Philadelphia Attorney Recognized for Work with Transgender Community

May 3rd, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Philadelphia attorney Natalie Hrubos of Greenberg Traurig…

Attorney Natalie Hrubos: “You can imagine how difficult life is when you are carrying around a piece of identification…that doesn’t match how you look to the world.” 

Attorney Natalie Hrubos

Attorney Natalie Hrubos may be young, but her compassion and understanding of an often marginalized and ostracized group makes her seem wise beyond her years. And her many hours of pro bono work with low-income members of the transgender community, combined with her efforts to educate other lawyers about the legal issues affecting this community, was recently recognized with a Young Lawyers Division community service award from the Philadelphia Bar Association.

“Lawyers don’t necessarily express an interest in working with transgender clients because they don’t understand the community in general or the type of legal issues that are unique to transgender people,” she says. “The result is a lack of legal services available to trans folks,” says Hrubos who is an associate in the Philadelphia office of the international firm of Greenberg Traurig. 

“In fact, the community in general doesn’t understand this community,” adds Hrubos, “it is not just the legal community.” 

At Temple University Law School in Philadelphia, Hrubos was a law student volunteer at the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender free legal clinic in the state. Answering phones, taking messages she learned a lot.

“Many of the calls came from transgender individuals who needed to change their names to better match their identity and their everyday presentation. They were trying to get help with correcting their documents to match their new legal name and correct their gender marker,” says Hrubos. 

By gender marker, she means that little box on your driver’s license or credit card application that asks if you are male or female. 

“You can imagine how difficult life is when you are carrying around a piece of identification, you have to keep showing it and it says a name and gender that doesn’t match how you look to the world.” 

And when that information doesn’t match what people see, it is more than inconvenient—it can be downright dangerous. 

 “I have one client who was presenting ID with his credit card in line at the grocery store and two people behind him followed him out and hit him in the face several times and he came to our meeting with a black eye,” says Hrubos. 

Hrubos is currently working on document changes for a teen that was so badly harassed he had to move to a new high school. “People in his new school don’t know he is transgender. He can’t really present identity documentation so he is always worried, for example, that his car might be pulled over and he’ll be ‘outted’ in front of new his friends.” 

At Greenberg Traurig, Hrubos represents employers in all in aspects of employment and labor law. Gender identity issues, particularly in the workplace are a burgeoning area of law. Aware of that, many employers want to be proactive. “I am in a good position to help and counsel employers on how to address some of the employee relations issues that come within the context of a gender transition at work and to proactively eliminate bias against transgender workers,” says Hrubos. 

In June, Hrubos is doing a continuing legal education workshop for lawyers at the 10th annual Trans-Health Conference in Philadelphia. 

“It will provide an issues overview and some information on how to become more ‘culturally competent’,” says Hrubos. 

“There are lot of people who can represent people doing a name change, it is more difficult to find someone who is culturally competent,” Hrubos says.  “I had to learn to be ‘cultural competent’ and that’s why it’s important for me to continue doing it, because there aren’t a lot of other lawyers that can do it.” 

Natalie Hrubos is an associate with the large international law firm of Greenberg Traurig. She represents and counsels management clients in all aspects of labor and employment law. She is also a member of the Legal Advisory Board for the Legal Services Department at the Mazzoni Center, the only agency in Philadelphia that provides direct legal services to low-income LGBT individuals facing legal obstacles related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Tags: Attorney Natalie Hrubos, gender identity, Greenberg Traurig, Lawyers Giving Back, LGBT, Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia lawyer, Transgender

This was posted on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 8:22 am and is filed under Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.