Boston Pride

Thanks to everyone for stopping by to say hello to the MTLA crew at Boston Pride!

June Legal Clinic

Our next clinic will be held on
June 10, 2010
From 5 pm - 7 pm at
Health Care For the Homeless
at Jean Yawkey Place near Boston Medical Center
780 Albany Street · Boston MA 02118

May Clinic

Our next clinic will be held on
May 13, 2010
From 5 pm - 7 pm at
Health Care For the Homeless
at Jean Yawkey Place near Boston Medical Center
780 Albany Street · Boston MA 02118

January Clinic and Change of Address

MTLA has moved!

MTLA's new mailing address is:

Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates (MTLA)

c/o AIDS Action Committee

75 Amory St.

Boston, MA 02119

Any correspondence should go to this new address from here on out.

OUR JANUARY CLINIC

will take place on Thursday, January 14 at

Healthcare for the Homeless(HCFH)
Date: Second Thursday of the Month
Time: 5pm to 7pm
Location: Healthcare for the Homeless
*at Jean Yawkey Place near *Boston Medical Center
780 Albany Street · Boston MA 02118

This is a free, walk-in clinic. You do not need a prior appointment. If you would like to speak to an advocate you can also call: 617-450-1353

Upcoming Clinic Dates

Monthly Clinics:
Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic (HCFH)
Date: Second Thursday of the Month
Time: 5pm to 7pm
Location: Healthcare for the Homeless, 780 Albany Street, Boston (near Boston Medical Center)

(Updated: 16 March 2010: We now have only one clinic, which is listed above, we are no longer holding our clinics at AIDS Action Committee)

AIDS Action Committee Clinic (AAC)
Date: Third Thursday of the Month (last clinic at AAC will be on November 19, 2009. See below for details).
Time: 6pm to 8pm
Location: AIDS Action, 294 Washington St, Boston, 5th Floor
Accessible to red, orange, green, blue, and silver lines of the MBTA

Spanish interpretation available. Intérprete de español disponible.

Upcoming clinic dates:

November 12 (HCFH)

November 19 (AAC)

**Starting in December 2009, we will have only one MTLA legal clinic per month, on the 2nd Thursday of the month, from 5-7 PM, at Healthcare for the Homeless.

While our clinics are hosted by AIDS Action Committee and Healthcare for the Homeless, our clients are not limited to clients of those organizations. Anyone interested in becoming a Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates client, or interested in asking MTLA a legal question, is welcome at these clinics.

Meet our Current Group of Advocates

We have taken on two new classes of advocates, and only now finally taken a photograph. Here they are!

I will try to label them from left to right, because they are not standing in rows:

Adam Minsky, Northeastern '10
Denise McWilliams (supervising attorney), AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
Jeremy Denlea, BU '10
Richard Juang, Northeastern '10
Sam Senft, Northeastern '08
Liz Monnin-Browder, BC '10
Bri Lacy, Northeastern '09
M. Barusch, BU '09
Jess Sutton, BU '09
Tahir Golden, Harvard '11
Kim Jones, Northeastern '11

Not Pictured: Christie Nader, Suffolk '11

Upcoming Clinic Dates

Monthly Clinic Dates:

Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic* (HCFH)
Date: Second Thursday of the Month
Time: 5pm to 7pm
Location: Healthcare for the Homeless
*at Jean Yawkey Place near *Boston Medical Center
780 Albany Street · Boston MA 02118

AIDS Action Committee Clinic* (AAC)
Date: Third Thursday of the Month
Time: 6pm to 8pm
Location: AIDS Action, 294 Washington St, Boston, 5th Floor
Accessible to red, orange, green, blue, and silver lines of the MBTA

The upcoming dates include:
May 14 (HCFH)
May 21 (AAC)
June 11 (HCFH)
June 18 (AAC)

*While our clinics are hosted by AIDS Action Committee and Healthcare for the Homeless, our clients are not limited to clients of those organizations. Anyone interested in becoming a Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates client, or interested in asking MTLA a legal question, is welcome at these clinics.

Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates seeks new volunteer advocates

It is that time of year again. Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates seeks new law student advocates to join our legal team.

Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates is a small group of law students and lawyers committed to addressing the needs of low income transgender people in Massachusetts. MTLA recognizes that a lack of public awareness about trans people can make it difficult to navigate the legal system. Our legal team is composed of trans folks and their significant others, family, and friends.

Once each year, MTLA seeks applications from candidates who want to become volunteer law student advocates. Advocates have opportunities to work on a variety of types of cases. Some advocates choose to focus on areas of the law with which they are most familiar, while others use their commitment to MTLA to try something new under the experienced supervision of Denise McWilliams and our specialist volunteer legal consultants. Our advocates have won our clients settlements, represented clients in court, and in administrative hearings.

One of MTLA's strengths is a flexibility and willingness to address clients' needs where they are. This also translates into flexibility for advocates to take on the kinds of legal work in which they are most interested. We are also happy to work with you to obtain any fellowship, grant, or academic credit that would help to meet your needs as a student.

We seek a one-year commitment from our advocates, but are able to accomodate students who study abroad or who work outside of the Boston area for part of the year.

Please complete our application and return it by March 1st. We will make every effort to contact you quickly after that date to arrange an interview.

You may view the Advocate Agreement here.

MTLA Recruits Volunteer Legal Consultants

Knowledge is Survival

Massachusetts Transgender Legal Advocates (MTLA)—Massachusetts’ only free legal clinic dedicated to serving low-income transgender people—needs your help. Please consider signing up as a consultant to share your legal expertise with the clinic’s law student advocates. Your participation will help ensure MTLA’s sustainability and success.

Since opening the clinic in January, the all-volunteer law student advocates of MTLA have handled a high caseload. We are seeking attorneys in all areas of law to add to our consultation list to provide us with legal support and advice. If we can call on you when we have a legal question, please email your name, email, phone number, and area of legal expertise (e.g. immigration, family law, employment, housing) to transgenderlegaladvocates@gmail.com (or leave us a voicemail message at 617-450-1353).

Our transgender clients face a wide range of serious legal challenges, both related and unrelated to gender identity. If MTLA can turn to you for consultations and legal advice, what you know might mean housing instead of homelessness, stability instead of poverty, or safety instead of violence.

MTLA is an independent organization supported by TransCEND (a project of Cambridge Cares about AIDS), AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.