Providing pro bono services is important to our practice, as they formed the foundation of Formica P.C. It all started on Wednesday, November 10, 1999, when a Franciscan Monk and a 15-year-old boy from Eritrea appeared in the lobby of the law firm in Cheshire, Connecticut where I worked as an associate attorney. I had only been at the law firm a few months, having just moved with my new wife from Washington, D.C. I had never handled an immigration case, and had only general knowledge of the process from my wife’s green card application. The monk was from a Catholic order in the Bronx and to this day, I have no idea how he found my name or why he drove from the Bronx to see me. The boy had been sent by his parents to live with the monks in order to flee the violence that had followed Ethiopia’s military invasion in 1998. I informed the monk that I was a litigator who handled contract and title disputes, and he told me that he would pray for me to learn Immigration law while I figured out how to keep the boy in the United States.
Despite my lack of immigration expertise, I wanted to help in any way I could. After a year of learning and making many mistakes, I obtained a special immigrant juvenile petition for the boy. He became a permanent resident, went to college and is now a United States citizen. The monks would continue to send me pro bono clients and pray for me to learn Immigration law for the next 20 years.
That first memorable case led to a large pro bono practice of asylees from many parts of Africa. It was a lot to ask of the law firm paying me to work for paying clients, and in early 2001, with my wife just past nine months pregnant with our first daughter, I decided that it was time to start my own law practice. I was tired of asking permission to take pro bono cases, and in January 2001, I moved my law practice into the back seat of my worn-out Jeep Cherokee while I looked for office space in New Haven. Formica P.C. was born.
The first year of practice, I had about 15 paying clients and more than 50 pro bono clients. Without any intentionality on my part, the pro bono practice grew into a paying practice. Pro bono clients became residents, started businesses, had car accidents, and referred other family and friends. As the practice grew and matured, our pro bono work remained, and the nature of the work shifted from basic asylum cases to involve more complex social justice issues.
In 2016, everything changed. New enforcement policies and tactics were threatening the opportunities for my clients to receive due process. They were being violently separated from their families and demonized in political discourse. My then law partner Elyssa Williams and I divided our efforts in responding to the new environment, with Elyssa representing detained clients, while I represented everyone else. In challenging the removal of our clients, we found ourselves increasingly in court and more often than we liked, in front of news cameras.
We also engaged with community and religious organizations that sought to support our clients and other immigrant communities. The guiding principle in all of our cases was to empower our clients and let the community speak first. As lawyers, our role was to defend and facilitate successful outcomes for our clients and their communities.
After five years of exhausting and often public pro bono representation of individuals and communities, we transitioned our efforts away from direct representation to educating and supporting others in the representation of immigrants. These activities included organizing support teams of volunteers for individual pro bono cases, seeking private funding for free legal representation through organizations like New Haven Legal Aid, and connecting with Immigrant Advocacy organizations to provide more direct support to help their members with specific immigration problems. We have also been active in organizing free and low-cost counseling services for refugees suffering from post-traumatic stress related to the horrifying events in their home countries.
In 1999, there were few organizations that represented or advocated for immigrants. Today, the number has increased and continues to grow. Most importantly, Immigrants are organizing and advocating for themselves. As we move forward, our pro bono practice and social justice mission has evolved to support and empower.
Below are some of our activities and links to organizations and churches with which we work.
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