Advice & Referral 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].
Advice & Referral Clinic volunteers must be associated with a participating organization. Please refer to the list of clinic participants. If you are associated with a clinic participant, please contact that organization’s pro bono or volunteer coordinator to arrange to volunteer for the clinic. If you are not an employee or member of a participating organization, ask your employer, Bar Community, voluntary bar association, or other organization to become a clinic participant.
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Upcoming Clinics
October 21, 2023
November 18, 2023
Clinic Participants
Ain & Bank, P.C.
Arent Fox Schiff LLP
Bertram Law Group, PLLC
Blackboard, Inc.
Blank Rome LLP
Bread for the City
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC
Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C.
Crowell & Moring LLP
D.C. Bar John Payton Leadership Academy
Federal Communications Commission
Finnegan
Honigman LLP
Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Chartered
J Williams Law, LLC
Johnson & Pavuk
Kass Legal Group, PLLC
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Keller and Heckman LLP
Khooobchandani Law
King & Spalding LLP
Law Office of Andrea J. Sloan
Markham Law Firm
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
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
Sidley Austin LLP
The SJS Law Firm, PLLC
Trombly & Singer, PLLC
Tzedek DC
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
U.S. Small Business Administration
Venable LLP
Whitman-Walker Health
WilmerHale
