Empire Justice Center

Our mission is to make the law work for all New Yorkers, especially those who need its protection most. We are known for our ability to identify critical issues, develop and implement creative solutions and monitor ongoing results. Our staff has protected and strengthened the legal rights of people in New York who are poor, disabled or disenfranchised for more than forty years. We do this through three major areas of service. We teach the law by providing training, support and technical assistance to legal services and private attorneys and other community-based advocates to help them better serve their clients. We practice the law by providing direct civil legal assistance and undertaking impact litigation. We improve the law by engaging in policy analysis, research and advocacy. Each of these areas of service builds on and strengthens the other. Providing individual direct legal assistance to clients and working in local community collaborations strengthens and informs our policy analysis, research and advocacy by making sure it’s grounded in reality. Our policy and research efforts help strengthen and inform our training, support and technical assistance to the legal and human services communities around the state, helping to keep them as informed and up-to-date as possible about the legal rights and protections available to their clients and consumers. This support to the community gives us greater insight into how these laws, rules and regulations are directly impacting individuals which allows us to come full circle and provide the legal assistance and impact litigation where warranted to improve, strengthen, enforce and, where necessary, work to change those laws, rules and regulations. It is a powerful multi-pronged approach that strives not just to provide needed assistance, but have deeper and longer lasting impacts.

We focus on high impact litigation; provide high quality legal assistance; offer training, support and technical assistance to the legal services community; and represent those unable to be served by other programs. We utilize all available legal tools and provide representation in all available forums.