Lawyers’ Committee Recognized Outstanding Lawyers, Law Firms and Clients During Annual Awards Reception

 

WHITNEY NORTH SEYMOUR AWARD

This award recognizes a board member whose body of work exemplifies the legacy of service and integrity which characterized the life of Whitney North Seymour.  He was a prominent New York trial lawyer, 84^th president of the American Bar Association, long-serving managing partner of the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and assistant solicitor general in the Justice Department from 1931 to 1933.

Bettina “Betsy” Plevan, is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department at the Proskauer Rose LLP law firm. She is co-head of both the International Labor & Employment Group and Class/Collective Action Group, and a former member of the firm’s seven-person Executive Committee. She has built her practice handling all types of labor and employment litigation, as well as counseling clients in employment matters. Betsy’s practice includes representing clients in such diverse industries as banking and finance, health care, entertainment, publishing and education. She spends considerable time representing leading law firms in counseling and litigation assignments.

She has handled both single plaintiff and class action lawsuits involving issues of discrimination, harassment and employee benefits matters. Betsy has successfully tried a number of jury and non-jury cases in New York and elsewhere in the U.S. and her trial work has been recognized by her induction as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. She also has argued more than 60 appeals in state and federal courts, and she has been elected a member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Betsy’s public interest work is just as impressive. She has served as co-chair of the Lawyers’ Committee’s Board from 2010-2012, president of the New York City Bar from 2004-2006, and as a member of the ABA Board of Governors from 2006-2009. Betsy has been named a New York Law Journal Lawyers Who Lead by Example winner in the Lifetime Achievement category. She was recently appointed to chair the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.

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(Image: Plevan and Lawyers’ Committee Co-Chair Donald J. Rosenberg, EVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Qualcomm Incorporated)

SEGAL-TWEED FOUNDERS AWARD

Named in honor of Lawyers’ Committee founding co-chairs Bernard G. Segal and Harrison Tweed, two of this century’s most esteemed jurists, this award is presented to a Lawyers’ Committee board member who has displayed outstanding leadership and service in the cause of equal justice under the law.

David L. Harris, is a partner at the Lowenstein & Sandler PC law firm in Newark, NJ where he serves as co-chair for both the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice and Intellectual Property Litigation Practice. David is first and foremost a trial lawyer with the unique capacity to quickly synthesize complex issues and present them to a jury in a clear, precise and convincing manner. He is at his finest when the factual issues are technically obtuse, the legal issues are complex and the stakes are high. David has been lauded as one of the top 10 litigators in New Jersey, and is known for his trial, appellate and arbitration skills in complex business litigation spanning multiple jurisdictions, including intellectual property, antitrust and trade secrets litigation.

Giving back to the community and establishing a level playing field between the powerful and powerless have always defined David, and he is active in the firm’s substantial pro bono efforts. A prime example of this is his current work on a high-profile matter brought on behalf of children with disabilities in New Jersey against the Department of Education for failing to provide adequate educational opportunities in general education classes. In February the court entered a Consent Order reflecting the settlement of that matter, which requires the New Jersey Board of Education to implement remedial measures in the worst performing school districts over the next five years. Similarly, David’s leadership in a suit against Division of Youth and Family Services in New Jersey for neglecting and abusing children, led to a settlement that established new oversight of the agency by a court-appointed observer and board. He has supervised Lowenstein Sandler’s nationally recognized pro bono program, served as president of the ACLU in New Jersey, and chaired the Volunteer Lawyers for Justice of Essex County. David’s stellar service on the Lawyers’ Committee’s Board began in 2000. He has served on the Strategic Planning Committee and currently serves on the Executive Committee.

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(Image: Harris and Lawyers’ Committee President and  Executive Director Barbara Arnwine)

ROBERT F. MULLEN PRO BONO AWARD
TThe Lawyers’ Committee’s pro bono award is named in memory of Robert F. Mullen, a former Lawyers’ Committee co-chair, staunch advocate for pro bono legal services and partner at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York. The award honors a law firm that has provided extraordinary pro bono legal services on behalf of Lawyers’ Committee clients or matters. 

Dechert LLP, was recognized for outstanding and generous contributions of pro bono legal services.  The firm has a longstanding tradition of providing pro bono legal services to individuals and organizations who cannot otherwise afford counsel. The firm is a signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge and is committed to spending three percent of its total billable time annually to pro bono work. In addition, Dechert is a signatory to the United Kingdom’s Joint Protocol for Pro Bono Legal Work. The firm requires all lawyers to perform at least 25 hours of pro bono work per year to ensure universal participation in its pro bono program. Lawyers at Dechert handle hundreds of pro bono matters covering issues such as civil rights, international human rights, child advocacy, special education, access to public benefits, asylum, landlord-tenant matters and the representation of numerous non-profit organizations. In August of 2014, the firm was honored by the American Bar Association with the Pro Bono Publico Award. 

In recent years, Dechert LLP has co-counseled seven cases with the Lawyers’ Committee. The firm, and Dechert partner and Board Member Neil Steiner, have been co-counsel in three cases brought under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, challenging the failure of Ohio, Georgia, and Nevada to provide required voter registration opportunities to public assistance recipients in those states. In the Ohio and Georgia cases, Neil obtained significant legal victories, winning a reversal of the district court’s dismissal on appeal to the Sixth Circuit in the Ohio case and prevailing in opposing a motion to dismiss in Georgia. Both cases then settled, resulting in hundreds of thousands of public assistance clients applying to register to vote when they received services. The Nevada case is currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit from a district court decision dismissing our lawsuit. A fourth lawsuit in which Dechert and Neil are co-counseling with the Lawyers’ Committee is a Voting Rights Act case where we are challenging Jackson County, South Dakota’s refusal to place an early voting site within the portion of the county on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The county’s one existing site is accessible to the white population but is located far from the reservation. After we filed suit, the county agreed to add a site on the reservation for the November 2014 election, and we are now pursuing a permanent remedy.

Another Dechert partner, Ezra Rosenberg (who has since retired from the firm and joined the Lawyers’ Committee as a special senior counsel), litigated three cases with the Lawyers’ Committee recently.

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(Image: Paul C. Saunders, former Lawyers’ Committee co-chair and of counsel at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and Neil Steiner, partner, Dechert LLP, and Lawyers’ Committee board member)

BROOKS R. BURDETTE BEST NEW BOARD MEMBER AWARD

The Brooks R. Burdette Best New Board Member Award was established in honor of longtime and dedicated Lawyers’ Committee board member Brooks R. Burdette following his death in 2009.  Upon joining the board, he declared “I am going to be your best Board member ever.”

Prior to joining the Lawyers’ Committee staff as special senior counsel of the Legal Mobilization Project, Ezra Rosenberg was a partner at the Dechert LLP law firm. While at Dechert, he concentrated his practice in complex civil litigation, including class action, consumer fraud, and mass tort defense. He has also held several leadership positions at the firm that include several terms on the firm’s Policy Committee, in addition to serving as a deputy chair of the firm, and co-chair of the firm’s mass torts and product liability practice group. Ezra has been consistently ranked among the top product liability litigators both in New Jersey and nationwide by numerous publications, including Chambers, Legal 500 (United States), and Benchmark Litigation. Recently, Lawdragon named him as one of the top 500 lawyers in the United States. 

In recent years, Ezra has handled numerous high profile pro bono cases with the Lawyers’ Committee and other non-profits. He has been one of the lead counsel challenging Texas’ photo ID voting law, serving as co-lead trial and lead coordinating counsel in cases tried under Section 2 and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act; (tried in 2014 and 2012 respectively); serving as co-lead trial counsel in a school desegregation case tried in Pitt County, North Carolina in 2013; and supervising the advantageous settlements of a minority profiling case in New Jersey and of a prison conditions case in Passaic County, New Jersey.

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(Image: Rosenberg and Lawyers’ Committee Co-Chair John Nonna, partner, Squire Patton Boggs LLP)

EDWIN D. WOLF AWARD

The Wolf Award is named in honor of Edwin D. Wolf who overcame a personal battle with cancer to mobilize the local bar and to establish the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, serving as counsel from 1968 until his death in 1976.  This award honors a past or present staff member of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, national office, or one of the independent Local Committees, who has exhibited outstanding service and commitment to civil rights.

John C. Brittain, is a tenured professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. He was formerly the dean of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at the Texas Southern University in Houston, and a longstanding professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He first joined the Lawyers’ Committee as a staff attorney in the Jackson, Mississippi Litigation Office in 1971, and returned 34 years later as the chief counsel and senior deputy director. John’s illustrious career also includes service as president of the National

Lawyers’ Guild, a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the ACLU, and legal counsel to the NAACP at the local level and national office of the General Counsel.

John is an education law specialist and one of the original counsel in Sheff v. O’Neill, a landmark school desegregation case in which the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the state was obligated to provide equal educational opportunity for all students. In addition, John was a part of the legal team that filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of the NAACP in the Parents Involved in the Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education (Louisville) school cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court (2007) concerning voluntary race-conscious student assignment plans. While at the Lawyers’ Committee, John was the lead strategist for our McWaters v. FEMA case that effectively halted the eviction of tens of thousands of evacuees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and secured temporary housing assistance for them. 

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(Brittain and Lawyers’ Committee President and Executive Director Barbara Arnwine)

FRANK R. PARKER CLIENT AWARD

The Client Award is named in memory of the former chief counsel of the Lawyers’ Committee’s Jackson, Mississippi Office and longtime director of the Voting Rights Project, Frank R. Parker.  This award recognizes the courage and perseverance of a client of the Lawyers’ Committee.

The Lawyers’ Committee is grateful for our clients’ courage and commitment to equal justice.

Ann Sullivan, former Deputy Director, New York Communities of Change (NYCC), a not-for-profit membership organization devoted to improving the quality of life for members of low-income communities in New York, and Ismene Speliotis, executive director of MHANY Management Inc., a not-for-profit community-based developer of affordable housing,  have been central to the Lawyers’ Committee’s Garden City Fair Housing litigation since 2004.   A federal court judge found in 2013 that the Village of Garden City, New York had violated the Fair Housing Act under both intentional discrimination and disparate impact standards of proof in making a zoning decision which blocked their ability to provide affordable housing for low-income and minority persons and then ordered appropriate relief in 2014. Through their devoted leadership of the plaintiff entities, Ann and Ismene have maintained the fight for affordable housing in Garden City for the almost 10 years that this litigation has been pending. Without their tenacity and commitment, this case could not have been brought or maintained for this period.  

Both were extremely effective and important witnesses at the three-week trial of the case in 2013.

(Image: Sullivan, 2nd from left, and Speliotis, far right, with Lawyers’ Committee Fair Housing and Community Development Project Co-Director Joe Rich, 3^rd from left)

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*Note to Press:  Additional photos are available upon request.