After we heard Fraidy Reiss, Unchained’s founder/executive director, tell her personal story of fleeing from an abusive arranged marriage, we knew we wanted to volunteer for Unchained, even though we had no training or experience in divorce law.
Our first Unchained assignment was to represent a woman with a similar story to Fraidy’s: raised in a devoutly religious, insular community, where her family arranged for her to marry at 19. Nine years and four children later, the woman knew she wanted to leave the marriage and the community, but her family and friends did not support her decision, and she lacked the means to retain a divorce attorney.
We spent 18 months negotiating, meeting with opposing counsel and watching many emotional twists and turns for the client, until we achieved a favorable stipulation of divorce for her. She was ecstatic. “I cannot ever possibly repay you,” she said.
With all the work we get paid to do, the reward you can get from doing this kind of pro bono work is truly amazing when you know you have helped someone achieve something she could not have achieved on her own.
– Marc, Kristin and Barry