Harvey Savitt, Esq.
March 2, 2020
Byron Divins, Esq.
March 2, 2020
Peter Connelly has been volunteering at NSLS’ offices as a pro bono call screener for over a year. He is an extremely dedicated volunteer, who logged almost 300 hours of pro bono volunteering in 2019 alone!
Working with his father and several attorneys at the Connelly and Connelly law firm, Connelly handled personal injury trials. One of Connelly’s most notable cases involved a 9-year-old boy who suffered a leg amputation at a LIRR station. Peter won a substantial damages award for this little boy. At the time, it was the largest verdict ever received in Suffolk County. Connelly’s father passed away a few years ago and Peter is now semi-retired from the practice of law.
Connelly has become a part of our Pro Bono team of screeners who return the calls from the hundreds of folks who reach out to our office on a monthly basis. We receive calls for all manner of legal assistance, and even sometimes non-legal assistance. It falls to Peter and the other volunteer screeners who show up to our office each week to sift through the dozens of calls to determine financial eligibility for pro bono services or for one of the other services at NSLS. Once financial eligibility is determined, they must then establish how best to meet the caller’s legal needs. If Pro Bono or NSLS services are not appropriate or available, our volunteers will refer the caller to another agency or the Suffolk County Bar Association.
It is stalwart volunteers like Connelly who assist in the detangling and prioritizing of these issues. We are so grateful for his expertise and his loyal and dedicated assistance.
The Suffolk Pro Bono Project and Nassau’s Volunteer Lawyers Project work in cooperation with our local bar associations toward the goal of providing free legal assistance to Long Island residents who are dealing with severe economic hardship.
If you would like to volunteer, please contact:
Carolyn McQuade, Esq. at 631 232-2400,
Susan Biller, Esq. at 516 292-8299, or
Roberta Scoll, Esq. 516 292-8100
(Landlord/tenant Attorney of the Day Project).
Read more about our other Pro Bono Champions on our website.
