I’ve just been reminded of one way of finding a lawyer: the Bar Association of the City of New York’s legal referral service.
Eventually, I’ll be interviewing this service to learn precisely how it works. My current understanding is that you call the referral number, stating the essence of your problem so that the service can narrow the referral to lawyers in the specialty you’ll be needing, and then they give you the name and number of one lawyer who has been pre-screened by their panel.
Although I don’t believe it offers you more than one lawyer per call, I’m not sure whether you can call back to get another referral, if the first done doesn’t please you. Let me know what you find out.
I wasn’t sure whether the service offered referrals to lawyers who will handle your case pro bono, but I am pleased to tell you that the link I’m providing to the City Bar has a long menu running down the left side of the screen providing links to numerous pro bono or low-legal-cost projects.
They even have a link regarding how to complain about a lawyer or a judge. (It will refer you eventually to the NYS Unified Court System but does not offer the link Sidebar offers on the home page, to the right, under Sites of Interest. My brag.)
It looks like an excellent site for anyone with a legal problem: New York City Bar Association – Legal Referral Service. Take more than a look; click around and read all the information. In one section to the right, it gives you links to brief descriptions of the various areas of law in which you might be searching for a lawyer.
And P.S. in case you are up in the neighborhood of the Bar Association building, you’ll want to visit this urban palace, a City landmark. Here’s what the invaluably witty AIA Guide to New York City says about it (it has two addresses because it covers a whole block: 37 West 43rd Street and 42 West 44th Street): “A Classical limestone structure with the massive sobriety of the law. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders are all there. But as an ensemble, it has the austere elegance of Greek architecture of the 5th century B.C.”
Seeing this building is a lot easier than time-traveling to 5th century B.C., right?