Impact litigation can be an effective tool in addressing a systemic issue that in turn can affect the lives of many individuals. There are legal services organizations across the country who use this strategy on behalf of a vast number of constituent groups. These organizations often will partner with one or more large firms to lead the litigation, but there is also a role for individual lawyers or groups of lawyers who practice in smaller organizations to assist in these cases. The ABA Litigation Section wants to assist members who practice in solo or small firms without easy access to participation in impact litigation by connecting them with the legal services organizations engaged in this crucial work.
Contact one of the providers below for potential opportunities to get involved in litigation dealing with these important issues.
Interested in Impact Litigation Pro Bono Opportunities?
Children’s Rights
Children's Rights
Children’s Rights investigates, exposes, and combats civil rights violations of children across the country. Children’s Rights’ areas of focus include child welfare, racial justice, access to mental health services, psychotropic medication oversight, LGBTQ+ equity, and overuse of and conditions in congregate care, juvenile legal system facilities, and centers detaining unaccompanied immigrant minors. Children's Rights periodically offers attorneys opportunities to teach in-house CLEs and assist with advocacy and policy projects. Based on case needs, experienced litigation attorneys may also have the opportunity to partner with Children’s Rights in class action litigations on behalf of children.
Contact: Emmy Vargas, [email protected], 212-683-2210
Disability Rights
National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ)
NCLEJ advances racial and economic justice through groundbreaking litigation, policy advocacy, and support of grassroots organizing. Recent impact litigation includes suits to:
- force the Missouri Department of Social Services to make SNAP benefits available to low-income people who need them and ensure that benefits are accessible to disabled people.
- ensure that developmentally disabled individuals in Michigan receive adequate home care services so that they can participate in the community instead of being institutionalized at home
- and much more!
Contact: Claudia Wilner, [email protected], 212-633-6967
Economic Justice
National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ)
NCLEJ advances racial and economic justice through groundbreaking litigation, policy advocacy, and support of grassroots organizing. Recent impact litigation includes suits to:
- force the Missouri Department of Social Services to make SNAP benefits available to low-income people who need them and ensure that benefits are accessible to disabled people.
- challenge debtor's prisons in Montgomery, AL.
- and much more!
Contact: Claudia Wilner, [email protected], 212-633-6967
Immigrant Rights
Mexican American Legal Defense & Educations Fund (MALDEF)
MALDEF's commitment is to protect and defend the rights of all Latinos living in the United States and the constitutional rights of all Americans through impact litigation, advocacy, and community education in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights, and political access. Recent impact litigation suits include:
- Missouri Protection & Advocacy Services, et. al, v. Ashcroft., et. al (W.D.MO), a lawsuit suing Missouri state and local officials over a state election provision that disenfranchises voters with limited English proficiency or with disabilities who require assistance in casting a ballot.
- De Leon Resendiz v. ExxonMobil Corporation (E.D.N.C), a class action lawsuit against ExxonMobil Corporation for denying DACA recipients employment based on their immigration status in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
- C.O. v. United States (US Dist. Ct., N.D. Ga), a recently settled lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of a transgender client held in solitary confinement at a Georgia immigrant detention center and denied hormone treatment and prevented from accessing resources available to other immigrants in the facility.
Contact: [email protected], 213-629-2512
LGBTQ+ Equity
Children’s Rights
Children’s Rights investigates, exposes, and combats civil rights violations of children across the country. Children’s Rights’ areas of focus include child welfare, racial justice, access to mental health services, psychotropic medication oversight, LGBTQ+ equity, and overuse of and conditions in congregate care, juvenile legal system facilities, and centers detaining unaccompanied immigrant minors. Children's Rights periodically offers attorneys opportunities to teach in-house CLEs and assist with advocacy and policy projects. Based on case needs, experienced litigation attorneys may also have the opportunity to partner with Children’s Rights in class action litigations on behalf of children.
Contact: Emmy Vargas, [email protected], 212-683-2210
Racial Justice
Children’s Rights
Children’s Rights investigates, exposes, and combats civil rights violations of children across the country. Children’s Rights’ areas of focus include child welfare, racial justice, access to mental health services, psychotropic medication oversight, LGBTQ+ equity, and overuse of and conditions in congregate care, juvenile legal system facilities, and centers detaining unaccompanied immigrant minors. Children's Rights periodically offers attorneys opportunities to teach in-house CLEs and assist with advocacy and policy projects. Based on case needs, experienced litigation attorneys may also have the opportunity to partner with Children’s Rights in class action litigations on behalf of children.
Contact: Emmy Vargas, [email protected], 212-683-2210
LatinoJustice PRLDF
LatinoJustice works to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law to secure transformative, equitable, and accessible justice, by empowering the community and by fostering leadership through advocacy and education. Recent and ongoing litigation includes:
- Florida Rising Together v. Lee (N.D. Fla.), winning a trial finding that Florida’s 2021 voter suppression law violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
- Plaintiffs 1-21 v. Suffolk County Police Department (E.D.N.Y.), challenging Suffolk County's pattern and practice of racial profiling of Latino drivers and pedestrians and failure to investigate targeting of Latinos by SCPD officers.
- Ligon v NYPD (S.D.N.Y.), reforming NYPD’s stop and frisk practices.
- Fossella v. Adams (NY State Supreme Court), intervening on behalf of immigrants given the right to vote in municipal elections.
- EEOC v. Suffolk Laundry, securing $582,000 settlement for 7 Latina immigrant workers in Title VII sexual harassment lawsuit.
- In re Cesar Vargas, representing first Dreamer law graduate publicly granted NY State bar admission.
- Rivera-Madera v. Detzner, winning Spanish-language ballots in 32 Florida election districts pursuant to the Voting Rights Act.
Contact: Ghita Schwarz, [email protected], 212-739-7510
Mexican American Legal Defense & Educations Fund (MALDEF)
MALDEF's commitment is to protect and defend the rights of all Latinos living in the United States and the constitutional rights of all Americans through impact litigation, advocacy, and community education in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights, and political access. Recent impact litigation suits include:
- Missouri Protection & Advocacy Services, et. al, v. Ashcroft., et. al (W.D.MO), a lawsuit suing Missouri state and local officials over a state election provision that disenfranchises voters with limited English proficiency or with disabilities who require assistance in casting a ballot.
- De Leon Resendiz v. ExxonMobil Corporation (E.D.N.C), a class action lawsuit against ExxonMobil Corporation for denying DACA recipients employment based on their immigration status in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
- C.O. v. United States (US Dist. Ct., N.D. Ga), a recently settled lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of a transgender client held in solitary confinement at a Georgia immigrant detention center and denied hormone treatment and prevented from accessing resources available to other immigrants in the facility.
Contact: [email protected], 213-629-2512
National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ)
NCLEJ advances racial and economic justice through groundbreaking litigation, policy advocacy, and support of grassroots organizing. Recent impact litigation includes suits to:
- end racially discriminatory traffic enforcement practices in Buffalo, NY.
- vindicate the First Amendment rights of racial justice protestors in Oklahoma City, OK.
- and much more!
Contact: Claudia Wilner, [email protected], 212-633-6967
Contact Us
Don’t see the topic in which you’re interested? Contact the Litigation Section’s Good Works Coordinator, Shannon Prown, to find out about other opportunities to get involved.