Advice & Referral Clinic

• About the Clinic
• Volunteering
• Clinic Participants

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About the Clinic

It is estimated that about 70 percent of individuals requesting free legal assistance require only brief services—not full representation—to solve their legal problems. The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center Advice & Referral Clinic offers pro se individuals the opportunity to discuss with volunteer attorneys certain kinds of matters governed by D.C. or federal law, including bankruptcy/debt collection, consumer law, employment law, family law, health law, housing law, personal injury, probate, public benefits, and tax law. All services are provided free of charge.

The clinic is limited to providing general information, advice, and brief services, and does not provide representation.

Providing “brief services” may not always be achievable by the end of the clinic session. For example, calling a third party or government agency to ascertain information about a client’s matter, writing a demand letter to a landlord or a judgment-proof letter to a creditor, or reviewing a contract or settlement agreement may require some of the volunteer attorney’s time after the clinic. However, clinic volunteers do not appear in court or otherwise establish an extended attorney-client relationship unless they wish to do so.

If brief service is not enough to resolve the problem or if a different type of service is required, clinic volunteers attempt to refer individuals to, or provide information about, a legal or social service provider appropriately suited to handle the case.

Local legal service providers also benefit from the Advice & Referral Clinic, since it lessens the number of individuals walking into their organizations, allowing those practitioners to spend more of their resources representing clients instead of providing general information, advice, and brief services.

For more information, please contact [email protected].

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Volunteering

The Advice & Referral Clinic welcomes new volunteers. Federal government employees should register through the participating Federal Government Pro Bono Program. All other attorneys, licensed and in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction, please register here. Interested law students should reach out to their law school’s pro bono coordinator and other non-attorneys should send an email to [email protected].

Download our 2024 Advice & Referral Clinic Flyer:

• English
• Spanish

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2024 Clinic Dates

For the remainder of 2024, the clinic will take place monthly at the D.C. Bar located at 901 4th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.

The next clinic will take place on September 28, 2024 at the D.C. Bar.

Upcoming Clinic Dates:

September 28, 2024
October 19, 2024
November 16, 2024

January 25, 2025
February 22, 2025
March 22, 2025
April 26, 2025
May 17, 2025
June 28, 2025
July 26, 2025
September 20, 2025
October 18, 2025
November 15, 2025

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Clinic Participants

Ain & Bank, P.C.
Alden Law Group
Arent Fox Schiff LLP
Bertram & Murphy
Blackboard, Inc.
Blank Rome LLP
Bread for the City
Bredhoff & Kaiser PLLC
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC
Burch Law Firm, PLLC
Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Crowell & Moring LLP
D Nichol Law
D.C. Bar John Payton Leadership Academy
Del Cuadro-Zimmerman PLLC
Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Communications Commission
Federal Reserve Board
Finnegan
Frost Brown Todd LLP
Greater Washington Bar Association, Women Lawyers Division, National Bar Association
Holland & Knight
Honigman LLP
Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Chartered
J Williams Law, LLC
J. Reuben Clark Society, Local Chapter
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Pavuk
Jones Day
Kass Legal Group, PLLC
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Keller and Heckman LLP
Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC
Khoobchandani Law
King & Spalding LLP
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Law Office of Andrea J. Sloan
Law Office of K. Lawson Wellington
Leadership Council for Legal Diversity
Markham Law Firm
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
National Association of State Treasurers
National Credit Union Administration
Nixon Peabody LLP
Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Patrick Malone & Associates
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Regan Zambri Long PLLC
Samek | Werther | Mills, LLC
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
The SJS Law Firm, PLLC
Trombly & Singer, PLLC
Tzedek DC
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Access to Justice
U.S. Department of Labor
U.S. Department of Transportation
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
U.S. Small Business Administration
Venable LLP
Washington Bar Association
Washington Council of Lawyers
Whitman-Walker Health
WilmerHale

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