Lawyers Giving Back Archive

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

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 Jason Melton…

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 »

Attorney Michele Fuller: 5 Must-Do’s to Protect Special Needs Children

January 17th, 2011. By BrendaC

Attorney Michele Fuller: “Not exploring the options is the biggest mistake a parent can make.”

Attorney Michele Fuller

Parents of special needs children are often so busy with day to day issues, they neglect to prepare for the day when they’ll no longer be there. “Many consumers and parents don’t realize when they have these kinds of issues that they really need to see an attorney who specializes in these kinds of issues,” says Michele Fuller from the Michigan Law Center.

Fuller, who herself is the mother of a child with autism, says not exploring the options is the biggest mistake a parent can make. Many parents incorrectly believe that their child will lose all his or her government benefits if they are included in the will.

“Once they go to a specialist or someone experienced in this type of planning that knee-jerk reaction disappears,” says Fuller, who also is the director of a non-profit group called Advocacy that helps families with mentally or physically challenged children with legal issues.

“I think disinheriting a child is one of the biggest mistakes parents can make because they are leaving the most vulnerable child they have nothing.”

Fuller often advises parents to provide for a “third party trust” in their will to protect their most vulnerable child. It can also protect the estate for the benefit of the more capable siblings.

“This contract is for the benefit of your special needs child—a third party beneficiary,” says Fuller. “They don’t own the money, they are just benefiting from the contract you are creating. That is why we call it a third party special needs trust.”

“With our non-profit group (Advocacy) we have created a third party joinder agreement, so that people can enter into a pool trust,” says Fuller. “It is really meant for people with more modest estates. They don’t have a lot of money, but they still need effective planning for their special needs child or disabled family member.”

Parents often leave everything to a so-called responsible child, but Fuller points out some problems with that decision. “What they have done is essentially disinherited their most vulnerable child in favor of the most responsible child,” says Fuller. “But especially in this economy where people may lose their job, or go through a divorce and half of—or all of—that money may go to creditors or a former spouse—now they have really opened up to door to disaster for their most vulnerable child.

“That sibling may simply not have time to devote to their more vulnerable brother or sister, but there is still an important role for them to play.

“One of the great ways to incorporate family and a trustee is to appoint a trust protector,” says Fuller. “They supervise the acts of the professional trustee so if something goes sideways—they have the ability to move the trust.”

Fuller offers this top five list for parents of physically and/or mentally disabled children.

1. Do not disinherit them

2. See an experienced special needs attorney or planner

3. Make sure there is a plan and fill out letters of intent

4. Make sure who ever is going to help take care of your child knows your child. Does your child have pets, or special friends, or do they go to sleep with the light on?

5. The money situation can be handled, your child will be going through a huge transition so make sure the right person is going to be there for them

Fuller is also a member of the National Academy of Special Needs Planners.

“People who are passionate about this often have a child who is disabled,” says Fuller. “I love helping these families, they are so appreciative and you feel like you really change lives so it is extremely satisfying.”

Michele Fuller is the founder of the Michigan Law Center. She is an expert in a wide range of estate planning issues, particularly special needs planning, elder law, probate administration and settlement planning. Michigan Law also helps fellow attorneys, advisors and other professionals with advice on the best to serve their clients in these areas.

Tags: Estate Planning, Lawyers Doing Good, Lawyers Giving Back, Michele Fuller, Michigan Law Center, Special Needs Children
Posted in Lawyers Giving Back | 6 Comments »