Ongoing Pro Bono Initiatives

AIDS Clinic

Since 1989, Sullivan & Cromwell has hosted a pioneering weekly legal clinic at New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Center for Special Studies and its related Gay Men’s Health Crisis satellite location in Chelsea in which the Firm’s lawyers provide valuable estate planning services to impoverished AIDS and HIV-positive patients. Lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants, analysts and information services employees staff the clinic on a rotating basis, providing disadvantaged people with wills, health care proxies, powers of attorney and guardianship advice. These thriving clinics serve as a model for successful delivery of vital legal services to people in need and reflect the significant efforts of those dedicated S&C employees who volunteer their time to this worthy cause.

NYC Law Department Deposition Public Service Program

The NYC Law Department Deposition Public Service Program allows S&C lawyers who have gone through the Firm's deposition skills training program to take depositions on behalf of the NYC Law Department's Brooklyn Tort Division. 

New York State Division of Human Rights

New York State Division of Human Rights (NYSDHR) adjudicates discrimination claims brought under the New York Human Rights Law in employment, housing, credit, places of public accommodations and nonsectarian educational institutions based on race, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, military status and other protected classes. S&C lawyers and paralegals participate in training and then represent individual complainants who have filed complaints with the NYSDHR at administrative hearings.

Sanctuary for Families’ U Visa Project

S&C has joined Sanctuary for Families' U Visa Project, which assists immigrants, many who are victim of domestic violence, who have cooperated with the district attorney's office in a prosecution. As a result of their cooperation, the immigrant is eligible for a U Visa and work permit. Sanctuary for Families has over 400 people who have been certified by a district attorneys office as eligible for this visa. S&C lawyers and legal assistants can: interview the applicant, gather all relevant documents and complete and submit the application.


Supporting Fellows Working in the Community

Equal Justice Works

The Firm’s Equal Justice Works Fellowships Program creates partnerships among public interest lawyers, nonprofit organizations, and law firm/corporate sponsors in an effort to provide underrepresented populations valuable and effective access to the justice system. Under this program, the Firm places new lawyers in two-year assignments at nonprofit public interest organizations where they implement projects that address critical community needs.

The Firm’s 2006-2008 Fellow, Vivian Lehrer, works with the Urban Justice Center’s Domestic Violence Project, where she provides Latina domestic violence survivors throughout New York City with legal services, advocacy, outreach and community education on legal and immigration rights. Ms. Lehrer also oversees student interns in outreach efforts and offers pro bono opportunities to associates who are equally dedicated to providing support to victims of domestic violence.