In 1989, a coalition of legal services agencies, civil rights and civil liberties organizations, and bar associations formed PAIR to meet an emergency need for legal representation of 83 workers, mostly from El Salvador, whom the INS arrested at the Suffolk Downs racetrack in Revere, Massachusetts. Since then, PAIR staff and pro bono attorneys have provided legal services to clients who have come to the U.S. from 90 countries all over the world including: Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chechnya, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine (stateless), Panama, People's Republic of China, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Sudan, Surinam, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tibet, Togo, Trinidad, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
PAIR provides most of its pro bono services through volunteer attorneys, paralegals, law students, and interpreters who donated over $8 million worth of services in 2009. PAIR and its volunteer attorneys have assisted more than 4,500 clients, with a success rate of over 95% for asylum clients PAIR has represented.
Hear more about PAIR in the video clips below.
PAIR Project awarded Peter Warwick of Thomson Reuters, Legal, as Outstanding Business Leader in Human Rights at its annual Gala on June 9, 2009.
Ken Parsigian accepted the award for Outstanding Pro Bono Law Firm on behalf of Goodwin Procter LLP at the 2008 PAIR Gala.
PAIR is grateful to have built partnerships with the following law firms over the years:
