PLAN Pro Bono Scholars Program Placements
The Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network is a host organization for the New York Court System's Pro Bono Scholars Program. Applyplan pro bono scholars placements
A civil legal services model that is the future of public interest law.
The Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network is a host organization for the Pro Bono Scholars Program (“PBSP”), a legal education initiative of the New York Court System. After sitting the February New York bar exam, Scholars dedicate themselves full-time to a 12-week pro bono placement during their last semester of law school. Working under the supervision of a PLAN supervising attorney, and alongside PLAN expert and mentor attorneys, PLAN Pro Bono Scholars provide cost-free civil legal services to incarcerated individuals who are challenging their conditions of confinement across the country. PLAN Scholars are afforded uncommon opportunities to engage in unaccompanied prison legal visits and legal calls as attorney representatives. This provides fertile ground for PLAN Scholars to develop confidence and skill in client contact and explore their individual approaches to legal practice. While imparting transformative impact through cost-free legal services, Scholars also gain experience in the direct services model forged by PLAN to diversify the legal profession and expand access to advocacy in the arid legal deserts of U.S. adult prisons and jails.
access to justice
Expanding access to justice through a more inclusive legal profession
The November 2024 Report of the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice found that “creat[ing] new categories of non-lawyer legal professionals” is critical to bridging the justice gap in the state. The effectiveness and impact of PLAN Pro Bono Scholars’ legal services benefit immeasurably from the witness statements and subject expertise of the more than 1,000 PLAN jailhouse lawyers and prison paralegals. Through their client-focused collaboration with directly impacted service recipients and paraprofessionals, PLAN Scholars gain unparalleled exposure to the future of public interest law and a more diverse legal profession. Video Credit: New York Courts Access to Justice Commission
pro bono opportunities for law students
Pro Bono Scholars Program Placements
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Recent Service Announcements
PLAN Pro Bono Scholar Alumnae Re-Elected As Officers To PLAN Foundation Non-Profit Corporate Board
September 20, 2024
PLAN is pleased to announce the re-election of two PLAN Pro Bono Scholar alumnae as officers of the non-profit corporate board of the Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network Foundation. Nicole Wong (Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University) of Paul Hastings LLP was re-elected as Foundation Treasurer. Tia Thomas (Columbia Law School) of Latham & Watkins LLP was re-elected as Foundation Secretary. Under Nicole’s leadership, the Foundation has expanded donor relations and developed a financial strategy to capitalize new cost-free service initiatives for incarcerated individuals. Tia’s dedicated efforts and vision have manifested expanded pro bono capacity and newly implemented mentorship components for PLAN Pro Bono Scholars.
PLAN PBSP Alumna Tia Thomas’ Legal Guidance Integrally Informs Election Protection Jail & Post- Release Voting Command Center
October 1 – November 5, 2024
Former PLAN Pro Bono Scholar Tia Thomas revised the legal guidance notes that directed legal analysis as to the voting rights of individuals impacted by the criminal legal system that was developed for 37 states and the District of Columbia. This analysis formed the basis of information provided to presently and formerly incarcerated people, and the advocates who serve them, by the Election Protection Jail & Post-Release Voting Command Center. The Command Center was coordinated by PLAN in coordination with the Election Protection Jail & Post-Release Voting Working Group. It operated from October 1, 2024 through the end of Election Day on November 5, 2024 to answer emergent questions from voters, potential voters, and voting advocates.
Former PLAN Pro Bono Scholar Serena Grewal Will Help Co-Author Third Edition Of PLAN Legal Research Guide
June 14, 2025
With PLAN Managing Attorney Paul Stanley Holdorf and the participation of PLAN’s Summer 2025 cohort of Law Clerks, former PLAN Pro Bono Scholar Serena Grewal (Fordham School of Law) will co-author the Third Edition of PLAN’s Pathfinder: A Prisoners Legal Research Guide For Lawyers, Law Students, Jailhouse Lawyers, & Prison Paralegals. PLAN’s Pathfinder Guide provides vital information about key principles and case law and the use of legal databases for legal researchers and practitioners who are new to the prisoners’ rights bar. This Guide is provided free of charge to jailhouse lawyers and prison paralegals across the country. With Serena’s guidance, the Third Edition of the Guide will expand treatment of U.S. Supreme Court precedent of relevance to civil litigants who are challenging their conditions of confinement.