New York State Pro Bono Opportunities Guide
Accolades
New York Lawyer
March 2, 2007
By Thomas Adcock
New York Law Journal
One-third of all the food collected through the special "Street Fleet" program administered by City Harvest, the agency that provides unsold commercially prepared food to the poor, now comes from the daily efforts of some 30 lawyers and 20 support staffers of DLA Piper.
For this achievement, the firm was honored on Feb. 22 during City Harvest's annual appreciation party for corporate volunteers.
According to partner David E. Weiss, who headed the DLA Piper team, he and his colleagues collected 7,800 pounds of excess food from four Starbucks coffee shops and delivered it each afternoon to St. Paul's House on West 51st Street.
Laura Brown, manager of corporate volunteer opportunities for City Harvest, said the food provided breakfast for about 22 people every morning through the year.
The co-founders of The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law - Professors Peter J. Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck - will be honored next Friday by the New York Council of Defense Lawyers during a luncheon at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Messrs. Neufeld and Scheck will be given the organization's Norman S. Ostrow Award for "outstanding contribution to the defense of liberty and the preservation of individual rights," according to the council. The award's namesake, who died in 1988, was a founding member of the council. Professor Anthony Amsterdam of New York University School of Law will present the award.
Two attorneys and a journalist were recipients of "Justice in Action" awards during the annual "Lunar New Year Gala" of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, held Feb. 22 at Chelsea Piers. Some 800 leaders of the civil rights, legal, business and arts communities attended the benefit gala, celebrating the Year of the Boar.
ABC Television news correspondent Juju Chang served as emcee.
Honorees included:
• Javade Chaudhri, general counsel for Sempra Energy of San Diego and a former senior partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Winston & Strawn. Former California Supreme Court Justice Elwood Lui, a partner with the Los Angeles office of Jones Day, presented Mr. Chaudhri with the legal defense fund's award for his long-standing commitment to diversity in the legal profession.
• Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, former U.S. attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh presented the award to Mr. Katzenbach for his pivotal role in civil rights enforcement, including the landmark 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U.S. 641, which amended the Voting Rights Act of 1975 to include language assistance provisions.
• Helen Zia, author of "Asian-American Dreams: the Emergence of an American People," and co-author, with Wen Ho Lee of "My Country Versus Me," an account of false accusations of espionage against the Los Alamos scientist, leaked by federal government sources and published by several newspapers, which last year paid a total of $1.6 million in settlement of Mr. Lee's libel lawsuit.
The annual International Advocate for Peace Award, given by the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, will be presented Monday to Dennis Ross during a lunch at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Counsel and distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, D.C., Mr. Ross was the U.S. mediator in Middle East peace negotiations under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. During this time, he assisted Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement, successfully brokered the 1997 Hebron Accord and facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
Emeritus Professor Roger C. Cramton of Cornell Law School is this year's recipient of the Sanford D. Levy Award, given by the Ethics Committee of the New York State Association to attorneys who best advance the understanding of professional ethics.
A former dean of Cornell Law, Mr. Cramton was presented with the award at a luncheon in his honor during the state bar's annual meeting in Manhattan in January.
Mr. Cramton is the creator of the American Legal Ethics Library, a collection of state ethics codes, accompanied by narratives. From 2003-2005, he was a reporter for the revision of New York's Rules of Professional Conduct.
The Loyola Law School of Los Angeles sponsored a two-day symposium on free speech issues last weekend in honor of Cornell Law School Professor Steven Shiffrin, who was also given an alumni award for scholarly achievement.
Mr. Shiffrin is the author of "Dissent, Injustice and the Meanings of America," published in 1999 by Princeton University Press, and "The First Amendment, Democracy and Romance," Harvard Press, 1990. He writes for numerous law school journals, as well as The New York Times Book Review.
Other New Yorkers attending the Loyola "Commercial Speech: Past, Present, and Future" symposium included Professor Nadine Strossen of New York Law School and president of the American Civil Liberties Union, and New York Times reporter Adam Liptak.
During its fourth annual "Champions of Diversity Awards Breakfast," the New York Urban League honored Weil, Gotshal & Manges for its "dedication to sustaining an environment of inclusion."
Weil Gotshal was one of three corporations - along with Pfizer, Inc., and Prudential Financial - recognized for diversity practice in hiring, promotion, supplier relations and philanthropic activities.
Stephen Dannhauser, chairman of Weil Gotshal, accepted the award on behalf of his firm. Former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins and his wife, Joyce Dinkins, presided over the breakfast event held Feb. 8 at the Rainbow Room.
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