April is “Second Chance” Month, and there is no one more fitting to honor as VLJ’s Volunteer of the Month than Nydia Benders, Executive Assistant within the legal, compliance, business ethics and external affairs department at Prudential Financial, Inc.
March 2021 Volunteer of the Month: Meg Slachetka
VLJ is thrilled to honor Meg Slachetka as our Volunteer of the Month for March. Meg is Counsel at Lowenstein Sandler, where she works in the firm’s in Antitrust and Competition Group. Meg has a long-standing commitment to pro bono work; she took on her first case pro bono as a summer associate at Lowenstein, helping a VLJ client with a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy petition.
February 2021 Volunteer of the Month: Catherine Fitch
This month, VLJ is excited to honor volunteer attorney Catherine Fitch. Catherine is the Managing Counsel, Patents at Merck and has been dedicating her time to pro bono with VLJ since 2012. She first began volunteering in the Bankruptcy Program, offering advice to individuals considering Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
December 2020 Volunteer of the Month: Sydney Darling
VLJ is pleased to honor Sydney J. Darling, a partner at the Newark-based law firm of Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga, as December 2020’s Volunteer of the Month. At Walsh, Sydney works primarily for lenders, corporations, and other business and institutional clients, but she finds satisfying balance when offering her pro bono services to individual clients who could not otherwise afford counsel.
February 2020 Volunteer of the Month: Wendy Feldman
VLJ is pleased to announce Wendy Feldman, Vice-President, Corporate Counsel at Prudential Insurance Company of America, as February’s Volunteer of the Month.
In the past three years, Wendy has volunteered in many of VLJ’s legal clinics (including expungement, divorce, and bankruptcy), but where she has arguably had the most significant impact is with VLJ’s tenancy clinic.
July 2019 Volunteer of the Month: Jack Feinstein
VLJ is honored to announce Jack Feinstein as its July Volunteer of the Month. Not only has Jack been volunteering with VLJ for 17 years, but he has also encouraged numerous law students to participate in pro bono work as a former Clinical Professor and ultimately Director of the Rutgers Civil Justice Clinic.
May 2019 Volunteer of the Month: Brian Yomtov
Volunteer Lawyers for Justice is pleased to announce Brian Yomtov, Esq. as its May Volunteer of the Month. Brian works as a Vice President, Corporate Counsel at Prudential Financial in the Technology and Enterprise Contracts Law group where his practice focuses on the drafting and negotiation of technology and service transaction agreements, including software licensing, cloud/hosting, outsourcing, and strategic consulting arrangements. Through Prudential, he has been volunteering with VLJ since 2012.
June 2018 Volunteer of the Month: Paul Evangelista
Declaring bankruptcy is a difficult decision for anyone to make, and successfully navigating the complex bankruptcy process is also difficult, if not impossible, to do without the assistance of legal counsel. That is where volunteers like bankruptcy attorney Paul Evangelista step in to help provide the much-needed pro bono bankruptcy assistance to low-income debtors. Doing his part to ensure that justice is accessible to everyone, Paul has been volunteering with VLJ’s Bankruptcy Program for over a year now, representing indigent debtors in filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions.
Spotlight on Service: Matt Leff
The primary wish of so many low-income clients struggling with debt is simply to have a fresh start. That is exactly what Matt Leff has been providing for the past seven years through his volunteer work with VLJ.
Matt, a patent attorney at Merck & Co., leads the Bankruptcy in a Box Program, which offers low-income clients a new financial future after they have become overwhelmed by debt. Merck attorneys and paralegals work together to prepare and file Chapter 7 petitions on behalf of their clients.