UH Law students attend a pro bono pop-up with local legal service providers during the 2022 Pro Bono week.
Dec. 05, 2022 — The University of Houston Law Center marked the American Bar Association’s annual Pro Bono Week held recently, themed “Law in Everyday Life,” with a host of volunteer opportunities and educational events for students, faculty and staff.
Events for the week included a will clinic for low-income seniors in the Third Ward, an eviction defense learning lab, a pro bono pop-up with local legal service providers, a Veterans Clinic at the V.A. Hospital, and a voter protection hotline training through the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“Pro Bono Week brings attention to the need for free legal services for those who cannot afford them and encourages lawyers to give back in the way only lawyers can,” said Alissa Rubin Gomez, Clinical Associate Professor and Pro Bono Facilitator at the University of Houston Law Center.
UH Law Center students volunteered alongside local lawyers to dedicate time for a transformative impact on the Houston community.
Timely this year was the voter protection hotline. Volunteers from UH Law Center were trained to field questions from voters during early voting and Election Day. According to Gomez, during the 2020 election, the legal volunteers answered and resolved more than 10,000 questions from Texas voters.
The weeklong celebration is an opportunity to educate, recruit and train pro bono law volunteers while increasing legal services to low-income individual and fostering collaborative relationships within the community.
Click here to learn more about pro bono opportunities at the University of Houston Law Center.