The political debate over immigration policy has sometimes obscured the real needs of desperate migrants trying to navigate a complex asylum system. That reality was brought home early in 2023 when New York officials reached out to the state’s only public law school to help guide a sudden influx of migrants with their legal status.

Under the direction of Melinda Saran ’86, vice dean for undergraduate student affairs, the School of Law stepped up.

“Immigrants and asylees have to fill out certain forms to seek asylum, and these forms are very complicated and very long,” Saran says. “They often need help with understanding how to make a case for asylum. Our students were able to research the conditions in their country of origin—whether there are risks of imminent death or life-threatening harm if they returned. Our students filled the role of getting that information so attorneys can work on the actual cases in immigration court.”

Responding to the state’s plea for help, Saran was able to place UB School of Law students with JustCause, a legal services provider in Rochester, as well as longtime partners in Buffalo like Volunteer Lawyers Project, Journey’s End Refugee Services and Jericho Road Community Health Center.

Further, to address the need in the state capital, Saran worked with the pre-law adviser at SUNY Albany to recruit and train undergraduates there to do intake and other immigration-related work. More than three dozen students stepped up—a significant lifeline in a time of crisis.

“We react to crises, and we have the capacity to gear up when it’s needed,” Saran says. “Pro bono work is part of who we are. If local agencies need help, they know that they can contact us, and if we ask them, the students will answer our call.”

The law school has long placed students in immigration-related organizations, including formal externships. It’s one more way the law school reaches beyond the campus to leverage faculty and student legal expertise and address areas of critical need.

Sean Hannan ’26 spent his 1L summer working with Journey’s End in Buffalo, supported by a Catalyst Public Service Fellowship. He says the experience only deepened his intention to work in the immigration area. “It’s one thing to study immigration law from a theoretical perspective, but interacting with clients and seeing their resilience and determination up close brought a new depth to my understanding,” he says. “Hearing clients’ stories firsthand and assisting in navigating the complexities of their cases highlighted the real-world significance of our work. It was inspiring and reinforced why I’m passionate about this field.”

His classmate Jermaline Catul ’26, who worked at Cornell University’s Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic on a summer fellowship funded by the Dean’s Advisory Council, found similar rewards. “The struggles the farmworkers faced were the same struggles I had to witness growing up,” says Catul, who emigrated with her family to the United States from Haiti. “Being able to help the farmworkers gave me an immense feeling of satisfaction.”

The rising tide of domestic violence in Western New York has made the work of the law school’s Family Violence and Women’s Rights Clinic especially needed. Clinic students and faculty have responded by leveraging their legal knowledge to prevent partner violence and help victims find safety.

One key to stemming the tide is helping advocates and direct service providers coordinate their efforts. Toward that end, a major conference co-sponsored by the clinic this fall brought together stakeholders, with a focus on recognizing systemic obstacles faced by survivors of domestic violence. There may be language or cultural barriers, for instance, and survivors may be bewildered by the range of organizations offering help, from law enforcement to human services to legal providers.

“There are still a lot of communities and populations that are underserved because traditional services haven’t been fully available to them,” says Tiffany Pavone ’02, director of victim services for Child and Family Services-Haven House, co-organizers of the event. “We are a very diverse community, and we want to make sure every survivor can access those services.”

Other targeted trainings include semiannual sessions for Buffalo Police Department recruits conducted by clinic students and clinical faculty member Kelley Omel ’89. The trainings emphasize the double message of prevention and remediation. Sessions cover the basics of civil orders of protection—which police officers typically deliver to offenders—and educate officers about the services available to domestic violence victims they might meet. That initial encounter can then become a lifeline.

Additionally, clinic students, many of them just a few years older than their audience, continue their work on the prevention side with programs they present in Western New York high schools. Their curriculum reflects the environment of high schools today, addressing such issues as controlling friendships, isolation, sexting and revenge porn.

And in a pilot initiative, clinic staff and student attorneys held an event called Do-It- Yourself Uncontested Divorce, co-organized with Neighborhood Legal Services, and open to members of the public with limited means. Designed for those seeking uncontested and relatively uncomplicated divorces, clinic staff and students helped attendees complete the legal forms that initiate divorce proceedings and answered questions about the process.

Elizabeth Vinal-Adams ’22, a family and matrimonial attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services, presented at the event held downtown in Buffalo’s Central Library. Though the law doesn’t require the help of an attorney to execute a divorce, she says, “these forms aren’t easy to understand without help.” The goal was to assist estranged spouses through the process at no cost, including applying for a waiver of the $335 court filing fee.

A clean break after what may have been a long-delayed divorce proceeding, says Clinical Professor Judith G. Olin ’85, can uncomplicate people’s lives in such matters as inheritance and estate issues, Social Security survivor benefits and health insurance coverage. As well, she says, “for a lot of people, it can hold them back from feeling like they can move forward with their lives if they’re still legally married. Even for people who don’t want to get remarried, it can be an emotional barrier.”