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Pro Bono
New York City Pro Bono Training Calendar
New York State Pro Bono Opportunities Guide
NY Lawyers Working in the Public Interest
New York Lawyer
August 29, 2007
By Thomas Adcock
New York Law Journal
On behalf of two inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in upstate Otisville, a team of lawyers from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison filed a class-action suit Tuesday in New York, claiming that the government has banned numerous religious texts from its chapel libraries.
In the Southern District matter of Milstein v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 07 CV 7434, the Jewish and Christian plaintiffs contend that "religious books and audio-visual media . . . that do not appear on an arbitrary list of pre-approved materials" have been removed from prison libraries nationwide "without any effort to determine whether they are inflammatory or extremist."
The Paul Weiss team - litigation partner Moses Silverman and associates Solomon N. Klein and Matthew T. Insley-Pruitt - noted in their pro bono suit that the Federal Bureau of Prisons acknowledged in writing that the banned materials may, in fact, be "very worthwhile and unobjectionable."
According to the complaint, banned materials at Otisville include two fundamental Jewish works - Maimonides' "Mishneh Torah Systematic Code of Jewish Law" and the "Zohar," a primary text of Kabbalah - as well as the popular "When Bad Things Happen to Good People," by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner. Among the purged Christian works is the best-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," by Rick Warren. Further, according to the complaint, the Muslim section of the library at Otisville has been stripped of Islamic "prayer books, prayer guides and the 'Hadith,' which is the most important source for Muslim practice and faith after the Koran."
"This kind of indiscriminate dismantling of religious libraries has occurred in federal prisons across the country," the Paul Weiss lawyers said in their complaint, noting a recent prisons bureau administrative ruling known as the Standardized Chapel Library Project. The project, they said, was an "unnecessary, unconstitutional and unlawful restriction of the ability of federal inmates nationwide to practice and learn about their religion."
At Otisville, according to the complaint, "hundreds of books, including those that have been in the chapel library for years without incident and without evidence that any . . . were extremist" have been removed.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons declined comment on the suit.
Another litigation team from Paul Weiss, this time working in partnership with the New York Civil Liberties Union, settled discrimination claims last month in the case of a fashion company's alleged harassment of a woman who attempted to breast-feed her 8-week-old son in the company's New York City showroom.
The Paul Weiss team - partner Roberta A. Kaplan and associates Lisa Ruesch and Ralia Polechronis - negotiated directly with Fossil, Inc., of Richardson, Texas. Their complaint was based on New York Civil Rights Law §79-e (1994), which provides that a mother has the right to breast-feed "in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be."
In August 2006, Fossil employees escorted a buyer from Maine from its Manhattan showroom when she prepared to feed her baby, according to the Paul Weiss lawyers. Several months later, according to the lawyers, Fossil banned her from returning to the showroom.
As part of the July 3 settlement, Fossil apologized to the woman, provided undisclosed financial compensation and affirmed that breast-feeding is allowed in all Fossil retail stores and showrooms.
Law firm and in-house sponsors of the 2007-2008 Lloyd M. Johnson Jr. Scholarship Program, an initiative of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, were announced this week by the Washington, D.C., organization.
The program, established in 2005 and named for the association's founder, provides six fellowships of $30,000 each and four scholarships of $10,000 each.
Fellowship sponsors are Houston-based Baker Botts and San Franciso-based Gordon & Rees, along with Goldman Sachs in New York and the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Wash.
New York law firm scholarship sponsors include Kelley Drye Collier Shannon and Latham & Watkins. Other law firm sponsors include King & Spalding of Atlanta; Crowell & Moring and Patton Boggs, both of Washington, D.C.; Adorno & Yoss of Dallas; Fulbright & Jaworski of Houston; and Wheeler, Trigg & Kennedy of Denver. Robert Half International of Menlo Park, Calif., is a corporate scholarship sponsor.
"Not only do the contributing sponsors give financial support to students, many also offer summer internships providing on-the-job legal experience," said Veta Richardson, executive director of the association, which also offers mentoring support for the minority law students it serves.
New officers have been elected to the board of Volunteers of Legal Service, which provides pro bono civil legal representation to New York City's poor. They are:
• John S. Kiernan, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, elected chairman to succeed Thomas H. Moreland, a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
• John M. Aerni, a partner at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Green & MacRae, president
• James H.R. Windels, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, elected vice president to succeed Paul C. Saunders, a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore
• Lois F. Herzeca, a partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, elected secretary-treasurer to succeed Robert J. Egan, senior vice president and associate general counsel at JPMorgan Chase.
Some 40 summer associates from the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis joined forces last month with New York Cares to spruce up PS 75 in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
The summer associates painted a fence in front of the elementary school, as well as two stairwells.
In addition, the firm contributed $10,000 to New York Cares, the 20-year-old nonprofit agency that organizes volunteer services for economically disadvantaged New Yorkers.
Public Interest Projects reports on volunteer projects at the law firms, and the lawyers and public interest agencies involved. Please submit items by e-mail to tadcock@amlaw.com.
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