The New York State Office of Victim Services (OVS) is pleased to announce a new training course for legal advocates and allied professionals from OVS-funded organizations. 

In partnership with NYU, NYLAG and Columbia University, Trauma Responsive Lawyering is an 8-session virtual training (Fridays, January 22 – March 12, 2021) led by mental health and legal experts who serve interpersonal violence (IPV) survivors and their families. 

This program is open to legal advocates from OVS-funded organizations and sessions are geared toward both newer and more experienced legal professionals. Sessions are free of charge, and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits, including diversity and inclusion credits, will be provided to those who meet eligible criteria.

Training 6: Legal Work with Marginalized Populations, March 5, 12-2 pm EST

For legal professionals, engaging marginalize populations is often a motivating purpose for attending law school. However, trauma-informed interviewing and skills for engaging these populations is not a common offering in legal education. In this session, attendees will reflect on client
obstacles to successful engagement, participate in honest discussion
about unintentional behaviors that may distance clients, discuss racism
and its impact on the systems in which we and our clients have to
engage, and identify strategies that can help improve interpersonal
connections with clients, while maintaining healthful boundaries.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Margarita Guzman is a queer Chicana and survivor of intimate partner violence. She received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her law degree from George Washington University School of Law. Upon graduating from law school, Margarita established a legal clinic for indigent Spanish-speaking mental health consumers in New York City. Her legal practice later focused on representing primarily Latinx immigrant survivors of domestic violence in housing, family and immigration legal matters, as well as teen and young adult survivors. In 2013, she entered civil service at the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, where she ran the Bronx Family Justice Center until joining the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) in 2017. She currently serves as Executive Director at VIP, working with largely immigrant and low income Latinx survivors of domestic and sexual violence. As a survivor and a lawyer, Margarita has lived the limits of criminal and civil legal responses to violence and seeks to increase restorative and transformative justice practices to support survivors and change abusive behaviors.