Greenberg Traurig has teamed up with KIND (Kids in Need of Defense) to launch a nationwide program offering free legal services in U.S. immigration proceedings to children. The initiative would involve 150 attorneys of the law firm across seven offices and would also create a full-time fellowship position. KIND is an organization founded by the Microsoft Corporation and Angelina Jolie.
The GT Pro Bono Spotlight informed that training for the attorneys involved in the initiative will start on 8th November. The training will be conducted at New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Houston, Boston and Los Angeles offices of the firm.
Besides the pro bono work by its lawyers, the law firm will also be funding a full-time fellowship position at KIND through the Equal Justice Works, a non-profit organization that facilitates two-year fellowships for recent law school graduates who want to pursue careers in public services. The position is part of a broader fellowship program.
Greenberg Traurig is the largest single funder of the Equal Justice Works fellowship program and invested around $8 million up to 2014 to support 127 Equal Justice Works Fellows from more than 40 cities across the United States.
Speaking on the initiative, William C. Silverman, head of Greenberg Traurig’s pro bono program said, “The failure to guarantee counsel to unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings offends due process … Our goal here is not only to help individual children but to take this issue on and make a real impact on a national scale.
The release detailed that children without a parent of legal guardian are usually not entitled to appointed counsel in immigration proceedings, regardless of the age of the child. Many of these children become victims of human trafficking and abuse, and are in great need of legal services. Greenberg Traurig intends to take up multiple such cases throughout the country simultaneously.