Via New York Law Journal:
Last week, the New York Legal Assistance Group hosted five Harvard Law and two University of Southern California Gould School of Law students volunteering with Sandy victims in Coney Island and Staten Island. They spent last week helping with intake at legal clinics and visiting people’s homes to document damages for FEMA and insurance claims.
Melanie Berdecia, a 1L Harvard Law student who is from the Bronx and helped with NYLAG, said she has been particularly interested in issues surrounding recent immigrants, some of whom aren’t applying for disaster aid or seeking help because of language barriers or because they are undocumented.
“In law school I’ve learned how many free legal services are out there that people just don’t know about,” Berdecia said. “It’s exciting to reach out to people who don’t know what’s available to them.”