Nonprofits play a critical role in serving low-income, historically underserved communities. In Washington, DC, the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project fills these gaps by recruiting, training, and supervising pro bono attorneys who in turn represent clients in family law, child advocacy, and immigration matters. DCVLP and its volunteers focus on serving survivors of domestic violence, survivors of gender-based violence, and vulnerable children. Volunteer attorneys donated 48,000 pro bono hours in 2023 alone. Two of these volunteers are Anne (Annie) Bonfiglio and Sarah Tunney.

Annie and Sarah first came to DCVLP in 2020. Annie had prior experience in immigrant-focused direct services and, as someone new to DC, she was eager to find pro bono opportunities that allowed her to continue serving this population. Annie “was thrilled to find DCVLP’s immigration program, which allows me to work closely with individuals seeking relief and provides excellent support from its supervising attorneys.” Sarah was drawn to this work because she wanted to help fill a great need for pro bono attorneys in immigration matters and said that “DCVLP provided an opportunity to do meaningful work that makes a really big difference in people’s lives.”

At DCVLP, they have assisted clients in asylum, green card, naturalization, T visa, U visa, and work permit processes.

Annie recently assisted the Lopez family apply for their green cards. In their home country, the Lopez family had endured gang threats, extortion, and gender-based violence; DCVLP secured their asylum grant. Once it came time to apply for the green cards, Annie worked diligently with the Lopez family clients to gather information and meet deadlines. Annie was a wonderful communicator between the family and DCVLP’s supervising attorney and treated the family with dignity. She went above and beyond in helping the family understand there were issues with their government benefits, which needed to be fixed to support an application for a fee waiver, otherwise they would have had to pay $1,600 to file their green cards. The green card applications remain pending and Annie continues to be a reliable, trustworthy presence for the family. In addition to assisting this family, she also recently assisted in completing and submitting a U visa case for a client who survived an LGBTQIA hate crime.

Sarah recently assisted Eva, a single mother who is a survivor of domestic violence, in filing a U visa. Sarah recruited two other attorneys to assist Eva and helped to organize the team, divide tasks, and meet internal deadlines, which led to producing great work product. Sarah and her team created a trusting, strong relationship with Eva, which led to uncovering many details which were important to highlight for her U visa application. The team also assisted in acquiring a U visa certification by a DC Superior Court Judge, a requirement to file the U visa. This is only the second certification by a Judge in DCVLP history. Sarah’s team continues to stay in touch with the client and remain stable, trustworthy contacts for Eva, who endured 10 years of violence. At the same time, Sarah was also assisting in a T visa case and a naturalization case. She has previously assisted in completing clients’ asylum applications, including for an individual who was persecuted due to their intellectual disabilities.

Their work at DCVLP has gone beyond their direct assistance of clients. They have recruited various attorneys to volunteer with DCVLP in assisting clients directly and they have created a translation program. The immigration practice at DCVLP is often in need of translations to be included with immigration applications, be it a birth certificate or a police report. The program created by Annie and Sarah is made up of over 10 volunteer attorneys who provide these necessary translations on a year-round basis in Spanish, French, and Arabic. This translation work fills a need DCVLP is not able to tackle otherwise.

Thank you Annie and Sarah for all your work with us thus far, we look forward to serving many more clients with you!

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