Haub Law Adjunct Professor Elyse Diamond is Director of the Public Interest Law Center and the Access to Justice Project. She has called in to spearhead the partnership and launch of her center, and will serve as an advisor to Haub Law’s student faculty who will be participating in the program.
Pace University’s Elizabeth Houb School of Law has partnered with Legal Hand, Inc., a non-profit corporation in New York State, to launch the Legal Hand Call-In Center to serve Westchester County. The virtual center is staffed and operated by Haub Law and is expected to open to visitors this month.
The Legal Hands Call-in Center is a fully virtual resource center for community members with office space on the third floor of the Law School’s Aloysia Hall. Haub Law students, along with college students and community volunteers, are trained by phone and online to help those who live, work and send their children to school in Westchester, providing legal information, assistance and referrals. will be The Center does not provide legal advice or representation, but serves as a valuable resource for community members seeking guidance in areas such as employment, housing, family, immigration, domestic violence, and public interest.
“Through our partnership with Legal Hand, the Elizabeth Houb School of Law plays an important role as a community resource, providing students with a unique opportunity to understand and address access to justice.Elisabeth Houb Dean of Law School: “The goal of the Center is to help both volunteers and visitors understand and navigate issues and self-help resources so that visitors can resolve their issues before they turn to legal action.” That’s it.”
Serving Westchester County, the Legal Hand Call-In Center functions as part of the law school’s broader Access to Justice Project, which incorporates components of curriculum, experience, research, and policy advocacy, all students, Designed to increase faculty and staff engagement in pro bono and community work, and to support communities in addressing justice gaps. Haub Law is also partnering with the 9th Judicial District Court’s Pro Bono Commission to train Haub Law students and assist pro bono attorneys in a new virtual real-time dispute-free divorce clinic. Haub Law has likewise partnered with Hudson Valley’s Legal Services to train students to staff their new real-time virtual his housing his clinic.
Law student volunteers can participate by handling shifts during the Legal Hand Call-In Center hours, either as a trained volunteer or through guided external training. Members of the wider community are asked to train as volunteers and commit to providing a minimum of services. 3 hours a week, 6 months.
With the addition of the soon-to-be-introduced Legal Hands Call-in Center, Haub Law recently appointed Stephanie Costa of Esq. As a legal hand call-in center attorney. In this new role, she will train and supervise law students and community volunteers as they assist virtual visitors at the Legal Hands Call-in Center operated by Pace. Prior to joining Haub Law, Costa filed litigation in Legal Services-NYC on behalf of individual New Yorkers and the Tenant Association regarding tenant rights and fair housing issues. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Fordham University Law School and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Diego Gomez, who graduated from law school in 2022, has also been hired as Center Manager to help train and manage the Center.
Haub Law is currently recruiting students and other interested community members to volunteer. Qualified volunteers will undergo an intensive training program prior to the center’s scheduled launch on January 30th.
