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.
Much of Meg’s pro bono work has been working with tenants to help them avoid eviction. She helped found VLJ’s tenancy clinic, which is run in partnership with Lowenstein and Prudential Financial, and has been a standout volunteer since then. Meg enjoys volunteering at this clinic because she believes it makes an immediate and significant difference in clients’ lives.
In one memorable case, Meg met a family at the tenancy clinic that was facing eviction and saw their case through to a full-representation hearing on inhabitable conditions. The clients were a mother and her two children living with a severe leak in their ceiling causing mold that exacerbated one of the children’s allergies. With Meg’s advocacy, the family was awarded a significant rent abatement. And with the money the family saved, they were able to move to better housing on their own terms.
In eviction cases, where most landlords are represented and most tenants are not, the need for attorneys like Meg is enormous. Meg has taken on the challenge of volunteering outside her practice area with phenomenal results for clients, and she believes other attorneys can do the same. “You can be any kind of attorney, and with training, you can do this work. The impact on clients’ lives is so substantial.” For Meg, pro bono work is an important part of the practice of law. “It’s our professional and moral duty to give back to the community we serve,” she says.
VLJ thanks Meg Slachetka for her advocacy on behalf of tenants facing eviction!
