March 26, 2008 – Brooklyn Law School’s chapter of the Unemployment Action Center has emerged as the most active chapter in an organization devoted to providing free legal representation to unemployed New Yorkers who have been denied insurance and other benefits.

The UAC is a non-profit organization with chapters at BLS and other area law schools, including New York University, Columbia, Fordham, Cardozo, New York, and Hofstra. The UAC was founded as a clinical program at NYU School of Law in 1981, and the BLS chapter was launched in 2006.

Since then, Brooklyn Law School’s UAC chapter has become the largest and most active. Its membership, which grew exponentially in the 2007-08 academic year, now includes 170 trained members at Brooklyn Law School, about 80 of whom are active advocates. In its first year as a chapter, BLS accounted for about one-fifth of 220 total UAC cases. By the end of February 2007, of the 57 cases taken by BLS advocates, 48 resulted in DOL hearings. Lucas Hnath, who handles all of the claimant intake and distributes available cases to the seven law schools, adds that Brooklyn advocates have taken the most cases this year "by far."

In the fall of 2007, BLS advocates won 81 percent of their cases and helped their clients receive over $100,000 in benefits. The average UAC win rate is around 60 percent. "The UAC is pleased to see both the incredible win rate of BLS advocates, and the impact our efforts have had on the lives of our clients," says UAC President Jonathan Antone ’09.

"An advocate can help not only to win the case but also to educate the claimant," adds Hnath. "At the end of the day, even if the claimant loses, they are comfortable with where their case stands because they understand the system."

By Max Shterngel ’09