PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008 - (Page 8)

CovER SToRy Mike Rubinger, Shunta Vincent and Lovena Wells (all Atlanta) have represented clients in TPO cases. preliminarily indicates that many students face some level of retaliation by teachers and/or administrators upon returning to school, and are drafting a white paper on the levels and effects of hunger among New York City public school children. Access to Justice: For the past three years, individuals in the Washington, DC, office have worked with the DC Access to Justice Commission on its groundbreaking report Justice for All? An Examination of the Civil Legal Needs of the District of Columbia’s Low-Income Community. The 125-page report provides a three-dimensional analysis of the legal needs of disadvantaged people in the District as well as solutions for how the city can work to meet these needs. In the nation’s capital, where 89,000 lawyers are members of the bar, 80 percent of the people who have legal needs cannot afford a lawyer and thus, go without. On October 7, the DC office hosted leaders and lawyers from across the city to celebrate the release of Justice for All? The reception was attended by DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, the Chief Judges of both the DC Superior Court and the DC Court of Appeals and members of the City Council. Office Managing Partner Rusty Conner hosted and spoke at the reception. Several speakers, including the President of the DC Bar, said the report is by far the best published by a state Access to Justice Commission to date. Left: Tax Partner Brian Andreoli was named a Pro Bono Leader by Legal Services NYC for his commitment to representing low-income school children in disciplinary hearings through New York’s Access to Education Signature Project. Right: New York Signature Project Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers won the Cornerstone Award for its work on behalf of New York Head Start programs. From Left to Right, Edward F. Greene, Chair of the Board of Directors of Lawyers Alliance, and Ted Martens and Patricia Etzold of PricewaterhouseCoopers Access to Education: Since October 2006, the New York office has focused on improving educational outcomes for low-income students through its Signature Project, Access to Education, by representing individual students and Head Start programs. Building on our initial success in representing more than 20 Head Start programs over the past year, the New York office hosted the second annual Head Start Law and Finance Day in November. This event, sponsored by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and project partners PricewaterhouseCoopers and Lawyers Alliance for New York, provided governance and financial training to directors and board members of all of New York City’s Head Start programs. Following the training day, we anticipate that additional Head Start programs will seek out our pro bono services. Our goal is to represent as many as 30. Last summer, project leaders shifted the focus of Access to Education’s direct representation component from representing New York City public school students at suspension hearings to representing students in special education proceedings. To date, firm lawyers have worked with students in nine special education matters. Finally, project leaders have undertaken several policy initiatives related to the project’s goal: our lawyers have revised a manual for parents whose children have been suspended by New York public schools, conducted a small survey of parents of suspended children, which Top: Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty making opening remarks at the Access to Justice reception. Right: Guests celebrating the release of Justice for All? 08 | PRO BONO BULLETIN

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008

PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008 Contents Cover Story: Digging Deep: DLA Piper’s Signature Project Model CSR Report Feature Story: DLA Piper Assists with German Ghetto Work Payment Program Clinics National News Mapping Impact An Interview With Jeff Coopersmith FourThought New Perimeter Update Awards and Recognition

PROBONO Bulletin - Winter 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.