DLA Piper Firmwide (US) Pro Bono Awards

Legacy Piper Rudnick's Fifth Annual Pro Bono Awards

We are pleased to announce the winners of the firm's fifth annual Pro Bono Awards. This year, in addition to honoring a senior and junior associate who made exceptional contributions to pro bono service in 2004, we are also honoring a partner who provided extraordinary pro bono service. The award recipients will receive Aspen Institute Justice and Society Seminar scholarships. The Aspen Institute's mission is to foster enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues. The firmwide Pro Bono Committee carefully considered several worthy nominees for these awards, focusing on the amount and quality of the pro bono work accomplished, the difficulty in achieving a positive result, the courage involved in taking the work, and the positive impact of the work on the community or client.

This year's award winners are: Mike Bedke (Tampa--partner), Joshua Sohn (New York--senior associate), and Jared Genser (Washington--junior associate). A brief summary of their work follows with a more detailed description to appear in an upcoming Pro Bono Bulletin:

Mike Bedke

Mike Bedke has been providing pro bono services in myriad ways this past year. He has again served on the Board of Directors of Bay Area Legal Services, Inc., the Legal Services Corporation grantee for West Central Florida. (Mike has been President of Bay Area twice.) Last year he proposed and had adopted a loan forgiveness program for legal aid lawyers.

The American Bar Association is another institution Mike has worked with in providing pro bono assistance. He has done this both through his service on the ABA’s Board of Governors and by serving on the ABA’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. In this capacity he has worked closely with the President of the Legal Services Corporation, as well as with leaders of several state and local bar associations and other groups to increase the level of free legal services available to those in need.

Increasing access to justice for victims of domestic violence has been a focus of Mike’s pro bono work. He recently authored a chapter of a book on this topic. Together with some key clients, he also serves on the Board of Directors of The Spring of Tampa Bay, Florida’s oldest and busiest shelter for domestic violence victims. Mike led the effort that resulted in Tampa being named as one of only 15 communities in the nation (and the only one in the Southeast) to receive a grant to establish a Family Justice Center—a one stop shop for domestic violence victims with more than two dozen law enforcement and social service organizations being “partner agencies.” As a result of this work, Mike was awarded the State of Florida’s Crime Victim Advocate of the Year Award by Florida’s Governor and Attorney General. This work also led President Bush to appoint Mike to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence.

Joshua Sohn

During 2004, Josh was involved in several pro bono projects. First, in Gulino, et al. v. The Board of Education of the City School District of the City of New York and New York State Education Department (“Gulino”), the firm is co-counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights for the plaintiff-class. The action alleges that the defendants improperly used two standardized tests, the NTE Core Battery and the LAST as certification requirements for public school teachers. These tests have been shown to have a disparate impact on minorities as evidenced by overwhelming statistical evidence.

In 1996, the action was brought in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, on behalf of African-American and Latino teachers who had been affected by this policy. Finally, after much delay and motions practice, in December 2002, Judge Motley presided over what she described as “an epic bench trial” that lasted approximately eight weeks and saw the examination of approximately forty witnesses.

In the fall of 2003, Judge Motley issued her opinion finding for the defendants. In her opinion, however, her legal conclusion relied on caselaw that has not been controlling since 1990. Her opinion disregarded both the 1991 Amendments to Title VII and applicable Second Circuit case law. Accordingly, Josh and his co-counsel appealed the decision to the Second Circuit, submitting appellate briefs during 2004, with the appellate argument scheduled for January 24, 2005.

In addition, Josh has helped Advocates for Children evaluate the constitutionality of a new policy aimed at ending “social promotion” in the City’s public schools. The program contemplated administering standardized tests in math and language arts to third graders. Under this program, students who did not pass the test, by scoring a three or four out of a possible four would have to repeat third grade. The policy meet with very strong criticism following its announcement and because of his experience with standardized testing litigation, Josh was asked to evaluate the policy. He worked closely with the NAACP/LDF in evaluating this new program and ultimately advised against bringing any sort of legal challenge.

Further, Josh is involved in litigation, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which challenges the United States's detention and eventual removal of a Canadian citizen to Syria.

Finally, Josh also serves on the New York office’s pro bono committee. In that capacity, he has been actively involved in encouraging New York attorneys to take on pro bono matters and in supporting them once they have done so. Josh also oversaw the pro bono component of the New York summer associate program, which consisted of assigning each summer associate to a pro bono project with appropriate supervision by associates or partners in the office.

Jared Genser

Since Jared joined the firm in 2003, he has been an active part of the firm’s pro bono program through his continued work with Freedom Now, a non-profit organization that he helped create in 2001 to free prisoners of conscience through focused legal, political, and public relations advocacy efforts.

The organization has successfully helped free a number of clients from prison, including James Mawdsley, who was sentenced to 17 years in solitary confinement for handing out pro-democracy leaflets in Burma; Ayub Masih, who was sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy; and Saad Eddin Ibrahim, who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for his pro-democracy work.

In addition to case work, Jared has played a critical role in other important aspects of Freedom Now. The organization’s mandate includes training both lawyers and non-lawyers in its methodology of freeing prisoners of conscience. As part of his work with Freedom Now, Jared is currently representing three prisoners of conscience – and he has involved over 15 Piper Rudnick attorneys and staff in efforts on these clients’ behalf.

First, since his initial detention on April 26, 2002, Jared has been representing Dr. Yang Jianli, a former Tiananmen Square activist who was given a five year prison sentence for espionage for Taiwan. In addition to winning Yang’s case at the United Nations, Jared also facilitated having the U.S. House and Senate unanimously pass resolutions calling for Yang’s release in 2003.

Second, since 2003, Jared has been representing Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Vietnamese Catholic priest who received a 15-year prison sentence after testifying before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom about the lack of religious freedom in Vietnam, as well as another Vietnamese human rights activist, Dr. Dan Nguyen Que, who received 30 month sentence in prison for “abusing democratic rights." On January 31, 2005, the Government of Vietnam announced its intention to release both of Jared's clients in Vietnam. Their being released simultaneously was beyond what Jared and his team ever thought possible, and is a testament to all that Jared and his team achieved on behalf of the clients.

Other Award Nominees and Special Recognitions

The other award nominees were all highly deserving and we would like to acknowledge their strong commitment to pro bono work. The nominees for the senior associate award included: Bruce Barnett (Boston); Ray Earnest (Easton); Alice Kelley (Chicago); Elisha King (Washington); Scott Weber (Tampa); Myla Barefield Young* (Chicago). The nominees for the junior associate award included: Victoria Bruno (Washington); Steven Hunter (Chicago); Melissa Mackiewicz (Baltimore); Bryant Richardson (Washington); Joan Ritchey* (Chicago); Gail Rodgers (New York); Monica Rojas* (Reston); Julio Vergara* (Los Angeles); Gina Vetere* (Washington); and Megan Webster* (Chicago).

In addition, the San Francisco office specially recognizes Eugene Pak, the Dallas office specially recognizes Kevin Maher, and the Philadelphia office specially recognizes Kristin Barret for their dedication to pro bono work in 2004.

*Attorneys who have since left the firm to pursue other opportunities.