NEW YORK: Community members from north and east Brooklyn gathered outside 350 Broadway today in protest of the consolidation of Legal Services of NYC, one of New York’s largest civil legal associations.
The consolidation would remove the company’s outer-borough branches from their current locations and centralize everything in Manhattan. One of these branches, Brooklyn Corporation A, would be removed from its Williamsburg location where it specializes in neighborhood-oriented services to low-income communities in and around the area.
“Disabled and old people can’t travel so far to get a lawyer,” said Maria Alvarado, 28, of Bushwick. “It’s not fair.”
Many North Brooklyn community leaders as well as the community members themselves are critical of the consolidation plan. They fear that the underserved communities that Brooklyn A serves will not continue to receive the support they currently enjoy if there are no specialized branches within their communities. Many attorneys at Brooklyn A share these feelings.
“Consolidation will take services out of the community and take the interaction between the office and the community away,” said Joanne Koslorsky, an attorney for Brooklyn A. “We at Brooklyn A do not want to be consolidated, and the community doesn’t want us to be either. We don’t want the central office model.”
Legal Services insists “the central office model” will only make services for low-income clients and community organizations more efficient. Many attorneys in their outer-borough offices disagree.
“If you take a legal office out of a community, it’s harder for the people of that community to get help,” said Julie Chartloff, an attorney for Brooklyn A. “These communities have been hit so hard during these times and this will make it even harder on them - our office is very in touch with the community.”
This connection between the office and the clients it serves is exactly what both attorneys and community members feel will be lost in the shuffle if consolidation occurs. Many community members come from low-income, single-parent homes. Many speak almost no English. All are worried that their needs will no longer be a priority if their branch of Legal Services is removed.
“If you believe in legal services for the poor, this will create another bar for them,” Chartloff said.
Consolidation is currently still under discussion within Legal Services and will be voted on at the corporation’s December board meeting.
Many Brooklyn A attorneys are unhappy about the merge, not only because of the repercussions for the clients, but also for themselves. Many started working for Legal Services because they bought into the company’s original philosophy which favored community-based legal services with separate neighborhood branches designed to service different communities. Now, they do not want to be a part of what Legal Services is calling “the Brooklyn Planning Process,” which would completely eliminate this model, making the whole corporation into one law firm.
“This is really a philosophical battle that has tremendous implications for community services.” Koslorsky said.
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