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Pro Bono
New York City Pro Bono Training Calendar
New York State Pro Bono Opportunities Guide
Public Interest Projects
New York Lawyer
February 23, 2007
By Thomas Adcock
New York Law Journal
For the first time since the Skadden Fellowship Program was created in 1988, this year's crop of graduating law students and judicial clerks taking their first positions in poverty law careers includes an overseas post.
Set to complete a joint degree program at Columbia Law School and King's College at the University of London, Adam Weiss has been assigned as counsel to London's Advice on Individual Rights in Europe Centre. His project statement focuses on the rights of low-income workers to move freely within the European Union, as well as providing legal assistance to victims of human trafficking and forced labor within Europe.
Mr. Weiss and 29 others in the fellowship class of 2007 bring the total number of fellows sponsored by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to 503. In recognition of "the abundance of excellent candidates," senior partner Joseph H. Flom and the firm underwrote the costs of five additional fellows this year beyond the 25 spots budgeted, according to a firm statement.
The fellows receive a salary of $46,000 during their one-year posts, as well as fringe benefits ordinarily paid by sponsoring organizations. For those not covered by a law school low-income protection plan, the firm will pay fellows' tuition debt installments.
This year's 30 fellows are assigned to agencies throughout the United States, including these public service agencies: Lawyers for Children, the Bronx office of Legal Services for New York and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Working in conjunction with the Legal Aid Society through a protracted legal battle that ended early this month, five attorneys from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison have succeeded in helping tenants of a dilapidated apartment complex in Brooklyn find a new - and rather prominent - landlord.
The 385-unit Noble Drew Ali Plaza, which had suffered from years of neglect under previous ownership as well as an attempted mass eviction, is now the property of Maurice Samuel "Mo" Vaughn, the former first baseman for the New York Mets known as much for his extensive charity work as his fearsome slugging ability.
Mr. Vaughn, also known as "Hit Dog," now owns and operates OMNI New York, which has purchased and rehabilitated some 1,200 rundown apartments in the city. His company purchased Noble Drew Ali Plaza, in Brooklyn's hard-pressed Brownsville neighborhood, for $21 million. Mr. Vaughn and his partner, Eugene Schneur, are expected to invest another $20 million in upgrades and renovations.
The Paul Weiss team consisted of partners Brian Hermann and Moses Silverman, associates Penny Dearborn and Amir Weinberg and former associate Lori Kata.
On Valentine's Day, Morrison & Foerster proclaimed its love for Gotham by joining The Partnership for New York City, the nonprofit organization of 200 chief executives from the city's corporate, investment and entrepreneurial communities.
Member firms of the partnership, co-founded by David Rockefeller in 1979, work with government bodies, labor unions and the nonprofit sector to maintain the city's position as the global capital of commerce, finance and innovation.
"We are delighted to become a part of such an elite network of individuals and businesses dedicated to the future health and vitality of New York City," said Keith C. Wetmore, chairman of Morrison & Foerster.
For the third consecutive year, each of the nearly 200 attorneys at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler participated in the firm's annual pro bono agenda, according to partner Lisa E. Cleary.
Since 1999, The American Lawyer magazine, an ALM affiliate of the Law Journal, has ranked Patterson Belknap among the nation's top 10 firms for pro bono effort.
"Our work [during 2006] demonstrates our continuing commitment to disenfranchised New Yorkers," said Ms. Cleary, chairwoman of the firm's pro bono committee.
She cited volunteer work on behalf of mentally disabled clients, children from low-income households and immigrant laborers as focusing on "groups and individuals most likely to have the greatest difficulty securing legal representation and equal access to justice."
Major pro bono cases handled by the firm last year included litigation in conjunction with MFY Legal Services against operators of an adult home in Queens; an inaugural "Consumer Rights Project" that exposed unfair debt collection practices, administered by attorney Karuna Patel during her firm-sponsored fellowship at MFY; and litigation against two Bronx supermarkets that violated workplace safety laws by locking in employees and denying them access to telephones.
"Our advocacy efforts, including the impact litigation that we lead, help to vindicate the rights of thousands of New Yorkers each year," said Rochelle Korman, managing partner of Patterson Belknap.
A national scholarship program has been created by Jackson Lewis, the management-side labor and employment law firm.
Beginning this fall, the firm will provide $5,000 each to law schools in or near the 27 cities where it has offices. Seven campuses have been confirmed to date, including St. John's University School of Law in Queens and Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, N.J.
The scholarship is meant to "encourage student interest in and raise awareness of the field of workplace and labor law, an ever increasingly important sector of the legal profession," said Vincent A. Cino, the firm's national litigation coordinator and a partner in the firm's Morristown, N.J., office.
Expanding on its long-standing commitment to helping individual teams of foreign law students through the rigors of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the New York headquarters of White & Case has announced it will act as sponsor for national preliminary rounds in Canada, Russia and China - leading up to world finals this spring in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law.
Lawyers and marketing staff at White & Case offices in those countries will provide a "huge amount of support" for students by way of seminars and individual team training, said Mark A. Luz, a New York associate who coordinates his firm's Jessup activities.
Mr. Luz said the firm also would make a financial contribution "in the six figures" to the nonprofit International Law Students Association, which administers the Jessup competition. The competition involves more than 90 countries and some 500 law campuses worldwide.
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