Get Involved In Our Legal Services
The Door’s Legal Services Center provides representation to and advocacy for young people ages 12–24 with the generous support of our pro bono partners.
Learn more about our direct legal services for young people, as well as about our Policy & Advocacy work.
Pro Bono Program
Our pro bono partners include large law firms in Manhattan, as well as smaller to mid-sized firms. We are known for our work defending the rights of undocumented youth—work that pro bono teams from law firms drive from start to finish with mentoring and oversight from our in-house Pro Bono Managing Attorney at The Door.
Our social workers, counselors, educators, and physical and medical health service providers at The Door remain available to support these clients as the pro bono teams move forward with their legal cases so that our pro bono partners can focus solely on the legal cases and rest assured their clients are getting the various other supports, they need.
We place dozens of cases per year with pro bono teams and we work with these teams not only on individual representations, but also on advocacy and impact litigation principally around immigration and the rights of undocumented young people.
In our pro bono practice, we:
recruit, train, and mentor volunteer attorneys, with a focus on representing immigrant youth apply for humanitarian relief;
provide supervision, counseling, and all samples and models necessary for a successful representation;
partner with law firms to hold intake clinics, trainings (including but not limited to SIJS and asylum trainings), and know-your-rights events;
match clients with volunteer attorneys;
work with law firm attorneys on local and national advocacy projects, and federal and other impact litigation;
hold drop-in clinics for runaway and homeless youth, and youth wishing to be emancipated, at The Door on a regular basis with staffing from individual law firms.
If you would like to learn more about The Door’s pro bono program or are interested in taking on a case or otherwise partnering with us, please email Pro Bono Managing Attorney Beth Baltimore at bbaltimore@door.org.
Pro Bono Partners
We are grateful to our private law firm partners who make it possible for us to meet our clients’ needs.
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP
Baker & McKenzie LLP
Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Covington & Burling LLP
Davis Polk & Wardell LLP
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Dechert LLP
Fox Rothschild LLP
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Herrick Feinstein LLP
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
Latham & Watkins LLP
Milbank LLP
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
Proskauer Rose LLP
Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP
Ropes & Gray LLP
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Sher Tremonte LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Winston & Strawn LLP
Legal Internship Institute
The Door’s Legal Services Center takes pride in mentoring the next generation of social justice lawyers. We host term time legal interns, pro bono scholars as well as run a flagship summer legal internship institute. Our summer legal internship institute features a substantive and soft skills training program; a brown bag lunch series with exciting lawyers, judges, and activists; the opportunity to appear in court on the record; and field trips, happy hours, and other fun activities.
We also, on occasion, host undergraduate interns. We recruit legal interns every year at the following career fairs: Equal Justice Works and NYU’s PILC Fair. For more information on our internship opportunities, please contact Razia Hamid at rhamid@door.org.
Support Our Work
The Door’s Legal Services Center can meet the urgent legal needs of thousands of NYC youth each year thanks to the generous contributions of caring individuals, private foundations, and public grants. You can support us by donating. Please write “Legal Services Center” in the comment box on the online donation form.
Contact Directory
For Questions
Pro Bono Partnerships:
Beth Baltimore, bbaltimore@door.org
Internship Opportunities:
Razia Hamid, rhamid@door.org
Media Inquiries
Mika De Roo, mderoo@door.org