Every month, we give the Amicus Mundi Award to a lawyer in our community that goes above and beyond in their work on today’s most pressing issues.
In recognition of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, We The Action is honored to announce Katy Yang as our next Amicus Mundi Award winner. Katy was nominated by WomensLaw for staffing a domestic violence email hotline and providing legal information and hope to survivors.
Join us in congratulating Katy!
How it started: Katy was inspired to begin volunteering with WomensLaw after reading about the impact of a previous Amicus Mundi winner. When Katy found this project, she had recently stepped away from corporate law and was looking for opportunities to focus on projects that aligned with her values.
Katy had worked with domestic violence survivors during law school and in previous pro bono matters, so this flexible, ongoing project felt like the perfect fit to continue supporting a community that she cares about.
Giving hope: WomensLaw provides an email hotline to support survivors by helping protect them from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking or overcome the effects of abuse. Every correspondence is guaranteed to be reviewed by an attorney, so the volunteers are very important.
Once a week, Katy sits down to complete her correspondence on the hotline.
It takes Katy about an hour to review the intake email, identify the relevant issues, search through WomensLaw’s extensive resource banks and craft a clear and comprehensive response addressing the survivor’s specific questions and related issues that they may not have considered. Since October, she has supported more than two dozen survivors in need.
“This opportunity seemed really perfect to reconnect with the reason I wanted to become a lawyer,” Katy says. “I was also looking for autonomy over my schedule so it was important to me that I could structure this project in a way that fit into my week."
The Impact of WomensLaw: In the past 12 months, WomensLaw has helped nearly 4,000 people via their email hotline. Because so many people need assistance, maintaining capacity is key to the mission and success of the hotline.
“The volunteers we have on our email hotline are a crucial part of our organization,” says Angelina Fryer, senior staff attorney at WomensLaw. “Volunteers like Katy make it so the hotline can stay open and we can help more people.”
Katy was nominated for being the type of volunteer every organization loves — reliable, easy to communicate with, and trustworthy.
How to Help: WomensLaw will host trainings later this year, so be on the lookout this summer for announcements. You can also find projects focusing on women’s rights, domestic violence, and sexual assault & harrassment at the link here.
As lawyers, we really are in a privileged position, and I believe it is our duty to share that with folks who could benefit from it and don’t have access to the resources we do,” Katy says.
Once again, congratulations Katy, and thank you for all that you do!