pro bono volunteers from each sponsor. Interested volunteers assist with intake interviews and documents, client counseling, settlement negotiation, and prepara- tion for hearings. Clients’ debt is often in dispute, and debt collection agencies which have bought and sold the debt several times over are often unable to establish a chain of title. With debt collection proceedings involving unrepresented defendants in nearly 99% of cases, the ultimate goal of the clinic is to offset the information gap between debt collection agency attorneys and individual litigants, assisting clients in financial need by securing favorable settlements and avoiding default judgments on indigent defendants’ credit reports. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROJECT Mintz Levin’s Domestic Violence Project was founded in Boston in 1989 and is now active in several Mintz Levin offices. In the years since, hundreds of the firm’s attorneys, paraprofessionals, and staff members have worked on behalf of individual survivors. Beyond helping victims directly, attorneys have served as legal counsel for more than 25 nonprofits dedicated to combating domestic violence and sexual assault, and have partnered with these organizations to advocate for legislative reform and to write amicus and appellate briefs at the state and federal levels. This past year, one of the many domestic violence cases with which Mintz Levin offered assistance involved “Vanessa,” a mother who separated from her husband in 2014, fearing for her safety and the safety of her four young children. Since 2011, Vanessa’s husband had abused her verbally and physically, repeatedly threatening to kill her and their four children. After first securing a restraining order against her husband in 2014, Vanessa remained fearful each year when confronting her husband in court, both at multiple extension hearings for the order of protection and during hearings in their contentious divorce litigation. These recurring court contests forced Vanessa to relive the trauma of her past abuse despite the protection order. In October of 2016, in the most recent extension hearing, attorneys Drew DeVoogd and Kristina Cary argued that the existing restraining order should be extended permanently. Despite the court’s initial reluctance, Drew successfully argued that the nature and extent of the abuse suffered by Vanessa and her children warranted the extraordinary remedy requested. Thanks to the efforts of Drew and Kristina, with assistance from former project analyst Zach Fields and the expert guidance of Vanessa’s first Mintz Levin attorney, Cassie Ramos, Mintz Levin not only secured a permanent extension of the 209A abuse prevention order for Vanessa and her children against their abuser, but spared her the trauma of additional renewal hearings. ELIZABETH STONE HOUSE The Elizabeth Stone House is dedicated to serving home- less families and individuals in a goal-oriented, outcome- driven environment. The agency helps to resolve the issues that make people homeless, including domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental illness, so that they can attain and maintain permanent housing, personal safety, and economic stability. Mintz Levin—in particular, attorney Maryann Civitello—has been involved with the organization for decades. Nine years ago, a two-alarm fire consumed the top floor of one of the House’s residences. While everyone made it out safely, the building became uninhabitable. Since then, the program has been crowded into the one remaining building. After four years of searching for a new site, an (continued) 37