State funding bolsters School of Law’s support for unemployed clients

Unemployed individuals in Western New York have a new ally in gaining life-sustaining benefits, thanks to a major state grant to support the work of student attorneys at the School of Law.

The $100,000 grant, announced at news conference Aug. 16 on the North Campus, will increase capacity of the law school’s Community Engagement Legal Clinic. In addition to other initiatives, student attorneys in that clinic represent clients whose initial applications for benefits have been denied and submit appeals to the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board.

Passage of the state funding was led by Assembly member Latoya Joyner, a 2012 graduate of the School of Law and chair of the Assembly’s Committee for Labor. She represents portions of the Bronx as the assembly member for the 77th District.

The Community Engagement Legal Clinic, one of the law school’s #UBLawResponds clinics dedicated to addressing access-to-justice needs, focuses on issues with unemployment benefits, protecting the civil rights of veterans, examining possible civil responses to racially motivated violence, helping Western New York middle and high school families appeal unfair disciplinary actions that contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline, and other matters. The clinic was created in response to legal needs generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This idea was born out of a conversation with the attorney general’s office,” Joyner said at the news conference. “We saw the rise in people applying for unemployment during the pandemic — and just last week we had 15,000 claims in New York State alone.”

The funding for the law school clinic comes in parallel with a similar grant for work at New York University, bolstering services to unemployed clients both upstate and downstate.

“It’s a critical program, and I’m very proud to be part of this initiative,” Joyner said. “I hope it will spearhead even more initiatives throughout the state.”

S. Todd Brown, interim dean of the law school, noted that as New York State’s law school, the UB law school is “committed to providing a first-class legal education to our students and serving our community by providing access to justice for those who might otherwise not find proper representation. These twin goals merge in our clinical program.

“This new funding will enhance our ability to serve the community. And it will provide our students with the opportunity to gain valuable litigation skills from client interviews, direct and cross-examination, research and drafting briefs, and preparing for and delivering closing arguments,” Brown said. “It will also give them front-line experience in access-to-justice work specifically. And, of course, it will provide service for those with critical needs.”

Kim Diana Connolly, professor and vice dean for advocacy and experiential education, and director the law school’s clinical education program, said the funding will allow the clinic to focus on vital unemployment matters facing New Yorkers. “Our students are able to make a huge difference in the lives of their clients,” Connolly said.