Legal Services

Equality Advocates is the only Pennsylvania organization – and one of only four in the nation – that provides direct legal services for individuals facing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. For many of those assisted, we will be their only option for free legal services. For others, Equality Advocates will offer the only expert assistance in the state as they navigate complex legal issues with which other attorneys are unfamiliar.  In 2004, Equality Advocates responded to 634 requests for assistance and provided direct representation to 77 people.

Equality Advocates offers assistance on over 30 distinct issues. Our callers and clients identify family-law related legal issues as the most prevalent in our community, specifically: child custody; support and visitation; second-parent adoptions; and the need for legal documents, such as wills and powers of attorney, to ensure that same-sex partners and families are legally protected.  The next most requested area of assistance is employment discrimination.

As home to the country’s only student-run law clinic dedicated to LGBT issues, the clinic has attracted students from many law schools, including: the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Villanova University, Widener University, Penn State University Dickinson School of Law, Rutgers University, New York University, and Yale University.

Law students serve as “legal clinic advocates,” providing the initial response to legal clinic hotline calls.  Equality Advocates attorneys handle all cases in which Equality Advocates provides direct legal representation.  In a limited number of cases, Equality Advocates works with pro-bono outside counsel.  In the past, attorneys from Drinker Biddle & Reath, Pepper Hamilton and Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, have received awards from Equality Advocates for their exemplary pro-bono work.  If you are interested in providing pro-bono services, please click here.