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Bryan Cave Pro Bono Attorneys 2009

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Bryan Cave Pro Bono Attorneys 2009 PRO BONO REVIEW & RECOGNITION | 2009 Bryan Cave Pro Bono Review 2009 Bryan Cave strongly encourages all of our lawyers to engage in pro bono work. work Pro bono matters are treated with the same care as any others we take on, and the service provided to our pro bono clients is of the same quality delivered to all fi rm clients. Bryan Cave’s pro bono priority is to offer legal services benefi ting persons and organizations of limited means and to advocate for civil rights, human rights, civil liberties and public rights. Bryan Cave’s work includes civil rights and public rights law, asylum and immigration cases, child abduction matters, health law, real estate issues, death penalty and other criminal cases, counseling charitable organizations, and many other areas involving the administration of justice. Referrals from local legal services agencies and work for non-profi t organizations make up much of Bryan Cave’s pro bono time. PProro BBonoono RRevieweview & RRecognitionecognition 22009009 — 1 Overview of 2009 Pro Bono Projects In 2009, Bryan Cave contributed those things we have in abundance – legal expertise, passion and a deepdeep desire to help meet the needs of underserved people. While it is impossible to describe all of the varied ways in which Bryan Cave has embraced pro bono work, the matters outlined in this report illustrate our fi erce dedication to this cause. Representing Underserved Veterans Court Individuals and Communities In July 2009, a team of Bryan Cave attorneys met with representatives of Kansas City’s local Veterans Administration to form a partnership to provide pro bono legal The fi rm takes pride in working to meet the needs of underserved services to returning veterans in need. As part of this eff ort, Bryan Cave partnered segments of the population. Recent highlights of that work include: with Judge Ardie Bland of the Kansas City Municipal Court to create a “Veterans Court”, designed to serve the needs of military veterans who fi nd themselves involved Children in Foster Care in the criminal justice system. Th is team of more than a dozen Bryan Cave attorneys is working to provide legal representation and counseling services to veterans, many of More than 1,500 children in the City of St. Louis are in foster care. Th e City cannot whom are returning from combat duty, in an eff ort to facilitate their transition back aff ord to provide legal advocates for children of parents who are unable or unfi t to into civilian life. care for them and who need permanent guardians. Bryan Cave helps fi ll that void by representing every child involved in guardianship proceedings in the St. Louis City Prisoner Habeas Corpus Actions Probate Court. Since November 2008, more than twenty-fi ve Bryan Cave attorneys from nearly every practice group have investigated proposed placements with relatives Bryan Cave attorneys in St. Louis led the pro bono eff ort that resulted in the and other third parties by conducting home visits, performing background checks, exoneration of Josh Kezer, age 34, who spent nearly half his life in jail for a murder and interviewing proposed guardians, educators, doctors, social workers, and other he did not commit. Kezer was convicted in the 1992 killing of Angela Lawless, a adults or agencies that have contact with the child. Bryan Cave attorneys then appear 19-year-old college student. Despite having no witnesses, no motive and no physical in court as guardian ad litem on behalf of the child, call and cross-examine witnesses, evidence, a jury convicted Kezer, then just 17, of the murder. Bryan Cave attorneys and make recommendations to the court about what is in the child’s best interests. were instrumental in discovering new evidence proving the man’s innocence. In 2009, the fi rm handled 86 of these cases, work equal to approximately $90,000 in Th rough a referral from Th e American College of Trial Lawyer’s Access to Justice legal fees. Committee, Partner Charlie Weiss reviewed the fi le and took the case. Th e Innocence Project, a national organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people, was enlisted to help fund DNA testing. Th e fi rm has a team in our St. Louis and Kansas City offi ces that is working with the Midwest Innocence Project to help prisoners on several other habeas corpus petitions. PProro BBonoono RRevieweview & RRecognitionecognition 22009009 — 2 Did you know? Civil Rights, Human Rights Total hours Bryan Cave spent and Public Rights performing pro bono legal Bryan Cave handles numerous pro bono cases that deal with civil rights, human rights and public rights. Highlights from 2009 include: services in 2009: 46,712 Foster Children with Disabilities In November 2009, a team of lawyers from Bryan Cave’s New York offi ce submitted an amicus curiae brief to the New York Court of Appeals on behalf of Victims of Domestic Violence 16 public interest groups, in a cutting edge case involving the rights of children with disabilities in New York City’s foster care system. Th e case is viewed as Attorneys in Bryan Cave’s Atlanta offi ce obtained permanent residency for a signifi cant to whether children with disabilities will be able to use class actions to Pakistani women by establishing her status as a victim of domestic abuse under enforce their rights and try to remedy public agencies’ failings. At issue was an the Violence Against Women Act. Under that Act, if it is proven that the appeal of lower court decisions certifying a class of children with disabilities who individual came to this country legally as the spouse of an American and was then claimed they had not received adequate services, such as needed therapy while in abused, that person can apply for permanent residence without the sponsorship foster care as well as adequate support in obtaining a long-term placement outside of the abusive spouse. Th e individual must demonstrate a legitimate marriage of foster care. Oral argument was heard by the court in early 2010. and serious mental or physical abuse. In this case, the woman was a nurse who was persuaded to marry an American of Pakistani origin and leave her home of Karachi with promises of a wonderful life, and the opportunity to pursue her Medicaid and Food Stamp Applications nursing career with the love and support of her husband’s family. Upon arrival to Bryan Cave’s New York offi ce provided signifi cant assistance to the Center for the United States, she was forced to work all day in the family’s cleaning business, Law & Economic Justice in successfully representing indigent clients in class was given no money, and was physically abused nightly by her husband. After action litigation against Suff olk County, New York in seeking to change the six months of enduring this abuse, she fl ed in the middle of the night to a local County’s severe delays in processing applications for Medicaid and food stamps. shelter. Her husband and his family spent months trying to fi nd her while she Th e matter was settled with the County on favorable terms. sought help from Project Liberty, which assists people in obtaining residency without the otherwise necessary sponsorship of their American spouses. After In addition, lawyers from multiple Bryan Cave offi ces teamed with lawyers nearly two years, Bryan Cave’s client was awarded her green card and she now from the National Center for Law and Economic Justice in fi ling a class action works as a nurse in Atlanta. which sought to force the State of Indiana to process food stamp applications on a timely basis. Th e case was fi led in the United States District Court for the Th is is not the only case in which Bryan Cave lawyers represented victims of Northern District of Indiana. Th e class was comprised of Indiana residents who domestic abuse. Each of our U.S. offi ces handle orders of protection matters. applied for or will apply for food stamps on or after April 1, 2008. Th e Court Th e St. Louis offi ce, for example, accepts referrals from Legal Services of certifi ed a class of food stamp applicants and a sub-class of applicants eligible for Eastern Missouri and Legal Advocates for Abused Women and, since 2008, has expedited processing. On the fi rst day of a scheduled two-day hearing, the parties represented clients in more than 50 protection hearings. reached an agreement in principle on preliminary injunctive relief. Th ereafter, on PProro BBonoono RRevieweview & RRecognitionecognition 22009009 — 3 October 19, 2009, the Court entered a Consent Preliminary Injunction, requiring Naturalization Applicants the State to meet improved timeliness targets under a Court imposed schedule, Bryan Cave attorneys in St. Louis, along with local immigration attorney James over the next 18 months. Th e injunction also requires the State of Indiana to Hacking, represented a group of permanent residents seeking U.S. citizenship improve its compliance with federal time frames, provide monitoring data to in a federal lawsuit challenging extraordinary delays in the processing of their demonstrate the extent of its compliance, provide adequate notice to food stamp naturalization applications. Among other claims, the plaintiff s asserted that the applicants, and create a mechanism for applicants to have individual problems U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS) use of Federal Bureau of resolved. Investigation (FBI) “name checks” was not authorized by law and unreasonably delayed the naturalization process. Th e applicants sought class certifi cation Request to Justice Department to Investigate Unlawful Prosecution on behalf of similarly situated citizenship applicants.
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