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welcoming new staff We are excited to announce the appointment of Heidi Lee Henderson, Esq., as the new director of inMotion’s legal services. Heidi assumed leadership of inMotion’s legal and social services programs in January when our former director, Ramonita Cordero, left us to begin a new life as full-time mom. Heidi has been a valued member of inMotion’s legal program for over four and a half years. In her tenure as senior staff attorney, Heidi managed inMotion’s Family Court practice and inMotion’s pro se program, which provides one-on-one advice and brief services to women who access the courts without attorney representation. Prior to joining inMotion, Heidi held positions as senior attorney in the Office of Legal Affairs, Legal Counsel Unit at the New York City Human Resources Administration and as a trial attorney for the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. For several years Heidi Lee Henderson, Esq., director, legal services. she worked in private practice, concentrating on family and matrimonial law matters. Heidi is a member of the Lawyers Committee Against Domestic Violence and formerly co-chaired its Family Court Judges Working Group. Heidi also serves on the supervisory board of the Courtroom Advocates Project. Wendy Silva, Esq., staff attorney, joined our staff in June 2005. Before arriving at inMotion, Wendy worked at Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation. As a supervising attorney in their Domestic Violence Legal Project, Wendy provided bilingual legal services to battered women in family, matrimonial, housing and immigration law. Before that, Wendy represented low-income and disabled individuals in a wide range of poverty law matters as a staff attorney at Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (formerly Westchester/Putnam Legal Services). Wendy spends the majority of her time in our Bronx office, focusing on mentoring volunteers on family law matters and providing pro se assistance to our clients. Lauren J. Bokor, Esq., staff attorney, joined our Manhattan office in January. She comes to inMotion with over eight years of private matrimonial and family law litigation experience. Lauren began her legal career as an associate at Brown & Wood, where she worked on contract, bankruptcy and debtor-creditor matters in the firm’s litigation department. Lauren initially practiced family law at Levin & Weissman, followed by Cohen & Shallack, and, most recently, Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin Lever & Goodman, LLP, where she carried a demanding caseload litigating multifaceted family and matrimonial matters for over five years. Lauren provides expert mentoring and support to pro bono attorneys handling complex matrimonial matters and advises women proceeding pro se in Supreme and Family Courts. Parul Patel, Manhattan pro bono coordinator, joined inMotion last November. After graduation from college, Parul was the program manager of the High School Cooperative Program in the Office of Educational Partnerships at the University of Connecticut. Parul got her first taste of public service and advocating for women’s rights as an intern for Lawyers Without Borders and the American Red Cross while she was an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut. Parul is fluent in Gujarati and has advanced knowledge of Spanish. As pro bono coordinator, Parul oversees intake in our Manhattan office, assists in recruiting new volunteers, coordinates CLE trainings and links attorneys with women seeking legal representation. Rhonda J. Panken, Esq., supervising attorney/Bronx, joined inMotion in March, bringing over 12 years of family, matrimonial and poverty law expertise to our legal program. Rhonda comes to us from the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) where she held senior staff and supervising attorney positions. Rhonda began her tenure at NYLAG providing direct representation to low-income individuals in matrimonial and family law proceedings. As a supervising attorney, Rhonda developed and implemented NYLAG’s Economic Empowerment Project which helps low-income and working families become more self-sufficient through representation, advocacy and training. Most recently, Rhonda supervised NYLAG’s Matrimonial Project and mentored attorneys with litigation matters in Supreme, Family and the Integrated Domestic Violence Courts in all boroughs of New York City. Rhonda was also a domestic violence staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Bronx Neighborhood Office and has worked in private practice. INCARCERATED MOTHERS ACCESS THE BASICS S E R IES Inmates at the Rose M. Singer Center, a jail for women on Rikers Island, gathered with the leadership of the New York City Department of Correction to celebrate the addition of The Basics Series to the jail’s law library. This 11-booklet series, developed by inMotion and the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, is designed to help women understand their basic legal rights in a wide range of family and matrimonial law matters, including divorce, child and spousal support, orders of protection, child custody, visitation, paternity, abuse and neglect cases, guardianship and adoption. Bill Dean, executive director of Volunteers of Legal Service, has worked closely with the New York State Department of Correctional Services to bring new family law reference materials to the jail’s library—and to the libraries of other prisons in our state. “The Basics Series is the heart of the library’s family law section,” says Bill. “The librarians have made multiple copies of the booklets available in both English and Spanish. Women can use them in the library or enjoy the unusual privilege of taking them back to their dormitory or cell. The booklets are an especially important resource for mothers who need access to clear legal information in order to make informed decisions about the care and custody of their children.” The Basics Series received a warm welcome at the Rose M. Singer Center. Photo by Freddie Wallace, New York City Department of Correction 8 The Basics Series has been translated into many of the languages spoken in New York City. Individual booklets are available for download in the “Juvenile and Family” law section of the LawHelp.org/NY web site. For more information about this resource, contact Parul Patel, pro bono coordinator, at PPatel@inmotiononline.org or call 646.442.1178.
volunteer profile VLADIMIR AND LARISA MATSIBORCHUK Vladimir and Larisa Matsiborchuk, our first husband and wife legal team, began volunteering at inMotion last September. Working three days a week in our Manhattan office, together they are handling six family and immigration cases. Typically, our in-house volunteers work solo, but Vladimir and Larisa’s situation is especially unique—Vladimir is blind. So Larisa, functioning as his legal assistant, helps Vladimir navigate the various computer systems he needs to research and prepare the legal documents necessary for their cases. Vladimir explains, “There are many technologies to assist the visually impaired that did not exist when I first started practicing law. I work with computers supported with a voice recognition program that reads the words on my computer screen out loud and another that scans and reads printed material. Larisa helps me with the bumps—the things that don't interact well or are not compatible with the programs.” Before Vladimir and Larisa emigrated to this country in counseling and the support of friends, Naimia found 1999, Vladimir had a general law practice in the Soviet the courage to leave her batterer. Union and later in Ukraine for over 14 years. In the Naimia contacted inMotion when the U.S. Soviet era, Vladimir was one of a relatively small number Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of attorneys permitted by the government to represent notified her that the VAWA self-petition she had hired clients in the courts. Larisa has been at his side since his an attorney to file on her behalf did not include first year of practicing law. Professionally, building a new sufficient documentation of abuse; the USCIS gave life in the U.S. meant that Vladimir had to start again. Naimia 60 days to amend the application. InMotion He completed an LL.M. degree program for foreign obtained a three-month extension and assigned lawyers at the University of Connecticut School of Law Naimia’s case to Vladimir. in May of 2003. Six months later, he passed the New York State bar exam. Vladimir and Larisa collected volumes of supporting documentation “I was drawn to the real and significant legal work inMotion does to protect required for Naimia’s VAWA petition. “I interviewed Naimia many times; vulnerable and defenseless individuals living in the City, and to the each conversation elicited new details and facts necessary to build an opportunity to gain diverse U.S. legal experience,” Vladimir states. “And, as accurate and compelling account of her life,” Vladimir notes. “I gathered a recent immigrant, I understand the feelings of my clients. I remember multiple police reports and orders of protection issued by the court and very well what it means not to get information from the immigration solicited letters from the hospital, her social worker and psychiatrist to authorities on your case for months on end. Immigration law is a very document the abuse she suffered in her marriage. I also interviewed five complex area of practice. There are many rules, forms and procedures witnesses and helped them to prepare detailed affidavits.” which are very confusing to immigrants, especially to those who speak very little English. Larisa and I became U.S. citizens last summer—we have been Vladimir filed an amended VAWA self-petition, and adjustment of status and through it all ourselves.” employment authorization applications with the USCIS last May. Naimia’s VAWA petition was approved two months later, and in August, Naimia Vladimir and Larisa are helping Naimia,* an immigrant who survived nearly received her employment authorization. six years of harrowing emotional and physical abuse, self-petition for legal residency under the Violence Against Women’s Act (VAWA). “When I called Naimia to tell her that her work authorization had been approved, she was astounded. She could not speak. Later that day she Naimia came to the United States from Botswana in 1992 and married an expressed her gratitude in an email and has many times since repeated American four years later. Less than a year into their marriage, Naimia’s words of thankfulness to us and to inMotion,” recounts Vladimir. “In January, husband began a long spiral into alcoholism and drug addiction. He Naimia found a new job as a supervisor at a large department store. She stopped working and became increasingly controlling, abusive and continues to be amazed by the soaring level of confidence that her new violent. Unemployed throughout their marriage, independence has brought to her life.” he took what little money Naimia earned to buy alcohol and drugs. “I am at a loss for words, I am Vladimir and Larisa are now preparing for Naimia’s so happy! I thank you and your adjustment interview, the final step in her Naimia obtained a one-year order of protection in wife for working so hard and application process. They will also file additional 2003 after her husband brutally beat her for compassionately for me and immigration applications for Naimia’s two children withholding money she did not have. A close friend, my family—I am truly grateful in Botswana who benefit from and are included in deeply concerned about her mental state, convinced not only for your work but also Naimia’s VAWA self-petition for legal residency. Naimia to seek medical help. At the hospital Naimia for your humanity.” Vladimir and Larisa are working to bring the was referred to a domestic violence counselor who children to New York before Naimia’s oldest helped her to develop a saftey plan. She also began Naimia daughter turns 21 in October. seeing a psychiatrist who treated her depression and extreme anxiety. Over the next year, with professional *Client’s name and country of origin have been changed to protect her identity. 9
Page 1 and 2: SPRING 2006 one by one MAKING WOMEN
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