After 18 years of feeling like a prisoner in her own home and suffering – along with her six children – her husband’s constant abuse, Natasha De Synegub finally managed to leave after pro bono attorney Natalie Weech helped her devise a plan.
Weech, herself a domestic violence survivor, represented De Synegub through the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association as part of her ongoing commitment to helping women “understand that they can be survivors and move on.
Weech helped De Synegub map out a strategy that included finding an apartment, gathering up her children’s passports and birth certificates, getting herself and her children safely out of the house, and going straight to the courthouse to get an injunction.
“I made a promise to God, and I said the day I get the keys, the next day I will leave,” De Synegub said.
“I call this my heart work,” Weech said. “A lot of lawyers go to law school wanting to change the world, and I truly believe that you can change the world one person at a time. And empowering women to know they have confidence and that they do have power over their own lives is an amazing, fulfilling feeling.”
De Synegub said it makes her feel special to be one of Weech’s many “heart” cases. “I don’t know how many lawyers do pro bono, how many people are willing to help someone out freely, without expecting anything in return, and Natalie has never expected anything in return,” she said. “I think her satisfaction was to know that she helped someone.”
De Synegub said her life is still far from perfect, “but at least I am free, and my kids are free.”
