VOLUNTEERS OF THE MONTH
December 2009:
Duane Morris LLPNovember 2009: The Beasley Firm, LLC
October 2009:
Click here to volunteer
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AVAILABLE CASES
Please click here for a list of available cases that offer you an opportunity to help with critical legal issues of low income Philadelphians.
If you are interested in volunteering with the Pennsylvania Farmworker Project's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Clinic, click here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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VIP honors outstanding volunteers at the annual
March 10, 2010
5pm-6:30pm
CLE Trainings:
Mortgage Foreclosure
January 22, 2010
Divorce
February 5, 2010
Mini PBOD
Probate and Wills
March 17, 2010
Click here for more information
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VIP NEWS
VIP wins "Housing for Everyone" Competition sponsored by TD Foundation, a VIP corporate partner, for the 2nd year in a row and received the maximum grant award, $100,000. Read the entire story...
VIP Managing Attorney Ourania Papademetriou is the new Chair of the Public Interest Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Congratulations Rainy!
Click here for more VIP News
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SAY YES!
Take advantage of this opportunity to invest in Philadelphia VIP. VIP
can in turn say YES to clients to help them break the cycle of
poverty or exploitation, overcome obstacles, and navigate complex
issues.
Click here for more ways to say YES
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| QUARTERLY STATISTICS |
October - December 2009
New Clients Receiving Assistance: 204
Volunteers Providing Service: 236
Requests for
Assistance: 523
Volunteers Needed for Open Cases: 167
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Letter from the Executive Director
Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and were able to celebrate with family and friends. As a staff, we returned from the holidays energized about our work and our collective opportunity to say YES to clients in desperate need of legal assistance. 2010 has already brought VIP wonderful opportunities to make more of an impact...a new staff member for our litigation team, three new board members, two new interns and both new and returning volunteers. Of course, 2010 also brings its challenges: the economy, record numbers of clients requesting assistance, and uncertainty in funding from foundations to law firms. With your help, we will weather these challenges and successfully assist more individuals, families, small businesses and nonprofit organizations achieve access to justice. Thank you for partnering with VIP for another year...here's to a great 2010.Sincerely,
Sara Woods
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Small Business now able to FUNction
 Ryan Wertman, an associate at Blank Rome, volunteered to draft an operating agreement for Fun and Function LLC, a company run by Haskel and Aviva Weiss that designs special needs toys and therapy products to build skills and empower children of every ability. After almost two years of working with Fun and Function, Ryan did more than strengthen the business. He enhanced the lives of the Weiss family and the children they are dedicated to helping. Since 2007, Ryan worked on many legal issues for Fun and Function, including employment agreements, patent searches, website disclaimers, and a frivolous copyright law suit from a larger competitor who threatened to put them out of business.
 Aviva says, "Ryan was an invaluable resource for us because we did not have the capacity for legal fees. He allowed us to grow and explore, be creative." Haskel adds, "Blank Rome made us just as much of a priority as a fee paying client." The Weiss' hope to give back and help other small businesses achieve what VIP, Blank Rome and Ryan helped them to accomplish. When they first became a VIP client, Fun and Function had a tiny staff and was barely scraping by. After receiving assistance from VIP, they now have 12 employees and are celebrating almost a million products sold in 2009. Ryan is amazed and humbled by the growth of Fun and Function since his involvement began. Ryan said YES to Fun and Function, and found "it is especially rewarding when you can assist a business with such a good mission that's helping people. It's been incredible to watch." 
To read more about Blank Rome and its support of pro bono, click here. To learn more about Fun and Function, LLC, visit their website.
To read more about how you can make a difference by handling a small business or nonprofit case, click here.
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Assistance for families in need: Spotlight on Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis
By representing clients in complex family law matters, including adoption, guardianship, child custody, divorce, and special education cases, VIP volunteers help ensure that families receive the legal services needed to stabilize their lives. As a firm, volunteers at Schnader have accepted over 150 cases and have spent nearly 5,000 hours providing pro bono services to VIP's clients. Schnader supports VIP's work through in-kind and direct contributions to help further VIP's mission.
 Meredith Brennan, Partner at Schnader in the family law department, is a VIP family law volunteer and mentor. She is the inaugural Chair of the VIP Family Law Advisory Council, a group of experienced attorneys committed to developing best practices to assist VIP's growing pool of family law volunteers. She also helped prepare and present VIP's Custody Law trainings to instruct new associates and experienced practioners. In recognition of her outstanding service, Meredith was selected as the May 2009 Volunteer of the Month. Meredith says, "Working with VIP clients has provided me with some of my most rewarding
experiences as a lawyer. It
is amazing what impact a small commitment of time and effort can have on
someone's life." Meredith is committed to the expansion of the culture of pro bono, particularly in family law, within the Philadelphia legal community.
 Mark Momjian, Partner at Schnader, is a VIP board member and inaugural member of VIP's Family Law Advisory Council. He has been a consistent volunteer and donor to support VIP's work in low income communities. He presented a Custody CLE training in 2009 and has taken several difficult cases, assisting clients with custody, visitation, divorce and domestic abuse issues. Mark says "Philadelphia
VIP is a lifeline to countless family law litigants in the First Judicial
District. No public interest law center in Philadelphia has done more outreach
than VIP to secure representation for the indigent in divorce and child custody
disputes. Working with VIP's remarkable staff, and mentoring other volunteers
who have taken on pro bono cases involving domestic relations, has been one of
the most rewarding experiences of my legal career."
To read more about Schnader Harris Segal & Lewis' pro bono commitment, click here.
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