38 Additional Pro Bono Highlights (continued) FREEDOM FOR ALL MASSACHUSETTS, INC. Mintz has been advising a coalition of LGBTQ organizations regarding the formation of a ballot question committee to oppose the repeal of the transgender accommodation law passed by the Massachusetts legislature in 2016. Mintz worked with the coalition to create a Massachusetts nonprofit called Freedom for All Massachusetts, Inc. that will run the ballot question committee. The Mintz team, led by attorneys Erica Coray and Elissa Flynn-Poppey, has also assisted with filing for tax exemption status with the IRS, and has advised Freedom for All Massachusetts about compliance with laws and regulations governing political organizations in Massachusetts. Mintz has also worked with the coalition to host events to increase awareness of the ballot initiative and create partnerships across industries and organizations. GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK The Greater Boston Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and among the largest food banks in the country. The organization distributed over 50 million meals through its network of hunger-relief agencies in 2017 alone. Mintz helped the organization with employment, trademark, and corporate governance matters. In 2017, the Mintz team included attorneys Dianne Bourque, Allan Caggiano, Jessica Catlow, Sue Finegan, Emma Follansbee, Brendan Lowd, Patricia Moran, Poonam Patidar, Laura Stacey, Reena Thadhani, Adrienne Walker, Steve Weiner, and Susan Weller as well as project analysts, research staff, and paralegals Alexander Blutman, Jessica Bumpous, Ryan Davenport, Jacobo Dib, Kayla Fries, Rachael Hanna, and Sarah Sherman. GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES: DEBT CLINIC Facilitated by Matt Brooks, a Greater Boston Legal Services staff attorney and the firm’s Equal Justice Works Fellow with Fidelity Investments, the Consumer Debt Collection Clinic invites volunteer attorneys, paralegals, and staff to assist individual defendants at debt collection proceedings at the Roxbury Municipal Court. Mintz and Fidelity collaborate on the clinic, which is staffed by pro bono volunteers from each sponsor. Interested volunteers assist with intake interviews and docu- ments, client counseling, settlement negotiations, and hearing preparations. Clients’ debt is often in dispute, and debt collection agencies that have bought and sold the debt several times over are often unable to establish a chain of title. With debt collection proceedings involving unrepresented defen- dants 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. HATZALAH Hatzalah is the largest volunteer ambulance service in the United States, with 14 local chapters in the New York metropolitan area; over 1,300 emergency medical technicians, paramedics, physician assistants, and MDs; and more than 85 ambulances. Mintz provided a variety of legal services to the organization, under the guidance of attorney Jeff Moerdler. Jeff is an EMT with Hatzalah and co-president of its local chapter in Riverdale. He also serves on the executive board of the city-wide umbrella organization and as co-chair of its legal committee. Attorneys Russell Fox, Jonathan Markman, Alyssia Bryant, and Kimberly Gilchrist, with assistance from others, have continued to work on communications regulatory issues for Hatzalah. In 2015, the team obtained a landmark ruling from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowing Hatzalah to be the first nongovernmental entity authorized by the FCC to receive caller ID information for blocked land lines, and the team is now working on a similar application for cell phones. The attorneys then successfully sought a similar ruling from the New York Public Service Commission. In addition, they have handled various other FCC permitting applications for Hatzalah’s private radio broadcast antenna network.