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Pro Bono
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Public Interest Projects
Friday, April 25, 2008
The Pro Bono Clinic, launched this spring at Brooklyn Law School, provides eight students the opportunity of working on a variety of cases with Holland & Knight lawyers who make up the firm's Community Services Team. Students are focused on criminal justice matters in southern states, half of which are death penalty cases with the balance consisting of prison condition, clemency and voting rights matters.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Programs Pairing Lawyers With Litigants Expected to Grow
Friday, April 18, 2008
Two partnerships between the bench and the private bar in which pro bono counsel is provided to low-income, often poorly educated pro se litigants is seen by judges as taking a good deal of terror out of appearing in New York City's Housing and Family courts. Successful pilot programs undertaken in Brooklyn and Manhattan, which continue and are expected to grow, provide anxious and emotion-ridden litigants with free, on-the-spot consultations.
Public Interest Projects
Friday, March 28, 2008
Richard B. Cohen and a team from Fox Rothschild reached a settlement on behalf of Muslim inmates, who will now receive Halal meals at their request. Also, the Pro Bono Institute has announced a competitive grant process for poverty law agencies to develop pilot programs for retiring attorneys, and the Center for Reproductive Rights has a new fellowship open to Columbia Law School graduates pursuing legal academic careers in health and human rights law.
Accolades
Friday, March 21, 2008
Prominent white-collar criminal defense lawyer Theodore V. Wells Jr. is set to receive the Judge Simon H. Rifkind Award during the Jewish Theological Seminary annual luncheon on April 8 at the Pierre Hotel.
City Reconsiders Plan to Construct $375 Million Jail in South Bronx
Friday, February 29, 2008
An open-ended involvement in a complex struggle pitting a Bronx community group against New York City agencies that had proposed building a 2,000-inmate jail on waterfront acreage at Oak Point became even more complicated this week for a team of pro bono attorneys at Seward & Kissel, despite the city's concession on a major point in the two-year dispute.
Returning From War
Friday, February 22, 2008
Last October, Rachel Natelson won the Urban Justice Center's "Innovations in Social Justice Award" by submitting a proposal to help today's veterans, who have been "abandoned by the very system of government they defend in battle." This April, the $100,000 prize will be used to open the Veterans Rights Project, which will advocate on behalf of those caught up in an "overloaded and antiquated system" of benefits administration.
Public Interest Projects
Friday, February 22, 2008
The New York City Bar Association is now accepting nominations for the 19th annual Legal Services Awards, honoring those in full-time civil legal assistance to the poor. Also, a team of Dewey & LeBoeuf lawyers is representing a double-amputee athlete from South Africa in his attempt to overturn his disqualification from the upcoming Beijing Olympics and other events, and attorneys from Proskauer Rose are providing pro bono representation for A Journey for 9/11.
Accolades
Friday, February 15, 2008
Reversing the murder conviction of Martin H. Tankleff took 12 years of tenacity by a legal team led by a Brooklyn prosecutor turned Long Island solo practitioner, with pro bono backup from attorneys at three large firms. The team was given the Gideon Champion of Justice Award by the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers during its annual dinner Jan. 31 in Manhattan.
Team Regains Public Aid For Aged, Ill Immigrants
Friday, February 1, 2008
To Boris Khrapunskiy, a penniless, ill 100-year-old refugee from the former Soviet Union who speaks only Russian and a bissel of Yiddish, a merciful court is something new under the sun. So, too, is the idea that attorneys from the statewide Empire Justice Center and the New York Legal Assistance Group, as well as two pro bono lawyers from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, will work for years - for free - to ensure that government is responsible for the likes of him.
Accolades
Friday, January 25, 2008
Two jurists and Columbia Law School were honored Wednesday evening by the Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage during its annual awards dinner on the campus of Columbia University, sponsored by the association, Columbia Law Dean David M. Schizer and the Latino/a Law Students' Association.
A Common Obligation
Friday, January 25, 2008
Eight years of delicate work by New Yorkers to forge a viable pro bono legal establishment in Latin America were capped Tuesday evening with a Manhattan gathering of scores of local and foreign attorneys in advance of next month's official launch in Mexico City of the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas.
Pardon Allows Ex-Convict to Stay in U.S.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Frederick Lake is free to remain in the United States after fighting a deportation order over the past decade based on an armed robbery conviction - a crime he insists he did not commit, for which Governor Eliot Spitzer issued a full and unconditional pardon just before Christmas.
Tankleff Pro Bono Effort Born of Ex-Classmate's Law Paper
Friday, January 18, 2008
Laura R. Taichman was a law student at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston in the early 1990s. Assigned to prepare a paper for her advanced criminal procedure class, her choice of topic was a natural: the 1988 slayings of Arlene and Seymour Tankleff in her hometown of Belle Terre, Long Island. Ms. Taichman's paper would come to inspire a pro bono legal team of 13 years' standing, a team composed of lawyers from several of the nation's biggest firms.
