Each member of Leap shares the following characteristics:
- We are 501c.3 organizations that provide direct civil legal services to low income clients and communities as a significant part of our organizations’ missions*;
- We employ at least three full-time staff attorneys, one of whom supervises legal services;
- We follow the ABA standards on quality of representation;
- We practice primarily in New York City;
- Our organizations focus more broadly than on single-issues.
Our Members
CAMBA Legal Services, founded in 1993, provides immigration, housing, foreclosure, consumer, public benefits, and HIV-related legal services in a community-based model to low-income individuals and families in Brooklyn, with services provided citywide for consumer law cases. CAMBA serves more than 1,800 clients each year including full representation to more than 1,400 clients and 400 brief services. CAMBA’s diverse and culturally competent staff of 24 includes 12 attorneys, six paralegals, two case managers, and four administrative staff.
Service Area: Brooklyn
Address: 885 Flatbush Avenue, Room 202, Brooklyn, NY 11226
Phone: (718) 282-0010
Web site: www.camba.org
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Goddard Riverside Community Center, West Side SRO Law Project (GRCC), founded in 1981, provides free legal services and tenant organizing assistance to low-income tenants on Manhattan's West Side. GRCC serves almost 7,000 clients each year including 400 individuals receiving full representation and 6,500 receiving some type of brief services. GRCC’s eight staff members include a project director, two staff attorneys, three organizers, one office manager, and one process server.
Service Area: SRO tenants who live on the West Side of Manhattan, north of 14th Street and apartment tenants who live between 100th and 110th Streets, between Broadway and Central Park West
Address: 51 West 109th Street @ Manhattan Avenue, New York, NY 10025
Phone: (212) 799-9638
Web site: www.goddard.org
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Housing Conservation Coordinators (HCC), founded in 1972, offers comprehensive legal services for low and moderate individuals and families on Manhattan’s West Side in housing, benefits advocacy, domestic violence, zoning enforcement, community economic development, consumer debt and immigration matters. In addition to direct legal services, HCC provides tenant organizing and advocacy services to improve building services; weatherization assistance; and community organizing to maximize new affordable housing opportunities. Each year, HCC serves more than 4,000 clients, with 1,500 clients receiving in-depth services, including on-going advocacy/counseling or legal representation; 800 households receiving brief services; and more than 2,000 participants in HCC’s organizing program. HCC employs a staff of 20 including six attorneys, one intake coordinator, three tenant organizers, two community organizers, four weatherization staff, and four management/administration staff.
Service Area: Manhattan’s West Side from 34th Street to 72nd Street
Address: 777 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 541-5996
Web site: www.hcc-nyc.org
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Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, founded in 1894, provides services to low-income people on Manhattan's East Side in the areas of housing, government benefits, health care, employment and labor law, family law, and advance directives. It also provides free legal services to unpaid family caregivers and their elderly care recipients. The Legal Advocacy & Organizing Department serves approximately 2,000 clients annually. It also provides educational workshops and training to over 5,000 individuals each year, including clients, caseworkers, and community members. The Legal Advocacy & Organizing Department’s four attorneys and four non-attorney advocates work collaboratively with the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House's other staff members, including social workers, educators, and case managers. Services are provided at the Neighborhood House's main site as well as at four other sites on the East Side.
Service Area: Individuals and families who live, work, or go to school between 59th Street and 110th Street, between Fifth Avenue and the East River, and Roosevelt Island. Also, all individuals and families who receive services from another Neighborhood House program are eligible for legal services, regardless of where they reside.
Address: 331 E. 70th Street, New York, NY 10021
Phone: (212) 744-5022
Web site: www.lenoxhill.org
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Make the Road New York (MRNY)’s Department of Legal & Support Services tackles poverty from three complementary angles: it helps low-wage workers collect unpaid minimum and overtime wages, helps families access and maintain often unstable public benefits streams, and assists immigrants to legalize their status and thus improve family members’ employment prospects. MRNY battles poverty’s worst effects: hunger, substandard or non-existent housing, and lack of access to decent medical care. And MRNY works to change the systems that perpetuate and exacerbate poverty by engaging in impact litigation, government agency monitoring, and law reform efforts. Attorneys and paralegals/advocates specialize in labor and employment law, public benefits, disability benefits, housing law, healthcare and health insurance access, immigration, public education, domestic violence, and LGBT civil rights issues. MRNY employs six attorneys, six advocates, and four Medicaid/Child Health Plus facilitated enrollment specialists. All MRNY staff members are bilingual in Spanish and English and expert in immigration issues. MRNY operates three neighborhood-based offices: in Elmhurt, Queens; Bushwick, Brooklyn; and Port Richmond, Staten Island.
Service Area: All Five Boroughs
Addresses: Bushwick, Brooklyn – 301 Grove Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237, (718) 418-7690
Elmhurst, Queens – 92-10 Roosevelt Avenue, Elmhurst, NY 11372, (718) 565-8500
Port Richmond, Staten Island – 479 Port Richmond Ave, Staten Island, NY 10302, (718) 727-1222
Web site: www.maketheroadny.org
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MFY Legal Services, founded in 1963, provides free legal assistance to over 6,600 low income New Yorkers each year through seven citywide projects and three projects serving the borough of Manhattan. MFY's citywide projects are the Mental Health Law Project, the Adult Home Advocacy Project, the SRO Law Project (serving all of NYC except the west side of Manhattan north of 14th Street), the Workplace Justice Project, the Kinship Caregiver Law Project, the Consumer Rights Project, and the Foreclosure Prevention Project. MFY's Manhattan-based projects are the Neighborhood Preservation Project (serving the east side of Manhattan and the west side below 110th Street); the Manhattan Legal Aid for Seniors Project (serving Manhattan bellow 111th Street); and the Lower Manhattan Justice Project (serving Manhattan below Houston Street). The agency has a staff of 42 attorneys, three paralegal organizers, one social worker and over 200 volunteers.
Service Area: All Five Boroughs
Address: 299 Broadway, New York, NY 10007
Phone: (212) 417-3700
Web site: www.mfy.org
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New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, founded in 1976, is a nonprofit, civil rights law firm that strives for social justice. In partnership with member law firms, corporate law departments and other organizations, NYLPI helps underrepresented people develop legal strategies to serve their vision for themselves and their communities. NYLPI combines a pro bono clearinghouse with an in-house practice that blends innovative lawyering, community organizing and advocacy. The Pro Bono Clearinghouse provides community groups and nonprofit organizations with free legal assistance by drawing on hundreds of volunteer lawyers from top New York law firms and corporate law departments. The Disability Law Center protects and promotes the civil rights of people with disabilities. The Environmental Justice and Community Development Project provides organizing and legal assistance to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color that bear an unfair burden of environmental threats. The Access to Health Care Program works to ensure access to quality health care for people in medically underserved communities or facing barriers due to limited English proficiency, racial and ethnic discrimination, and disability. Together, these programs serve over 1,000 clients annually in all five boroughs. NYLPI’s staff of 42 includes 15 attorneys, four community organizers, three advocates and two paralegals.
Service Area: All Five Boroughs
Address: 151 W. 30th Street, New York, NY 10001
Phone: (212) 244-4664
Web site: www.nylpi.org
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New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), founded in 1990, provides free civil legal services to low-income individuals and their families residing in the five boroughs of New York City and Long Island. Services include case consultation, direct representation in all administrative and judicial courts, impact and class litigation, Continuing Legal Education for attorneys, and community education. NYLAG serves a wide range of vulnerable New Yorkers including immigrants, low-wage workers, low-income women, victims of domestic violence, the elderly, the chronically ill and disabled, children with special needs, Holocaust survivors, and many others. Assistance is provided in all civil legal areas including accessing government benefits, consumer law, housing law (including foreclosure-related legal services), immigration law, family law, health law, elder law and special education. In 2007 NYLAG handled 17,991 cases serving 31,067 individuals. In addition, thousands of low-income city and state residents benefited from successful impact litigation. More than 13,000 individuals attended seminars or received materials through NYLAG’s community legal education program, while over 2000 received assistance through attorney “help desks” located citywide. NYLAG’s staff of 92 includes 56 salaried attorneys and 25 paralegals.
Service area: Citywide with 37 intake sites in all five boroughs and Long Island
Main office: 450 W. 33rd St. 11th Floor, New York, NY 10001
Phone: (212) 613-5000
Web site: www.nylag.org
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Northern Manhattan Improvement Corp. Legal Services (NMIC), founded in 1979, provides comprehensive free legal services to residents of Upper Manhattan regarding housing, public benefits, public health, disability, and domestic violence matters. NMIC provides group advocacy to tenant associations to improve local housing conditions; supports impact litigation benefiting low-income City residents in the areas of housing, public benefits, disability, and environmental justice (particularly childhood lead poisoning prevention); and gives specialized services on elder law, health, immigration, and consumer debt matters. NMIC serves over 10,000 clients annually. NMIC Legal Services has 20 staff members with 11 attorneys.
Service Area: Upper Manhattan
Address: Main Office – 76 Wadsworth Avenue, New York, NY 10033; Housing Court Office – 111 Centre Street, Rm. 325, Civil Courthouse, New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 251-4016
Web site: www.nmic.org
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Urban Justice Center (UJC), founded in 1984, provides legal assistance in housing, domestic violence, mental health, LGBT, sex workers, street vendors, human rights, community development, health, workers compensation, consumer debt matters, public assistance, civil rights, family, employment, and veterans benefits in addition to other advocacy. In the last year the UJC closed almost 7,000 cases (impacting over 20,000 people), worked on 56 impact projects, co-counseled with 35 pro bono law firms, conducted 155 trainings (reaching nearly 11,000 people), and answered over 2,300 hot and warm line calls. The UJC also saved New York City more than $5.5 million. Finally, the UJC supports and works closely with over 200 community groups, seeking to grasp and address the issues that prevent their individual members from achieving self-sufficiency and working to empower them to take control of their lives. The UJC employs 36 lawyers and 44 others.
Service Area: Manhattan, Brooklyn the Bronx and Queens
Address: 123 Williams Street , 16th Floor, New York, NY 10012
Phone: (646) 602-5600
Web site: www.urbanjustice.org
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