As we mark the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, we remember and honor those who lost their lives in the attacks and their aftermath. We also reflect on how that tragic day became a defining moment for both New York’s legal community and our organization, underscoring the power of common purpose and service in responding to immense need.
Within days of 9/11, New York’s legal community came together to launch an unprecedented legal relief effort to help victims, their families, first responders, recovery workers, and others. Pro Bono Net, founded just two years earlier, had the great privilege of working shoulder to shoulder with city and state bar leaders, legal aid partners, numerous law firms, and law schools to build and coordinate this effort.
Supported by our fledgling probono.net/ny platform, the first of its kind to connect legal professionals with pro bono opportunities and online practice resources, this network mobilized and trained more than 3,000 pro bono volunteers, who represented more than 4,000 individuals and families affected by the events. LawHelpNY, just one year old at the time, provided crucial legal information to victims and their families, as well as to low-income and immigrant communities across New York City affected by the tragedy’s broader legal and economic ramifications.
That mobilization was made possible by a broad coalition of partners. The City Bar Fund of the New York City Bar Association, Legal Services NYC, The Legal Aid Society, Volunteers of Legal Service, NYPLI, Lawyers Alliance, NYLAG, and Her Justice, among others, developed critical resources for volunteers and the public, which were distributed through probono.net/ny and LawHelpNY, as well as a groundbreaking Family Facilitator model, which provided ongoing representation to impacted families for virtually any legal issue arising from 9/11. A team of Morrison & Foerster attorneys created a comprehensive Helping Handbook: Legal Resources for Families of Victims of the World Trade Center Disaster—the first in a long-running series the firm continues to this day—which was widely disseminated in print and through LawHelpNY. Numerous other firms, including Davis Polk, played leadership roles in coordinating pro bono efforts and marshaling financial support for the broader legal response.
The lessons and lasting partnerships of that period became a blueprint for future rapid response efforts in New York City, including our work in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, and other disaster relief collaborations across the country. They also illustrate what’s possible when the legal profession joins together with vision, compassion, and a commitment to help those facing profound hardship and to serve the public good.
We remain deeply grateful to all of the organizations, leaders, and staff who stepped forward to lead the response 25 years ago, and to the outpouring of volunteers whose dedication made a relief effort on such a scale possible.
To learn more about this remarkable community effort, we encourage you to read Public Service in a Time of Crisis: A Report and Retrospective on the Legal Community’s Response to the Events of September 11, 2001 (Fordham Urban Law Journal, 2004).
We also recommend this reflection by the late William Dean, former Executive Director of VOLS, written just two months after 9/11, along with current City Bar President Matthew Diller’s piece marking the anniversary and the recent The Legal Response to 9/11 – 44th Street Podcast.
To learn more about our current work helping people access justice and find help when they need it most, reach out to us or visit: https://scalejustice.org/about.