Posts Tagged ‘ Lawyers Giving Back ’

Burg Simpson: Denver’s Tight ‘Knit’ Law Firm

June 20th, 2011. By BrendaC

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers and law firms 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 legal secretary Gina Clement of Burg Simpson…

Legal Secretary Gina Clement: “giving back…is really rewarding and makes me like working here even more.”

It maybe isn’t what you’d expect to happen at a law firm like Burg Simpson, but then again it might be. A major law firm that engages itself in serious litigation is hardly the place you’d expect to find people knitting in the office lunchroom—but that is exactly what happens several times a year.

The “Kaps for Kendall” knitted hat drive started six years ago when legal secretary Gina Clement was struck by the strength and courage of a young Denver, Colorado woman who was born with Fanconi Anemia (FA), a rare and often fatal blood disease.

To save her life, Kendall Atkinson would have to undergo a bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately it meant losing her long curly hair—no minor inconvenience to a young girl just barely out of her teens. To cope with the hair loss, Kendall began knitting hats.

Sadly, the bone marrow transplant failed and Kendall died at age 20. But the knitted hat drive continues and, through the efforts of the Burg Simpson knitters, it continues to raise money for the Fanconi Research Fund and provide warm fuzzy hats for individuals across the US who are going through treatment for FA or other diseases, like cancer, that might also involve hair loss.

“At first I thought won’t that be fun, we will do something for charity,” says Gina Clement. “And when I met the Atkinson family I felt like I had known them my whole life. I absolutely love to knit and it’s a great way to do something for the community.”

Burg Simpson has a deep and abiding commitment to giving back to the community and the firm has earned a reputation for contributing time and hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to a variety of worthy causes in the Denver area.

For legal secretary Gina Clement it’s a nice break from some of the more weighty issues the lawyers and staff usually deal with. “It’s a chance to cool your head a little bit,” says Clement. “It’s just really awesome that everyone genuinely cares about giving back here. It is really rewarding and makes me like working here even more.”

Gina Clement is legal secretary to attorney Michael Burg, founding partner of Burg Simpson.

Tags: Burg Simpson, Fanconi Anemia, Gina Clement, Kaps for Kendall, Lawyers Giving Back, Pro Bono
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 2 Comments »

Attorney Reeves Whalen Picks Fights for Good Causes

June 13th, 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 Reeves Whalen of Burg Simpson…

Attorney Reeves Whalen: “…whenever you have an opportunity to see how others live it changes…what you are willing to do to help other people.”

Attorney Reeves Whalen epitomizes the idea that we are the sum total of our experiences. Raised in Massachusetts in a family of five biological and six adopted siblings, including a younger brother and sister who are disabled, an older brother with Down’s Syndrome, two African American siblings, a Hispanic brother and a Native American sister, Whalen comes to the table, any table in fact, with a depth and understanding few other young lawyers can match.

: Attorney Reeves Whalen helping at a Girls Orphanage in Haiti

“I think the lessons I learned from my childhood gave me a barometer to assess right and wrong and have definitely led me to a place where I feel pretty comfortable picking my fights,” says Whalen, who joined the Burg Simpson law firm after graduating from the University of Denver in 2007.

Whalen was nominated for the 2010 Colorado Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Attorney Award and recently named to the Denver Business Association’s Top 40 under 40 list. He is part of Burg Simpson’s mass tort litigation team and involved in Yaz birth control litigation and the DePuy hip replacement litigation. He also is managing a number of other personal injury files. At 32, Whalen is just getting started.

“Burg Simpson has always been committed to helping families in dire situations when they’ve been injured or hurt by large commercial interests. I am proud to be associated with this law firm. Just as I am in my personal life, people here are dedicated to the idea that when someone falls down you step in and help them.”

And for Whalen, stepping in to help goes far beyond the confines of the office or the courtroom. In 2009, before the earthquake brought international attention Haiti’s unfathomable problems, Whalen, inspired by a book about a doctor working in Haiti, did a tour of duty helping build an orphanage 3 hours from Port Au Prince.

“It was pretty scary actually,” says Whalen. “There’s no electricity, no clean water and no healthcare really. You are talking about a country that has 200,000 kids orphaned by the AIDS epidemic and over 50 percent of the population can’t read,” says Whalen who was there working with the Center of Hope organization.

Whalen also serves on the board of Save Our Youth (SOY), a Denver organization that emerged from the city’s problem with gang violence and offers mentorship to at-risk young people. “I personally mentor two young African-American brothers, one 14 and the other 17,” says Whalen who says he is attracted to projects that focus on education.

“There are good things out there worth fighting for, it changes your perspective on the world and there are a lot of worthy causes out there,” says Whalen who recently drove all night to get to an Indian reservation in South Dakota to participate as a guest teacher at a Native American history class.

“I think whenever you have an opportunity to see how others live it changes how you think and changes what you are willing to do to help other people,” adds Whalen.

Reeves Whalen is a graduate of Denver University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Whalen specializes in commercial litigation, products liability and personal injury cases at Burg Simpson. He has helped raise funds to finance a group of medical professionals who traveled to Haiti to assist in the earthquake relief efforts. In 2010, Whalen organized a Continuing Legal Education seminar on Immigration Reform.

Tags: AIDS, BurgSimpson, Colorado Bar Association, Denver, DePuy Hip Replacement, Haiti, Lawyers Giving Back, Native American History, Orphanages, Personal Injury, Reeves Whelan, Save Our Youth, SOY, Yaz birth control litigation, Young Lawyers
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 3 Comments »

Lawyer Wall of Heroes: 26 Stories You Really Should Read

May 25th, 2011. By AbiK

Chances are, none of the lawyers shown above is really comfortable with the title “hero”. And we usually reserve the honor for caped crusaders in tights or, joking aside, those who’ve shown incredibly selfless acts of courage in the face of devastating events. But for the individuals who were extended a helping hand during their own personal hour of need—often when everyone else had turned their backs on them—these attorneys are indeed truly heroes.

In each of our interviews with these attorneys, the majority shared this one quote with our senior legal correspondent, Brenda: “It’s the right thing to do.” If you’re wondering what that ‘thing’ is for each of them, click on their images above to find out. The legal practice areas they’ve chosen to champion and the causes they’ve chosen to support are as diverse as can be imagined—from Hurricane Katrina to children with special needs to the transgender community and even one that combines practicing with preaching.

We continue to be inspired by the pro bono stories we share in our Lawyers Giving Back columns. We hope you are, too.

If you know an attorney who ‘gives back’, let us know—we’d love to share their story as well. Drop us a line at .

Tags: charitable giving, Lawyer Wall of Heroes #1, Lawyers Giving Back, Pro Bono, Volunteer
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers, Lawyers Giving Back | 2 Comments »

Philadelphia Attorney Recognized for Work with Transgender Community

May 3rd, 2011. By BrendaC

Attorney Natalie Hrubos: “You can imagine how difficult life is when you are carrying around a piece of identification…that doesn’t match how you look to the world.”

: Attorney Natalie Hrubos

Attorney Natalie Hrubos may be young, but her compassion and understanding of an often marginalized and ostracized group makes her seem wise beyond her years. And her many hours of pro bono work with low-income members of the transgender community, combined with her efforts to educate other lawyers about the legal issues affecting this community, was recently recognized with a Young Lawyers Division community service award from the Philadelphia Bar Association.

“Lawyers don’t necessarily express an interest in working with transgender clients because they don’t understand the community in general or the type of legal issues that are unique to transgender people,” she says. “The result is a lack of legal services available to trans folks,” says Hrubos who is an associate in the Philadelphia office of the international firm of Greenberg Traurig.

“In fact, the community in general doesn’t understand this community,” adds Hrubos, “it is not just the legal community.”

At Temple University Law School in Philadelphia, Hrubos was a law student volunteer at the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender free legal clinic in the state. Answering phones, taking messages she learned a lot.

“Many of the calls came from transgender individuals who needed to change their names to better match their identity and their everyday presentation. They were trying to get help with correcting their documents to match their new legal name and correct their gender marker,” says Hrubos.

By gender marker, she means that little box on your driver’s license or credit card application that asks if you are male or female.

“You can imagine how difficult life is when you are carrying around a piece of identification, you have to keep showing it and it says a name and gender that doesn’t match how you look to the world.”

And when that information doesn’t match what people see, it is more than inconvenient—it can be downright dangerous.

“I have one client who was presenting ID with his credit card in line at the grocery store and two people behind him followed him out and hit him in the face several times and he came to our meeting with a black eye,” says Hrubos.

Hrubos is currently working on document changes for a teen that was so badly harassed he had to move to a new high school. “People in his new school don’t know he is transgender. He can’t really present identity documentation so he is always worried, for example, that his car might be pulled over and he’ll be ‘outted’ in front of new his friends.”

At Greenberg Traurig, Hrubos represents employers in all in aspects of employment and labor law. Gender identity issues, particularly in the workplace are a burgeoning area of law. Aware of that, many employers want to be proactive. “I am in a good position to help and counsel employers on how to address some of the employee relations issues that come within the context of a gender transition at work and to proactively eliminate bias against transgender workers,” says Hrubos.

In June, Hrubos is doing a continuing legal education workshop for lawyers at the 10th annual Trans-Health Conference in Philadelphia.

“It will provide an issues overview and some information on how to become more ‘culturally competent’,” says Hrubos.

“There are lot of people who can represent people doing a name change, it is more difficult to find someone who is culturally competent,” Hrubos says. “I had to learn to be ‘cultural competent’ and that’s why it’s important for me to continue doing it, because there aren’t a lot of other lawyers that can do it.”

Natalie Hrubos is an associate with the large international law firm of Greenberg Traurig. She represents and counsels management clients in all aspects of labor and employment law. She is also a member of the Legal Advisory Board for the Legal Services Department at the Mazzoni Center, the only agency in Philadelphia that provides direct legal services to low-income LGBT individuals facing legal obstacles related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Tags: Attorney Natalie Hrubos, gender identity, Greenberg Traurig, Lawyers Giving Back, LGBT, Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia lawyer, Transgender
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 1 Comment »

Attorney Andrew Strenio Discusses Team Effort to Release Cuban Doctor from Prison

April 26th, 2011. By BrendaC

Attorney Andrew Strenio: “When you…work with this kind of an individual you don’t begrudge a second that you spend on it”

Had it not been for the efforts of a group of American lawyers, Cuban human rights activist, Dr. Oscar Biscet might have continued to languish in a jail on the outskirts of Havana. But in March 2011, after eight years in prison, Biscet was released. It had taken six years and likely thousands of pro bono hours involving delicate negotiations by a determined and skilled group of lawyers to achieve freedom for Biscet.

: Attorney Andrew Strenio of Sidley Austin

“It was just phenomenal news,” says Andrew Strenio from the Sidley Austin firm in Washington DC.

“We were a proud partner in the effort, but it was really a collaborative effort,” says Strenio. “There really were so many people involved including Jeremy Zucker from Hogan Lovells here in DC.”

Since the 1980s, Biscet, a medical doctor, has been a fearless advocate for basic civil liberties in Cuba. His pro democracy position came with considerable risk to his safety and well-being.

In 2002, Biscet was arrested, charged and sentenced to 25 years in prison as an enemy of the state. Known and respected internationally for his opposition to the Cuban government, Biscet has been likened to Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel and others who have risked their lives in David and Goliath human rights struggles.

In fact, Biscet was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in February, just weeks before his release from prison.

If Biscet had been willing to accept exile as the price for freedom he might have been released sooner according to Strenio. “Oscar made it clear he would stay in prison no matter how long it took in order to be able to remain in Cuba, which shows his love of his country,” says Strenio.

“He was also subjected to horrific conditions during his imprisonment which were certainly barbaric,” says Strenio. “Despite all that, he had this immense personal and moral courage in refusing to accept exile to another country as the price of release.”

Strenio won’t discuss how the group managed to negotiate Biscet’s release, but it is fair to say they talked to anyone that they believed might have influence with the Cubans.

“Any attorney knows it is a challenge to achieve a result in your home district and the farther away you go from home the more complicated it becomes,” says Strenio.

“Dealing with the situation in Cuba is extraordinarily complicated both because of the dictatorial nature of the regime and because of the distance and because of Dr. Biscet’s plight of being imprisoned unjustly for such a long period of time,” he adds.

How many hours he and other lawyers involved spent working on the Biscet case is impossible to know.

“It added up to a considerable amount,” says Strenio. “But I don’t think any of us involved in the process stopped to count. When you do this kind of work with this kind of an individual you don’t begrudge a second that you spend working on it. In fact you feel quite honored to be able to help to such a person.”

Andrew Strenio is a partner in the firm of Sidley Austin. Considered a top-flight full-service international firm, Sidley Austin has 1,600 lawyers working in 17 cities in the US and around the world. Strenio’s practice focuses on domestic and international anti-trust law. He is also a former Federal Trade Commissioner.

Tags: Attorney Andrew Strenio, Cuba, Dr Oscar Biscet, Lawyers Giving Back, Pro Bono, Sidley Austin
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 1 Comment »