Nam Hee Kim is Pro Bono Supervising Attorney at Sanctuary for Families’ Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services. Since its inception in 1984, Sanctuary for Families has provided legal, clinical, and shelter services to battered women and their children and serves thousands of victims each year. The Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services, the non-profit law firm within Sanctuary for Families, is the largest program in the nation dedicated exclusively to providing legal services to victims of domestic violence. Ms. Kim provides direct representation to victims of domestic violence in order of protection, custody/visitation, support, abuse/neglect, and matrimonial proceedings, as well as advocating for clients in criminal matters.
Ms. Kim joined the staff of Sanctuary for Families’ Legal Center in 2005 as Co-Director of the Community Liaison Project (“CLP”). The chief aims of Ms. Kim’s work with CLP were to provide bilingual and culturally sensitive representation to primarily non-English speaking immigrant victims of domestic violence, and to improve the overall response of the family courts, criminal justice system, and social service providers to this underrepresented population. A Korean speaker, Ms. Kim specifically focused on outreach to and representation of battered women from the Asian immigrant communities.
In her current position as Pro Bono Supervising Attorney, Ms. Kim coordinates and oversees the Legal Center’s pro bono program, and carries a diverse caseload supervising and co-counseling cases with pro bono attorneys from area law firms. She continues to be passionate about raising awareness about domestic violence in the Asian immigrant communities and maintains strong relationships with community-based organizations serving Asian immigrant victims of domestic violence.
Prior to joining Sanctuary for Families, Ms. Kim practiced as a commercial litigator for the first six years of her career at New York City law firms, beginning her career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Ms. Kim is a 1998 graduate of Columbia Law School and a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar.
