HyeJi Kim is building a better future for young New Yorkers. As a Staff Attorney in our Juvenile Rights Practice, HyeJi is an advocate for children in Brooklyn Family Court. Every day, she ensures that children have their voices heard – both in and out of the courtroom.

Our interdisciplinary practice gives us a lot of resources to help our clients.

HyeJi’s work has always been centered on helping the most vulnerable. She started her career supporting survivors of sex trafficking in Korea and Washington D.C. However, when she started law school and interned with our Exploitation Intervention Project, she noticed a trend among the survivors she was working with: “Many of these survivors had experienced childhood neglect or abuse.” HyeJi turned her attention to child welfare system, and has worked for the past three years to give children in need a voice. As she sees it, HyeJi provides these vulnerable children the critical support they need when they are young “in hopes that we can prevent some of the more serious outcomes – like trafficking – in the future.”

We give them the support they need when they are young in hopes that we can prevent some of the more serious outcomes – like trafficking – in the future.

In HyeJi’s time at The Legal Aid Society, she has already made a lasting impact in the lives of the children she has served. Our Juvenile Rights Practice employs an interdisciplinary approach, not only offering our young clients legal assistance, but also connecting them to social workers and other resources. For HyeJi, these teams make a big difference in the end. “When a judge knows that we have a team of experts all working towards a single goal for our client, it’s powerful.” With HyeJi and her colleagues working together, young New Yorkers across Brooklyn are in good hands.