Lawyer dispenses advice from folding table in Harlem
A former prosecutor drives to Harlem several days a week where he sets up a folding table and dispenses legal advice.
Lawyer Andrew Bersin, 67, of upstate New York, says he gets satisfaction from helping people—and he also gains about one new case a week, on average, the New York Daily News reports.
Bersin worked as a prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office from 1977 to 1987, then went into private practice where he handled cases involving civil rights and then medical malpractice. He first began visiting Harlem with another lawyer in a truck, until they lost the vehicle, then he decided on the sidewalk office.
Homemade signs at his table describe high-profile police brutality cases, though many who stop to speak with him complain about problems with landlords. He is currently handling a federal brutality case against the New York Police Department by family members who claim they were attacked in their home.
“The law can be very intimidating and people can be very distressed,” Bersin told the Daily News. “Their lives are disrupted. They can’t get answers or any direction, and when I’m able to [help with] just simple things, you can see how good they feel.”
