McCarter & English's Khan Organizes Virtual Housing Clinic

On Saturday, April 18, McCarter & English joined with the City of Newark, Essex Newark Legal Services, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Essex County Legal Aid Association, and the Ironbound Community Corp. to host a "Know-Your-Rights" web town hall for Essex County renters and homeowners. Abdul Rehman Khan, McCarter & English's first pro bono fellow for the City of Newark, presented the program, intended to help low-income Newark tenants, including undocumented tenants. As fellow, Khan has focused on housing-related issues. According to Khan, the web town hall had over 60 live Zoom participants, with possibly additional viewers on Facebook Live. The event was also recorded and will be available to share in the future. Common themes of the presentation included back rent and evictions, payment plans, mortgage forbearance and rent forgiveness, as well as code violations for tenants living in unsafe apartments, and questions from participants involved stimulus checks, late fees, utilities charges and rental voucher subsidies, the firm said. The event was hosted by Ironbound Community Corp. Co-panelists included: Khabirah Myers, coordinator of the Office of Newark Tenant Legal Services; Jose Ortiz, deputy director of Essex-Newark Legal Services, who along with Khan addressed eviction-related issues; and Yvette Gibbons, executive director of Essex County Legal Aid Association, and Dean Dafis, a representative from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, who both addressed what homeowners can anticipate. Language translation was made available in Spanish and Portuguese. The organizers are looking to host another web town hall around May 15, as well as possibly creating a hotline for tenants in need of urgent legal advice, the firm said.

Calcagni Kanefsky Benefits Nonprofits During Pandemic

Calcagni Kanefsky in Newark launched "We Will Prevail" to aid local nonprofits struggling to serve beneficiaries during the  COVID-19 crisis, pledging 5% of its April revenue to support such organizations, according to a release from the firm, which noted that the firm has donated $10,000 to the New Jersey Reentry Corp. That organization, under the leadership of former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevy, provides access to food, shelter and health care for residents in need. The firm also has pledged support to: Daytop New Jersey, serving those suffering from addiction and substance abuse disorder; Front Line Appreciation Group (FLAG),  a newly organized group helping feed front-line health-care workers during the pandemic while working to keep local restaurants in business; and Royal Family Productions, a socially conscious theater committed to making theater accessible for youth and adolescents from under-served communities. Firm senior partner Thomas Calcagni said in a statement that the firm is made up of former prosecutors and knows "the importance of service−we brought that with us from our careers as government officials, and it forms the fabric of our law firm." Fellow senior partner Eric Kanefsky added in the statement: "By launching this campaign, we're aiming to motivate other people and companies to action, to support these and other worthy, neighborhood non-profits that may be struggling during this unprecedented time." The firm is also encouraging others to make their own pledge of support to struggling non-profits in their communities via ck-litigation.com.