The Women's Bar Foundation is proud to announce the publication of  Standing Strong: A Guide to Navigating the Legal System for Victims of Domestic Violence  (.pdf)

Please consider the WBF in your charitable giving this year. 

Thank you for your support.

 Make a donation to the Women's Bar Foundation

Family Law Project Upcoming Training

To register, please click on the link below

Family Law Project Training March 15th Survey

Pierce v. Pierce, Supreme Judicial Court No. SJC-10381

The WBF, in conjunction with the WBA, filed an amicus with the SJC on the issue of whether there should be a presumption in all alimony cases that a payor’s responsibility to pay alimony should cease upon his retirement, unless the alimony recipient can show “extraordinary circumstances” for alimony to continue.  The WBF weighed in on Pierce because the proposed retirement presumption would disproportionately harm low- and middle-income women -- who represent the majority of all alimony recipients.  Current law provides for an even playing field; the person seeking the change has to prove to the court that such change merits an alimony modification whereas the proposed retirement presumption shifts the burden only to the recipient spouse.  Beyond increasing the legal hurdles a recipient must overcome to prove a continued need for alimony, the heightened proof requirement under the proposed retirement presumption would also increase the practical hurdles as well by significantly escalating discovery and litigation costs to the alimony recipient who, by definition, has less access to resources than the payor spouse.  Low-income litigants would likely not be able to assume the legal fees and costs associated with these activities.  As such, an alimony recipient’s very lack of resources will likely result in an order that provides her with even fewer resources, thus compounding her impoverishment. Please read the amicus for a full exploration of the issue.

Volunteers Needed

Women's Lunch Place

The Women’s Bar Foundation seeks 1-3 volunteer attorneys to provide telephone guidance to advocates at the Women’s Lunch Place. The volunteers would help spot legal issues and make referrals to appropriate legal resources on behalf of the low-income guests of the Women’s Lunch Place. Experience in the following areas of law are most needed: housing, government benefits, criminal, personal injury, employment law, family law, mental health law, and bankruptcy law. Volunteer attorneys will not handle cases nor provide legal supervision to the advocates. Volunteer attorneys will work with the WBF Executive Director to coordinate this telephonic support. Please contact Jade Franco at wba@womensbar.org if you are interested. 

For more information about the Women’s Lunch Place, please visit www.womenslunchplace.org. 

WBF Framingham Project

"Looking for a unique volunteering opportunity? Join the WBF Framingham Project! We are named for MCI-Framingham, the oldest women's prison in the US. We provide civil legal information to Massachusetts women who are currently incarcerated or recently released from the prison system. We hold educationals for groups of women at South Bay House of Correction and MCI-Framingham, as well as Boston post-release programs Kingston House and Aid to Incarcerated Mothers. In teams of 2 or 3 attorneys, we address a wide range of legal issues, including welfare, housing, DCF, domestic violence, warrant-clearing, and CORI sealing. A limited number of cases are then referred for representation. No specific expertise in any of these topics is necessary. Our next meeting will be February 18, 2010, at the WBA/WBF offices at 5:30 - welcome!" For information contact Elizabeth Brusie at ebrusie@gmail.com.

The Women's Bar Foundation of Massachusetts is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1993 to be the charitable and educational affiliate of our sister organization, the Women's Bar Association (WBA). The WBF works to establish an equitable legal system, to promote social and economic equity for women, and to meet the legal needs of women and their children through an array of pro bono services.

The WBF has an Executive Director and is governed by a 21-member Board of Trustees. In addition, the WBF employs two full-time staff members: a Family Law Project Supervising Attorney, a Staff Attorney, and an office administrator. Our principal mission is to provide free legal services to low-income individuals, primarily women. Toward that end, the WBF directs five pro bono programs including the Family Law Project for Battered Women, the Elder Law Project, the Women's Lunch Place Project, the Framingham Project for Incarcerated Women, the Hampden County Housing Court Project, and collaborates on two additional pro bono projects, the Judicial Consent for Minors Lawyer Referral Panel and the Rape Survivors' Law Project. To administer our programs, the Women's Bar Foundation recruits volunteer lawyers, conducts intensive training led by experts throughout the Commonwealth, and provides mentors to ensure that volunteer attorneys receive the guidance necessary to provide the highest quality legal services available.

The WBF is funded through the generosity of grants, foundations, educational institutions, corporate donors, and private contributions.