Mission

The mission of Open Hands Legal Services, Inc. is to faithfully respond to God’s call to seek justice and defend the rights of the poor by providing legal services and counseling to the poor and indigent in New York City.

What We Do

Open Hands is a legal services, non-profit, Christian organization. We provide free legal aid, advocacy, and spiritual support to the poor and disenfranchised of New York City.

In many ways, we’re in the business of creating access to justice where unfair barriers exist. We offer legal services with life-changing results.

This means addressing housing issues to prevent homelessness.
This means providing corporate legal help for an ex-offender that’s trying to start a business.
This means advocating in court for someone that doesn’t know their rights.

We do our work by partnering with attorney volunteers to conduct intake at existing community-based organizations, such as soup kitchens. In the community, with our city's neediest, we provide advice and representation on a variety of legal matters, focusing primarily on housing law, family law and re-entry matters.

We meet a lot of needs that other non-profits can’t, which makes us not only unique but in-demand. But that is also a sign that we’re essential. We have tripled in size in the past three years and need your help to take us to the next level!