Volunteer Lawyers For the Arts

VLA claims to offer pro-​bono and arts-​related legal representation and education to low-​income artists.
I contacted them for an issue my single owner business was having and they called me back almost a month later explaining their services and fees. Since my business is registered as an LLC they wanted me to pay $ 400 for just a consultation with some random lawyer. Four hundred dollars for just a consultation! Had my business been registered to just my name I would have had to pay $ 150 or so. For $ 400 I’d rather have an actual free consultation with a lawyer that knows what they are doing and then hire them if they seem like a right fit for my case, no matter if it means getting myself in debt, but paying $ 400 for just a consultation seems way overpriced, it’s not like I have a hundred employees working for me just because I happen to have an LLC for tax purposes. I was very disappointed because I don’t know any low income artists, including myself, who can afford that amount of money for just a consultation.
I don’t know, VLA might have been useful to others in the past, and looking at their website I liked what they claim to stand for, but in my case I was pretty disappointed with both the time they took to get back to me and their pricing. Try a pro-​bono lawyer, low cost legal services or a sliding scale attorney instead.

I am an enormous fan. I just think its important to mention that it seems clients who use VLA and get unfavorable results are probably prone to leave 1 star reviews. Also, a law suit is a lot of work, and VLA can’t do all the work for you. I think its easy to misconstrue hiring a lawyer with winning a case. The outcome isn’t always favorable and that can be upsetting. Due diligence has to be done well by both attorney and client. Its a relationship. It won’t work unless both parties commit.
Having said that, I think that anyone who leaves them a low review doesn’t get what they do. In the throes of a mega bummer of a law suit, lawyers From Sidley Austin sat me down in a clinic, arranged by VLA, at the VLA office, and told me all my options. They attorneys present were so incensed by the frivolous nature of the lawsuit against me, that they offered to represent me for free should the case go any further. The slick and effective letter they drafted for me was perfect. A few days later, the plaintiff got the letter, and I can only assume he skulked back into the hole from which he came, because he was never to be heard from again. VLA set up the clinic that facilitated this outcome.
Fast forward to now, in the midst of a new exciting arts project we are founding, we reached out to VLA again, knowing that they offer affordable Non Profit incorporation services. The team at VLA structured not only a tax education class, but another clinic for us to meet with fancy law firm counsel experienced in setting up non profits.
The first clinic didn’t go well, as the firm I was matched with didn’t know a lot about non profit outreach. However, all on their own, VLA called me and said they weren’t satisfied with the outcome of said clinic and set me up with another clinic at a firm that was spot on. Said firm was so taken with our non profit arts project that they decided to take our case. They fast tracked all of our barriers to entry within the firm and have provided caring and excellent advice thus far.
None of this would have happened without VLA. Long may they reign.

Ok. Let me first say that ALL of the low star reviews are from people that didn’t understand what the VLA does.
I think I paid $ 100. I was told exactly what they did and didn’t do.
They are not a group of lawyers that handle your case. They put you on a their case list that OTHER law firms browse for pro bono work.
They explained that on average it takes, I think it was six to eight weeks for a lawyer to take a case from the list. They also explained to me that there is a chance that no one would take my case. They said however, that there was an 80% chance that someone would take my case. It took around three months, but my case was picked up by a major law firm.
The law firm was Wilmer Hale. The lawyer was a partner there and was one of the main attorneys on some of the Apple versus Samsung patent case. Not only did he work on it but another partner as well as an associate also worked on my case.
My law suit would’ve cost me well over $ 100,000 if I had to have paid for it. Not only did I get what I wanted in court, they cost the asshole that I was suing tens of thousands of dollars.
Result.
Now I’m sure that every law firm that takes a pro bono case from VLA isn’t as good or willing to invest the same amount of time that my attorneys did. This is not the fault of VLA. It’s a crapshoot, but for $ 100 it’s well worth taking the risk.
I’m going to say one more time that VLA did exactly what they said that they would do. Don’t expect them to defend you or rush to your side because that’s not what they do.
They are not your mommy. They are not going to hold your hand. All they will do is find you an attorney if an attorney takes your case.
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Although during another era I think that this non-​profit may have helped people, I found VLA to be a gigantic waist of time and money. I would avoid this organization and search directly for a pro-​bono, sliding scale or low cost arts attorney.
They took six months to put me in touch with a lawyer and charge a couple hundred dollars just to have a meeting with VLA. The attorney who works with you is never paid, and VLA essentially does nothing. In a post-​Google world, this seems useless, and like expensive uselessness.
I needed simple help with a standard contract and was told that this was beyond the scope of what they could help me with at VLA-​after paying the fee to join which is required when you arrive at your meeting with them before you can walk in tot he office to meet with a VLA attorney, even if to be told that they cannot help you.
I can recommend John Rademacher in Manhattan for any artists needing legal help.

What a demeaning and awful experience .
This is in reference to the NYC manhattan location .
After initial contact a volunteer asked for 12 months worth of financial records
Which I managed to pull together and send.
Then I was asked for further details in reference
To my living situation, etc.
Fine.
Then I received 1 of what would turn out to be about 8 calls in reference to my finances.
I have been a working musician for over 25 years.
I have done so all over the planet and explained to the” caseworker“in detail.
She said that they saw money going out and not coming in and I explained numerous times that this was because I was living off
monies earned some time ago.
What this woman aggressively insinuated was
that I was hiding some major stash of cash somewhere .
I was blown away by her arrogance and accusation.
I am no thief and surely was not the first musician they countered living
of off past earnings until the next job came thru?
She asked me about a plane ticket payed for by me thru a record label that had to fly me back to the states when the airline failed to honor the flight.
Also not unheard of.
What this woman insinuated then was that the 200.09 ticket was false.
These invasive hacks poured over my irivate statements and just looked for a reason to deny. Not help when musicians obviously need it most.
I actually got the head of the record label that layed me last to call then directly which not only did they do but offered to provide any additional paperwork needed.
The same caseworker also insinuated that the head of this licensed label was also a fake.
This place is an unprofessional org. falsley advertising «help» for artists in need only to waste time and effort by the artist trying to appease there shifting“rational”, for helping those in legal need.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
After all that I get a call after: months of sending the my private finances telling me j am denied.
Go in yourself to civil court or look elsewhere .
You will be made to feel less than human and that is after sharing your private finances under a distorted fine tooth comb.
Pathetic.

I just read the reviews here and wanted to add my two cents. I do agree that VLA can work overtime on streamlining communications, organizing their caseloads and being more responsive. I too have waited awhile for anyone to get back to me (despite having many volunteers). After I would complain, I received 4 phone calls in one day making or confirming an appointment. Within 48 hours, ANYone can respond by email, give a timeframe and then follow up. Even if it is to say ‘so sorry, we have scheduled you for 2 weeks from now’. At least that is being responsive. So work needs to be done on communications and organizing them. Really no excuse in this high tech age to not have a system in place.
That being said, once I was assigned a lawyer, it was clear she went over my documents very thoroughly, made some excellent suggestions that protected me for present and future, and gave me her card saying if more help is needed and she can do it over the phone she would be happy to. That kind of work is worth my time and money.
To the naysayers, I live in NYC and if you wish to pay someone $ 500/​hr I can find a few thousand lawyers willing to take your money ! They are VOLUNTEER lawyers for the arts, and we should all be grateful they exist and support the arts.

Avoid AVoid AVOID. These people have no experience, I can’t believe it’s legal to consult with a lawyer in NYS and never get their name (they go by first name basis). It is true they are unprofessional as other reviews have stated. These people don’t know what they are doing, they gave me such ill advice they really don’t know what they are talking about. I don’t believe the people are even lawyers. There were terms in my agreement related to conflict resolution, for example, which are part of every agreement — in this case arbitration which the lawyer said she couldn’t discuss because she wasn’t an arbitration lawyer. How stupid! PLEASE see a real lawyer you will regret meeting with anyone from VLA. I wish I saw a REAL lawyer. NEVER AGAIN! A waste of money!!!

Unfortunately a very disappointing experience. When I first heard about this group I was very excited, hoping that they would be able to help with the quick creation of an intellectual property contract. I even had a personal friend, who was a lawyer, recommend herself as a reverse referral. While this setup seemed extremely straightforward to me, I soon learned that my initial thoughts about the situation were fantasies.
Let me start with something brief and then I will explain: these guys are volunteer lawyers. They follow rules that suit their interests doggedly, that’s the lawyer part, and they’re very bad about follow up and client care, which is the volunteer part. After the first few months of difficult and sparse communication we finally called to ask them for an update and a refund. That got them to say that our case had been refused by our first lawyer, but that it was now on the case file! So we decided to be patient again… Mistake!
It turns out this doesn’t mean much. Even though you pay them hundreds of dollars, you may or may not get help. Six months after our initial request (we took care of our contract elsewhere) they had the gall to call and ask if we still want to wait for a lawyer! We asked for a refund again, but because they did «a great deal of work,» reviewing our case, but no lawyer picked it up «for one reason or another,» we get double nothing: nothing to show for our money and a form letter telling us they get to keep it all. It must be really exhausting to read short case descriptions and say no.

VLA has helped me on three separate instances dealing with copyright infringement, intellectual property and with my rights as an independent artist. I worked with Lori Mason most recently and had a thoughtful and encouraging experience. I may actually get lucky and have a real law firm take up my case pro bono. Good luck artists, be grateful we live in NYC and have organizations like this to turn to. Affordable access to lawyers who know. What?! Thanks VLA!

My experience with VLA was very negative. They charge $ 150 to become a member for a year. You’d think the least they could do is offer a «free initial consultation» but the way they have it set up, you are enticed with the notion that this «benevolent» organization will help you as an artist, «as long as you’re a member» — but before you know it, you’re out of pocket and they are under no obligation to help you. In my case they didn’t, and I felt cheated and abandoned in my effort to fight for my rights as an artist in a business world dominated by the financial power to litigate. Their professed intention as an organization is contradicted by their practices and policies. Time for a major review and overhaul.

I was cerfing though New York and found one star reviews of VLA. I worked with executive director Elena Paul and found her to an exceptional lawyer, a committed friend of the arts, and is the most lovely person I have ever met. I cannot believe she as ever treated anyone badly.
VLA-​NY is very lucky to have Elena championing the noble causes of supporting the creative emerging talents of New York.

Classes can be very unorganized and hard to follow. I felt like they were streams of consciousness and less like structured lessons. I’d rather not waste my time by trying another one. I wont be renewing my membership.

i wanted to add something to my review of VLA.
i recently got a call from some intern there to tell me my case had been dormant for a year, only it hadn’t been. it had been resolved 5 months later, with shitty results, with lawyers who didn’t much give a damn.
i told this to the intern. she said, «we can’t really help which lawyers work with us, it’s not our fault»… um, really? because that is the whole point: getting volunteer lawyers. if they think that’s not their job then i have absolutely no idea why they remain in business

Unilocal removed my review because it contained «personal attacks.»
Sorry to fall outside the guidelines, Unilocal,but my words against Elena Paul (executive director of VLA) were spot on. It isn’t a matter of opinion. Suffice to say, stay away from this organization.
I was treated horribly by Elena Paul. Absolutely horribly. She was abusive. This is not a personal attack, it’s the truth. My terrible experience was relayed in more detail in the other review. Suffice to say, she yelled a lot, there were quite a few other people in the room for reasons completely unexplained, and she refused to return my paperwork when I requested it, because I didn’t want the organization to keep my stuff after the way I’d been treated. I meekly put up with all of it, because I was already pretty depressed from dealing with the situation I’d brought forward. I realize now that I would have been completely in the right to wrench my stuff back and tell her right off, beginning with «Get professional help.»
I left there crying. Just stay away. Call up a law firm and get a free consult if they offer them.
EDIT: I just received a private message from the new marketing person for VLA, aka «David N.», who posted a five-​star review of how awesome Elena Paul is. Apparently, things are changing there. No apology, no specifics as to how things are changing. Just generalized ‘come see how our services help the artistic community’ sort of thing. And there’s also a glowing 5-​star review that tries to negate any bad experiences anyone’s posted. Again, no specifics, just that Elena is «lovely.»
The private message is from the marketing department, more specifically the guy who designs the website. Not a lawyer or anyone remotely associated with legal anything. They’re not interested in making up for anything, just promoting how VLA has changed, somehow. No specifics were given.
Just seems like more cronyism and PR.
I had a terrible experience with Elena Paul. She was insulting and again, abusive. I don’t know a more appropriate word to use.
She didn’t just raise her voice. She yelled. She snapped. She cut me off and refused to listen. She turned a 30-​minute consultation into over an hour of verbal diatribe. The other people in the office who were inexplicably present seemed embarrassed by her actions. I left very upset, no one cared.
When I tried to approach VLA again to ask what on earth is the deal with them, no one got back to me. That tends to leave a definite impression. Sorry, VLA, I’m tired of people trying to de-​yelpify their way out of image problems with sudden 5-​star reviews, generalized claims to the contrary to someone’s negative experience and the efforts to filter out said experiences like they never happened.
At least Unilocal provides a place where I can post an honest depiction of my experiences in hopes that someone else can approach VLA in an informed way. Wish I had that kind of preparation. PMing me and trying to invalidate my review do not hearken to much hope for the alleged ‘changes’ your company is undergoing.
EDIT: Michael D., please refrain from absolutes. You have no idea what the content of other people’s situations were. Of course the VLA is a staging area for potential cases. And it’s also a consultation service. It’s there to help people with legal questions. But recent reviews have made it sound as though VLA is becoming more of a broker for other law firms, like agents for actors who skim a percentage of the earnings. Don’t know if that’s true. But this place needs to rebrand if it’s changed its structure and purpose. In any case, claiming that all bad reviews are based on people expecting to be coddled or whatever is ridiculous, and makes your review seem disingenuous.