Organize!
In the past few years, hundreds of legal services workers: attorneys, paralegals, social workers, investigators, advocates, and administrative staff have come together to form unions to better their conditions and represent their clients better.
Organizing Resources
How to Form a Union
Legal Services Unions 101
Know Your Rights
Secrets of a Successful Organizer
Why Union?
Through the efforts of our union we have been able to vastly improve our clients’ lives and the conditions of our work. We have fought hard to ensure dignity and respect for our work and our clients. Some of the victories we have achieved include:
•Vertical representation from arraignment to appeal, setting the gold standard for criminal defense in the United States.
•A salary step system which ensures that staff are compensated appropriately as they advance in years and helps retain attorneys.
•A free speech and quality of representation policy which allows members to speak openly, voice professional differences of opinions, and properly represent their clients.
•Case caps and client caps to ensure that each client’s case can be treated with the same care.
•A loan forgiveness program for indigent defense lawyers with student debt in New York State.