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Pro Bono
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City Bar Retracts 'Not Satisfied' Finding on Deferred Associate Survey
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The New York City Bar yesterday retracted a finding from a survey suggesting that deferred associates were not satisfied with the lawyers with whom they worked at public interest groups. The city bar said it misinterpreted data it collected earlier this year. The new version of the report claims deferred associates "were largely happy with their placements," a stark difference from the previous report, which suggested a "culture gap" had emerged between the law firm-bound lawyers and their public interest colleagues.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Large Law Firms Defend Guantanamo Lawyers
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The intensifying flap over U.S. Department of Justice lawyers who have advocated for Guantanamo Bay detainees is spilling over into large law firms, where some leaders are fighting back against the criticism.
Lawsuit Challenges Police Searches of Public Housing
Monday, February 1, 2010
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Legal Aid Society, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison have filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to enjoin indiscriminate police searches of all residents and visitors in common areas of New York City public housing projects.
Accolades
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law last month held its annual awards reception at Debevoise & Plimpton honoring individuals and firms for their pro bono and civil rights work. Jerome J. Shestack, president of the International League for Human Rights for 20 years, was presented the Lloyd N. Cutler Lifetime Achievement Award. Also, Sidney Kess, a New York accountant and attorney, was awarded the 2009 Hartman Axley Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils at the organization's 46th annual conference.
Court System Is Enlisting Retired Lawyers for Pro Bono
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The court system is moving on several fronts to tap the state's 11,000 retired lawyers as volunteers to help those unable to afford legal counsel. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman in an interview yesterday said the plan was to create an "emeritus" category of attorney registration that will permit retired attorneys age 55 and over to handle pro bono cases without having to pay the biennial $350 registration fee or to meet mandatory continuing legal education requirements.
Lawyers Target 'Assembly Line' Practice, Abuse of Poor Immigrants
Monday, January 4, 2010
A movement in the legal community to increase pro bono representation of indigent immigrants and weed out incompetent or unscrupulous lawyers who prey on them is gathering momentum.
Lenders' Willingness to Talk Boosts Conferences
Monday, November 30, 2009
Since Sept. 1, 2008, state law has required lenders to submit specialized requests for judicial intervention when filing foreclosure summonses and complaints on one-to-four-family residences with a high-cost loan dating back to Jan. 1, 2003. Courts then notify property owners of their right to a resolution conference and provide details about legal service providers who can represent them. But getting people to show up for proceedings aimed at keeping them in their homes has been a challenge.
City Bar Leaders Publish Essay Collection on Pro Bono
Monday, November 30, 2009
The City Bar Justice Center has produced a collection of essays covering three decades of activity related to pro bono and access to justice at the City Bar.
Free: Kaye Scholer Deferred Lawyers to Work on Pro Bono at Firm
Friday, October 30, 2009
Kaye Scholer plans to split up its incoming first-year deferred associates, with half working on pro bono work for a reduced salary. The 500-lawyer firm had already delayed start dates for its 40 incoming associates to January. Now, 20 of the new lawyers will work in its pro bono program at the firm for a $60,000 salary, managing partner Barry Willner said yesterday.
Pro Bono at the Crossroads
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Kevin J. Curnin, a partner and the director of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan's Public Service Project, writes: Today, the law's impact on how we live and die is omnipresent. Health care reform, climate control accords and market regulation are the dominant examples, but there are others, less dramatic but no less deeply impactful: housing, bankruptcy, benefits, immigration, disability. The imbalance between "the haves and the have-nots" is with us now more than ever. Pro bono lawyers, at least part of the time, align with the "have-nots," the uneducated, the marginalized, the unprotected.
Free: Accolades
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Lawyers Alliance for New York is set to honor Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker and Seyfarth Shaw as well as eight individual attorneys with 2009 Cornerstone Awards this evening at the Pfizer Conference Center on East 42nd Street. The award recognizes pro bono legal aid to nonprofit groups working to improve low-income neighborhoods in New York City.
Deferred Associates 'Hit the Ground Running' at Non-Profits, D.A.'s Offices
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Had the economy not gone into a tail spin, Christopher Reid would likely be elbow-deep in research for discovery in a patent lawsuit at Ropes & Gray. Instead, Ropes & Gray announced in March that it was delaying start dates for new associates and those who chose to could work at non-profit agencies for a $60,000 stipend. Mr. Reid said he was initially "freaked out" but later decided the non-profit work might pull him out of his research comfort zone by forcing him into court with clients. "I thought it was good to do something that wasn't natural to me so I'd learn the most," said Mr. Reid, who said he is working on housing cases in Brooklyn for the Legal Aid Society.
The Good We Do: Access to Justice
Monday, October 26, 2009
Michael E. Getnick, the president of the New York State Bar Association, writes: Increased need and diminished funding brought about, in part, by the economic downturn will translate into the denial of legal representation for millions of poor people this year alone. Hundreds of thousands of those people are New Yorkers. And these numbers reflect only those who have sought legal services. Many never ask for help. Millions of people simply try to represent themselves. Together with bar associations and good government groups all across the country working to shore up funding for civil legal services, thousands of attorneys in towns and cities all across New York and our nation are doing their part to narrow the justice gap by providing pro bono service.
Citing Withheld Evidence, Judge Orders Third Trial in 1977 Slaying
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Exculpatory evidence unearthed by pro bono attorneys that was not turned over at trial to a defendant convicted of a 1977 murder has persuaded a judge to reopen the case. Acting Dutchess County Court Judge James T. Rooney granted defendant Dewey Bozella's motion to set aside his conviction and ordered a new trial in the killing of 92-year-old Emma Crapser as she returned to her Poughkeepsie home after a night of bingo. WilmerHale senior associate Ross E. Firsenbaum, partners Peter Macdonald and John Hintz and associate Shauna Friedman worked on the case, logging an estimated 2,500 hours worth $950,000 at customary rates on the Bozella case since it took the matter over late in 2007.
Court System to Host Pro Bono Expo on Thursday
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Attorneys interested in learning about the state court system's pro bono programs are invited to an expo on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. hosted by the Access to Justice Program of the New York State Courts.
Free: Lawyer Epiphanies
Friday, October 16, 2009
William J. Dean, executive director of Volunteers of Legal Service, writes: Through recent interviews with lawyers, both partners and associates, undertaken in connection with the 25th anniversary of Volunteers of Legal Service, I have come to appreciate the epiphanies lawyers experience from their pro bono work, the most important being immense personal and professional satisfaction and a deepening awareness of the vicissitudes and courage of poor people.
