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Attorney Spencer Aronfeld and Lawyers to the Rescue

March 1st, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Florida attorney Spencer Aronfeld…

Attorney Spencer Aronfeld: “This is better than my day job. I’m not getting paid, but this is absolutely the most exciting experience I’ve ever had as a lawyer.”

: Attorney Aronfeld of Lawyers to the Rescue

Attorney Spencer Aronfeld has a dream. He wants Lawyers to the Rescue to be known around the world as an army of attorneys ready to provide pro bono legal services wherever they’re needed to help people caught up in epic events.

“My vision is that Lawyers to the Rescue becomes an organization like Doctors without Borders,” says Aronfeld who has been a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer in Miami for over 20 years. “Maybe we can’t save lives like doctors, but lawyers can change and improve people’s lives in times of crisis.”

It all started last year when Aronfeld was sitting on the tarmac in Miami aboard a private jet waiting to fly out to work on a Chinese Drywall case. He looked out the window of the plane and saw a group of tired and frightened earthquake refugees arriving from Haiti and he desperately wanted to help.

Within a few days, Aronfeld and his wife Dina had raised thousands of dollars for the Haiti relief fund. But the Aronfelds thought there must be a way for lawyers to do more than raise money.

They kicked Lawyers to the Rescue in gear and soon began offering free legal help to the homeless at a shelter in downtown Miami.

When the BP Oil spill happened, a Texas doctor friend asked if Lawyers to the Rescue could come to a little village outside New Orleans, where a group of Vietnamese and Cambodian shrimpers were wondering how in the world they would support their families with the Gulf waters swimming in oil.

“They were living in these FEMA trailers left over from hurricane Katrina,” says Aronfeld, “and they spoke absolutely no English.”

“BP was going to have these men go out there in their little shrimp boats and try to clean up this Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Lawyers Giving Back, Lawyers to the Rescue, Spencer Aronfeld
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 3 Comments »

Star Litigator Jay Lefkowitz Goes Pro Bono in California School Reform Case

February 22nd, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with attorney Jay Lefkowitz…

Attorney Jay Lefkowitz: “If any school deserves to have a shot at reform it’s McKinley.”

A news story about a determined group of parents petitioning for school reform in an impoverished California school district recently caught the eye of high profile internationally known attorney Jay Lefkowitz. No ordinary mortal, Lefkowitz has had a notable career in public service, including an assignment as a special envoy to Korea and also White House advisor to both George H.W. Bush and Bush the younger. Now a partner with Kirkland & Ellis in New York City he is often approached to do pro bono work. “If I think it is an appropriate case, I often say yes,” says Lefkowitz.

: Attorney Jay Lefkowitz

“In this case, I literally read the article, then picked up the phone and let the parents know I was available to help them. I was just so taken by the power of what they had organized to do.”

Lefkowiitz has a long established interest in education reform—he fought for the right of parents to direct public tax dollars to private education in Florida in 2006 in the school voucher wars—and won.

In the California story he saw another group of parents fighting a system, he says, that “has long empowered teachers, but not parents. I was attracted to their story and told them I would represent them pro bono.”

A mostly Latino school in an impoverished Los Angeles neighborhood, McKinley Elementary is one of the lowest ranked schools in the district of Compton. Unwilling to continue to tolerate a substandard education for their children, a group of parents is using the power of petition under California’s new Parent Empowerment Act to demand reform.

“Mckinley is ranked 22 out of 24 elementary schools in Compton and of course Compton is lowest performing school district in the whole state,” says Lefkowitz, “so if any school deserves to have a shot at reform it’s McKinley.”

The so-called ‘Parent Trigger Act’ requires school boards to make changes when presented with a petition signed by at least 51 percent of parents. But the McKinley parents demand that the school be turned into a charter school that would give them more control over the administration or staffing—and they’re meeting strong resistance from teachers and school board members.

“What we have here are parents seeking to really take control of the educational destiny of their children and a school board that has been really extraordinarily heavy-handed in trying to deny the effect of the law,” says Lefkowitz.

The school board demanded that every person who signed the petition come in person to present photo i.d.—something that the Parent Trigger Act does not stipulate.

“Placing requirements in terms of an in-person photo i.d. requirement would have had a chilling effect on the parents themselves,” says Lefkowitz, who recently obtained a temporary restraining order barring the school from demanding photo i.d.

On February 3, Lefkowitz and another partner from Kirkland & Ellis filed a class action against the Compton Unified School District in Los Angeles.

“We are obviously hoping that the school board will back down and stop threatening the parents,” he adds. “We didn’t want to have to file a lawsuit,” says Lefkowitz, who has a reputation as a hardnosed litigator. “We were hoping that the school board would accept the petition that the parents signed, follow the law and allow the school to become a charter school.”

Lefkowitz admits there could be countless more pro bono hours to come if the board doesn’t retreat. He doesn’t sound too worried about that.

Jay Lefkowitz is a partner with Kirkland and Ellis in New York City. With more than 1,500 lawyers, the firm provides service to clients around the world in the areas of complex litigation, corporate and tax and intellectual property. Lefkowitz has appeared in courtrooms in at least 30 states and won numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements. He is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia School of Law.

Tags: Attorney Jay Lefkowitz, California School Reform, Compton School District, Lawyers Giving Back, McKinley Elementary
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 4 Comments »

You Really Shouldn’t Call Attorney Jason Melton a ‘Jerk’ – Ever

February 15th, 2011. By BrendaC

Attorney Jason Melton: “Sometimes it’s just the right thing to do.”

: Attorney Jason Melton

There is a strong streak of decency running through Jason Melton as he talks frankly about his approach to the law. A very serious criminal and personal injury attorney from the Tampa, Florida area, Melton still manages to bring a dash of self-deprecating humor to the conversation about the hours of legal work he does for free.

“We’re not hurting. We can afford to do it, so we do it,” he says. “And we don’t do it so I have something to ‘bitch’ about or when someone says ‘you’re a jerk,’ I can say ‘no I’m not—I see what I do’.”

Whittel & Melton definitely does its share of pro bono work. But they don’t advertise it, they don’t crow about it and they don’t complain about it later after they’ve passed on taking a fee.

“It’s not like I review every case to see if they can pay—sometimes we forgo payment because it is just the right thing to do,” says Melton. “Sometimes there are issues that we feel strongly about and someone comes in with the perfect fact pattern and we want to prove a point because it comes up again and again in other cases.”

Many of the cases that Melton does pro bono are personal injury claims resulting from auto accidents where clients are underinsured. “A few weeks ago, I did a personal injury case and it was just a bad situation for everyone,” says Melton. “My client’s injuries were not life-threatening, but they have medical bills and there wasn’t enough insurance money to go around—so I just didn’t take a fee.”

“When we see a situation like that we just don’t bill,” says Melton. “Sometimes it is just the right thing to do.”

Melton is the former president of the Florida State Bar Association and in the past has done an “Ask a Lawyer” radio program. He’s very aware that people hold negative views of lawyers and are likely unaware that many other lawyers also do good things for no particular reason.

“My clients love me,” says Melton. “But unless someone has been injured in an accident they often think lawyers just take a cut of someone’s insurance payout. They don’t realize what it takes to deal with insurance companies.”

Melton’s working in a tough neighborhood these days. There’s no shortage of potential pro bono clients in Hernando County. The official unemployment rate is about 15.6 percent—that’s the highest since 1976 and the second highest in the state. There is also a large population of senior citizens who don’t have money to pay a lawyer.

Although the state bar association requires lawyers to report the number of pro bono hours they do annually, Melton says frankly—he usually improvises. “I usually just come up with a figure that is probably lower than what it really is. There’s no way to even guess” says Melton.

Melton’s quirky sense of humour comes with his services—no charge.

Jason Melton is an a partner in the firm of Whittel & Melton. The firm handles criminal and personal injury law, including wrongful death, DUI, traffic offenses and juvenile crimes. Whittel & Melton has a main office in Spring Hill, Florida.

Tags: Attorney Jason Melton, Lawyers Doing Good, Lawyers Giving Back, Pro Bono
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 4 Comments »

Attorney Deborah LaBelle: “We Owe Juvenile Offenders a Second Chance”

February 9th, 2011. By BrendaC

Attorney Deborah LaBelle: “There is no discretion. You take a 14 year old and they are automatically treated as an adult.”

Clearly injustice moves attorney Deborah LaBelle somewhere down deep. Since she graduated from Wayne State law school in 1979, she has waded into some dark waters, investing hundreds of pro bono hours, simply because she believes she’s doing the right thing. In 2008, after a 14 year battle, she and a group of other lawyers won a multi-million dollar verdict and landmark case on behalf of women who had been abused in Michigan prisons.

Labelle now has set her sites on getting a second chance for the thousands of juvenile offenders who languish in American prisons convicted of murder or felony murder committed prior to their 18^th birthday. “It is just mandatory,” says LaBelle, whose gentle voice belies the tiger within. “There is no discretion. You take a 14 year old and they are automatically treated as an adult. It is pretty stunning.”

Stunning indeed it is. The United States is the only country in the world where juveniles charged and convicted of murder (even if they were not principally responsible for the murder) are automatically given life with no chance of parole. There are 307 ‘juvenile lifers’ now in Michigan prisons ranging in age from 14 to 65.

One man, now in sixties, who LaBelle knows well, went to prison when he was 15 for murdering his abusive stepfather.

“He is not the boy he was,” says LaBelle. “He told me once he sometimes sees that boy in his minds eye and he just wants to shake him and say ‘why don’t you just leave, just go’.”

But that’s not what happened and he now has spent more than 50 years languishing in prison. “He was just filled with rage and anger and everything seemed hopeless,” says LaBelle. “Kids just don’t have experience or the ability to chart things out very well.”

“The heart of this issue is sentencing people who commit their crimes when they are 14, 15 or 16 years old to the harshest sentence you can give to anyone, which is life without parole,” says LaBelle. “We believe this is cruel and unusual punishment.“

LaBelle has filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in the state of Michigan on behalf of 9 class representatives. All are juvenile lifers currently being held with no chance of parole for the rest of their lives in Michigan prisons.

This is the first civil rights suit of its kind in the United States and aimed at what she describes as a simple goal. “We are just asking that the parole board just take a look at them. Have they matured, was this a youthful impetuous crime, did it involve peer pressure, or was it one of those stupid horrible things that youths sometimes do in a moment. Have they matured and should they come home at some point?” asks LaBelle.

A recent report authored by LaBelle and others was funded by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other donors. And also, when LaBelle has received attorney fees for cases she was involved in, much of it goes right back into funding other lawsuits aimed at righting systemic wrongs.

What kind of a lawyer does so much for so little?

“Well, I just like the work,” says LaBelle.

Deborah LaBelle is a graduate of Wayne State Law School. She mentors undergraduate and graduate students and has supervised at least six interns a year for the past ten years. Her practice, the Law Offices of Deborah LaBelle is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Tags: ACLU, Attorney Deborah LaBelle, Lawyers Doing Good, Lawyers Giving Back, Pro Bono
Posted in Lawyers Giving Back | 12 Comments »

Brooklyn Lawyer Jaime Lathrop Pitches In to Help Foreclosure Victims

January 25th, 2011. By BrendaC

Attorney Jaime Lathrop: “…left unchecked [the legal system] will always favor the interests of the few over the many.”

It is a big job, but somebody’s got to do it. Thousands and thousands of people in the New York area are facing foreclosure, many without the money to pay a lawyer to help them save their homes.

Attorney Jaime Lathrop

“We have no shortage of clients,” says attorney Jaime Lathrop, a private practice attorney from the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, who is the Director of the Foreclosure Intervention Program.

Since March 2009, working with the Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) and a grant from City of New York’s housing division, Lathrop has gathered together a group of 80 lawyers to do pro bono work for homeowners who are staring down the barrel of foreclosure. “I recruit, train and assign volunteer lawyers who represent homeowners in settlement conferences, negotiate workouts and help with mortgage modifications for Brooklyn homeowners in foreclosure.”

About 80 lawyers are now working on foreclosure issues for homeowners.

Lathrop, who is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, clearly feels for homeowners who were often steam-rolled into a precarious financial situation as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis.

And he also feels a true obligation to help. “We have a system of law in the United States that left unchecked will always favor the interests of the few over the interests of many,” says Lathrop. “It is important for attorneys to see that everyone gets equal protection under the law.”

The Huffington Post recently posted a story about the Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Project calling it a “lifeline for people trying to avoid foreclosure”.

In addition to its work for homeowners in foreclosure crisis, the Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Project has been providing pro bono civil legal assistance to Brooklyn residents who need it most since 1990. It matches up volunteer attorneys from private practice with people in need of critical legal services.

Its mission is to “help people regain dignity and control over their lives”.

VLP receives funding from the New York Bar Association as well as private donors.

Jaime Lathrop is in private practice in Brooklyn, NY. His practice is focused on real estate law, family law, criminal law, bankruptcy and elder law. He has also been selected as a featured speaker at today’s New York State Bar Association’s General Practice Section’s Annual Meeting at the Hilton New York.

Tags: banks-foreclosure-proceedings-class-action-bank, Brooklyn NY, Foreclosure, Jaime Lathrop, Jimmie Lathrop, Lawyers Giving Back, Mortgage
Posted in Lawyers Giving Back | 5 Comments »