Since its founding in 1990, the Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) has partnered with area law firms and law schools from around Philadelphia to conduct legal clinics in shelters, soup kitchens, transitional housing facilities and drop-in day sites located in neighborhoods throughout the city. Currently, 350 attorneys, paralegals and law students from 23 Philadelphia law firms, four local law schools and now nine area corporations formally partner with HAP in its 25 shelter sites. By pairing in-house corporate and law firm volunteers, HAP has significantly increased its capacity to meet two of the greatest legal needs of those experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia—securing birth records and helping homeless clients to rapidly access disability benefits.
On Oct. 14, HAP and Exelon legal are set to present the 14th “all hands” birth certificate legal clinic at PECO’s headquarters on Market Street in Philadelphia where 50 corporate legal volunteers from over a dozen corporations in the Philadelphia area will help more than 200 homeless Philadelphians to obtain birth certificates, bringing the number of homeless individuals who secured birth records from these clinic to more than 2,000. Exelon attorneys sponsored HAP’s first birth certificate clinic back in 2006 with assistance from attorneys at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. As a result of that experience, PECO formally joined Morgan Lewis at HAP’s monthly legal clinic at Woodstock Family Center in North Philadelphia. Kevin Stepanuk, Exelon associate general counsel and HAP board member, said, “When Morgan Lewis reached out to us about joining with it to support the Woodstock Clinic, Exelon/PECO legal was both very excited and scared about the opportunity. It took one visit working with the Morgan team to see that an in-house/firm partnership was a win for everyone involved, especially the client.”
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