More than three weeks after its passing, residents in Puerto Rico continue to suffer from lack of access to water (including drinking water), food, medicine, shelter and assistance.  The enormity of the challenge is sobering, which makes your support all the more critical.

We have launched our new legal support initiative, now called Ayuda Legal Huracán Maria (Hurricane Maria Legal Assistance).  In Puerto Rico, trainings for lawyers and law students have already taken place, and legal clinics in various towns have begun.  We hope to have at least three trainings a week in various municipalities, and eventually have weekly clinics in every town until the need is met.  Our workshops and trainings are shared on social media, where you can follow us and see updates regarding our work.

We hope to begin organizing legal brigades of lawyers and law students to go to Puerto Rico and assist the legal community there with legal support in relief efforts.  Our first CLE training on disaster relief legal support will be on Monday, October 23 at CUNY School of Law from 5:00p – 9:00pm.  CUNY Law is located at 2 Court Square, Long Island City, NY.

CUNY will be providing CLE credits to NY-licensed attorneys and is assisting in making sure we can have livestreaming capabilities.  Food and refreshments will be provided.

The program will consist of:

5:00 – 7:00p               Overall disaster relief and FEMA (William Friedman, NYLAG)
 

7:00 – 7:30p               Labor and employment issues (Melissa Rodriguez, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP)

7:30 – 8:00p               Housing and landlord/tenant issues (Erika Fontanez Torres, housing rights lawyer based in Puerto Rico)

8:00 – 9:00p               Insurance coverage (Peter Halprin, Anderson Kill)

Please RSVP your attendance here.  If you are unable to attend this particular training, there will be future opportunities.  In addition, we are working on recording a series of CLE videos with the same content with the Practising Law Institute (PLI) that will be shared with everyone once available.

Thank you again for your interest and support.

¡Puerto Rico se levanta!