Free legal help for guests at family shelter on Amazon campus

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Heartless things can happen when the law gets applied to a person who can't afford a lawyer. "The mother who flees domestic violence, and her partner trashes the apartment? That's on her record," said Lindsey Casey, one of the Amazon Legal team members volunteering their time and expertise to help guests at Mary's Place. "What do we do to help her move forward and get a new space?"

To support that goal, Amazon employees volunteering their legal skills sometimes find themselves tackling seemingly miniscule problems that have caused massive fallout. Casey, a compliance specialist on Amazon's Business Conduct and Ethics team, remembered one mother who couldn't make sense of the legal hoops she needed to jump through to resolve an old $50 fine.

The K&L Gates law firm partners with Amazon to support the free weekly legal clinics at Mary’s Place. Shannan Frisbie, a partner at the firm, said, I'm a first-generation college grad, and I was a child of a single mother on welfare. So it is meaningful for me to be able to come back and sit with someone who reminds me of my mother and my brother and myself and give them support when they need it.