiece Cakeshop, Bostock and 303 Creative cases, among others.

HSF Kramer dedicated thousands of hours to pro bono litigation to help establish and protect marriage equality in New York State. The firm served as co-counsel with Lambda Legal in Hernandez v. Robles, which sought equal marriage rights for same-sex couples under the New York State Constitution. The firm won a trial court order striking down marriage discrimination in New York, and, while that decision was overturned, the case sparked intense debate and led to the first passage of a marriage equality bill by the New York State Assembly in 2007 and enactment of marriage equality in the state in 2011. The firm also worked with Lambda Legal on a series of cases, culminating in Lewis v. New York State Department of Civil Service, establishing under New York law the validity of out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples. Following the enactment of marriage equality in New York, HSF Kramer sued a landlord who refused to add a longtime spouse to a rent-stabilized lease and secured a significant settlement for the couple.

HSF Kramer was co-counsel with the ACLU in McMillen v. Itawamba County School District, a case vindicating the right of a lesbian high school student in Mississippi to attend her school’s prom with a same-sex date. The firm helped secure a favorable settlement after winning a positive initial ruling that sparked a national outpouring of support for the firm’s client, Constance McMillen. HSF Kramer also represented another Mississippi teen in a suit challenging her school’s decision to exclude her from the high school yearbook rather than publish a photograph of her in a tuxedo. The firm defeated a motion to dismiss the case and secured a favorable settlement protecting the student’s right of expression. HSF Kramer also litigated the case that established second-parent adoption rights under Delaware law; represented the lesbian survivor of a victim of the September 11 attacks in a lawsuit, which ultimately settled, seeking recognition as a surviving spouse for purposes of receiving Victims’ Compensation Fund benefits; and represented a non-biological mother in a companion case to Matter of Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth C.C., in which the New York Court of Appeals recognized the right of a nonbiological, non-adoptive mother to seek custody and visitation rights of a child jointly raised in a same-sex union.

As part of its deep commitment to asylum and other immigration matters, the firm has obtained asylum for dozens of LGBTQ and HIV-positive clients, including many who are transgender or gender non-conforming. HSF Kramer received Immigration Equality’s Safe Haven Award for outstanding representation of LGBTQ/HIV+ clients from around the world. The firm also served as co-counsel with Immigration Equality and Lambda Legal in a suit enjoining the so-called Death to Asylum Rule, which would have negatively impacted almost every aspect of the asylum system and would have made it nearly impossible for LGBTQ and HIV-positive refugees who are fleeing persecution in their home countries to receive asylum in the US. Likewise, the changes would have almost entirely banned asylum for those making gender-based claims and for victims of non-state violence.

HSF Kramer has helped vindicate the rights of transgender individuals in a variety of settings, including through the asylum work described above. The firm obtained asylum for several transgender individuals, including a transgender woman fleeing a lifetime of persecution in Peru and a transgender woman from Malaysia who reasonably feared persecution if she returned home. HSF Kramer has also obtained name changes and appropriate identity documents for clients of Advocates for Transgender Equality (formerly the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund) and other organizations. In addition, the firm submitted a brief on behalf of a broad coalition of religious stakeholders endorsing equal treatment of transgender individuals in Bostock v. Clayton County, the landmark case in which the Supreme Court held that discrimination against gay and transgender people constitutes sex discrimination under Title VII. More recently, the firm submitted a brief on behalf of retired military leaders in In re Transgender American Veterans Association, urging the Veterans Administration to repeal discriminatory regulations that exclude gender-affirming surgery from VA-provided healthcare.

HSF Kramer has a long-standing partnership with the Urban Justice Center, which is dedicated to serving New York’s most vulnerable residents through a combination of direct legal service, advocacy, community education and organizing. HSF Kramer has funded two Equal Justice Works fellows who have worked on community development projects at the Urban Justice Center, and the firm has handled individual matters referred by the organization, helping launch employee-owned cooperative enterprises and other community development projects. In connection with its former sponsorship of an Equal Justice Works fellow at the Immigrant Defense Project, HSF Kramer represents several immigrants seeking post-conviction relief for their prior counsels’ failure to advise them of the deportation consequences of their guilty pleas, which constituted ineffective assistance of counsel under the principles established by the US Supreme Court’s decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 US 356 (2010). In addition, HSF Kramer authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Immigrant Defense Project that was cited and commended by the New York Court of Appeals in its decision in People v. Peque, 22 N.Y.3d 168 (2013). In that case, the Court of Appeals strengthened due process protections for immigrants accused of crimes by requiring trial courts to notify noncitizens that they may be deported if they plead guilty to a felony.

HSF Kramer has assisted the Coalition for the Homeless, a leading organization combating homelessness in New York, in a variety of matters, including spearheading construction of the coalition’s downtown headquarters.

HSF Kramer serves as land use counsel in connection with the linear public park that was created on the abandoned above-grade railroad line on the west side of Manhattan — and helped spark emergence of a whole new neighborhood. We have counseled the organization on zoning, environmental and historic preservation issues.

HSF Kramer has counseled the Early Alzheimer’s Foundation, which provides programs and facilities for persons suffering from memory disorders and their caregivers, on corporate governance, non-profit tax compliance, regulatory and contract issues.

HSF Kramer has provided land use advice and zoning analyses to both the Harlem Children’s Zone and Harlem Village Academy charter schools, in connection with their planned new facilities in Harlem.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color, and it threatens to expand the racial wealth gap in neighborhoods that already lack access to resources as a result of long-term structural inequities. In response, Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute launched Neighborhoods Now, an initiative connecting four neighborhoods hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Washington Heights, Kingsbridge and Jackson Heights) with law firms, design professionals and community health experts to develop safe and effective reopening strategies.

The Veterans Assistance Project helps disabled veterans apply for medical benefits after they have been denied. The disabled veteran client base is approximately 75% persons of color, and these New Yorkers typically face a range of systemic challenges on top of handling often deeply difficult disability conditions. HSF Kramer lawyers are working with those veterans whose claims have been denied to assist them in assessing their claims and preparing the necessary paperwork.

HSF Kramer was one of a handful of major firms invited to help New York’s Legal Aid Society launch its first-ever project to involve law firm associates in trial-level criminal defense work. Each fall since 2008, one or two HSF Kramer associates have been assigned to devote 20-30% of their time to the project over several months — handling their own misdemeanor dockets (from arraignment to trial) as lead counsel and assisting on felony cases.

HSF Kramer has for many years handled state court criminal appeals referred by Legal Aid, winning reversal in several cases. These matters have provided associates with the opportunity to brief and argue an appeal in the Appellate Division and, in at least one case, in the New York Court of Appeals.

HSF Kramer has represented several defendants in collateral challenges to convictions, acting as court-appointed counsel for indigent habeas plaintiffs. In one such case, the firm’s representation resulted in a state court overturning a robbery conviction, for which the client had already served 12 years of a 15-to-life sentence, based on his trial counsel’s constitutionally deficient performance in failing to challenge eyewitness testimony with prior inconsistent statements.

Summer associates team with attorneys to represent refugees from around the world who have been persecuted for their religious and political beliefs, sexual orientation, or ethnic identity. In recent years, summer associates have helped win asylum for dozens of clients, including a Belarusian lesbian attacked and nearly killed by government officials, a Tibetan refugee who survived torture, and a young Gambian girl who was the victim of female genital mutilation.

Summer associates act as lead counsel, under the supervision of senior lawyers, representing low-income individuals seeking Social Security disability benefits. Each summer associate gathers and reviews medical evidence, prepares the client’s direct examination, submits letter briefs, and conducts a hearing before an administrative law judge. We have won benefits for dozens of claimants over more than 20 years conducting this program.

Summer associates have handled a variety of other pro bono projects — including preparing a will for a low-income elderly client, implementing an uncontested divorce, and representing a non-profit organization or low-income artist in a transactional matter. Summer associates also pitch in on other active firm pro bono projects — and have assisted on some of our highest-profile matters, including the New York marriage rights litigation, our representation of Guantánamo detainees and our class action on behalf of homeless children with asthma.