Renée Schomp

The Project

Renée connected rural California immigrants in need of immigration legal assistance with pro bono attorneys through virtual technology, and facilitated other organizations in increasing their own pro bono programming to expand services for low-income communities. Her project targeted the Central Valley, where the ratio of undocumented immigrants to lawyers is especially high. In the wake of the Muslim Ban and an ever-shifting political landscape, She also strived to facilitate increased collaboration among legal services organizations in building scalable pro bono programs to serve higher numbers of low-income immigrants and other vulnerable communities.

During her Fellowship, Renée:

•  Collaborated with pro bono legal clinics on consultations that provided assistance to 296 clients on their immigration cases
• Developed an innovative pilot pro bono model, Rural Immigrant Connect, which uses technology to connect Central Valley immigrants with Bay Area-based pro bono lawyers
•  Given numerous presentations and trainings nationwide for client communities, advocates, and pro bono attorneys regarding Rural Immigrant Connect and pro bono program design, including at SXSW Conference in Austin, TX
• Designed and coordinated the legal clinic at SFO Airport in response to the Muslim Ban
• Developed a cross-agency pro bono network model to facilitate collaboration among legal services agencies in building increased pro bono programming for California’s low-income communities

Next Steps

Since her Fellowship, Renée continues to facilitate the growth of cross-agency pro bono networks and other pro bono programming at legal services organizations throughout California through her role as a senior staff attorney at OneJustice.

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